entrepreneurial studies – Page 5 – Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society Blog

March 13, 2014

For the Love of Buildings

On February 24, Holy Cross alumni who have distinguished themselves as leaders in the commercial real estate business shared their wisdom, advice and experiences in a COES event focused on educating students about careers in real estate.

James Whelan ’00, Senior Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Colin Blair’00, Account Manager in the Corporate Services Group at Cushman and Wakefield, described some of the opportunities in the industry before introducing keynote speaker John Power ’80, Principal and Co-Founder of Fairley, White. Four panelists, Matt Harvey ’02, Principal at Cresa Partners ; Sean Duffy ’86, Executive Director, Brokerage, at Cushman and Wakefield; Catherine Britt ‘04, Senior Project Manager at Northstar; and Tim Mulhall ’10 of Colliers International also offered advice on how to stand out as a potential intern and job candidate.

As someone who has been knocking on the door or real estate companies for the past several months, I was especially interested in hearing their views on what it takes to break into, and succeed in, the industry. Their response: passion, persistence and networking.

John Power, who has more than 30 years of experience in the field , sought advice from another Holy Cross alum, Bill McCall, and described how standing in McCall’s office, he became fascinated by the buildings he saw through the window. He began to imagine the possibilities for the building and knew from that moment that he wanted to be involved in commercial real estate. “Commercial brokerage is the best profession. It involves no risk, and it offers high rewards. But you must be willing to invest your time,” stated Powell.

Here are some other insights:

— All majors can apply. Both Whelan and Blair pointed out that commercial real estate offers opportunities for students of all majors and with a variety of interests, whether it is sales, finance, law, or marketing. Work ethic and personality matter more than major.

— One building, many opportunities. Every building offers a range of transaction/business opportunities: sales, rentals, leasing, purchasing, financing, management/operations, etc. This is what makes the industry so dynamic.

— Learn the business first. Harvey stressed that new recruits should take the time to learn the business and not be frustrated if they aren’t involved in big deals right away. Knowledge about the business will help you in future deals.

— Sell, grind and build relationships. Duffy emphasized that every day you need to sell both yourself and the product. He reminded attendees that relationships matter, always – and that persistence pays off.

— The Holy Cross advantage. Power pointed out that Holy Cross students have an advantage in the field because of the school’s high reputation in the real estate industry. Mulhall added that his Holy Cross education boosted his confidence and gave him an edge because his writing was stronger than his peers.

The lesson? Holy Cross’ liberal arts curriculum and the reputation of its alum can help open doors to a vast array of career opportunities in commercial real estate.

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Thanks to Kevin Kennedy ’16 for covering this event and to all the alum sharing insights to the real estate industry! As always, don’t forget to “like” us on FACEBOOK and follow us @HCPrebusiness Watch for our next blog post…

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

February 10, 2014

Holy Cross Students Meet Warren Buffett on Trip of a Lifetime

Another guest post, from Kevin Dufault ’14. who reflects on a once in a lifetime opportunity – meeting Warren Buffett!
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Just a week ago on January 31, 2014, Warren Buffett welcomed 18 Holy Cross students into Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Warren Buffett, widely recognized as the world’s greatest investor, is admired by aspiring financers across the globe. He is a true source of inspiration for the millions of motivated students who see investing in their future. Smart, motivated, and driven students look up to Warren Buffett as an example of just what can happen when you dedicate yourself to your true passion in life. As Mr. Buffett tells undergraduate and business school students, “Find your passion in life and never stop pursuing it. If you haven’t found it yet, don’t stop searching”.

For me, it all began in mid-August when I received an email notifying me of the opportunity Holy Cross received to take a trip to Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha and spend a day with Warren Buffett. Bobby Sullivan ’08 initiated the event by contacting Professor Chu, Director of Entrepreneurial Studies. At this time, I was not officially selected to attend the trip but rather, simply considered a candidate. All I can remember is immediately grabbing my cellphone and texting my family about this amazing opportunity. Flash forward to today, when I find myself reflecting back on the experience I and eighteen other students recently had. There was one particular theme I began realizing throughout all the preparation our group had in anticipation of our trip to Berkshire Hathaway – defining the experience of meeting Warren Buffett. Personally, I could not synthesize a sufficient title for this opportunity. After all, how do you label something that so drastically exceeds your deepest desires and highest expectations? Eventually, however, “Once in a Lifetime Experience of Meeting Warren Buffett” seemed to catch on with the group.

Our trip to Berkshire Hathaway speaks volumes of the Holy Cross Pre-Business Program. The Pre-Business Program, led by Professor Chu and Associate Director, Cassie (Murphy) Gevry, has certainly put Holy Cross students on the map in the business world. It is truly amazing to see how far the program has come over the past few years. As a member of the advisory board to the program, it has been very exciting to be a part of the growing success. Holy Cross has always had a strong presence of graduates in business and in finance. Take a stroll down Wall Street, the finance capital of the world and you are sure to meet a number of alumni from the College. Still, many Holy Cross students graduate without ever realizing the value that can be derived from a liberal arts education upon entering business, finance, or investing careers. That is exactly the issue Professor Chu has worked so hard to solve through his work with the Pre-Business Program. “Businesses are about people”, Professor Chu consistently preaches to members of the program. The Holy Cross curriculum teaches students to think critically in a variety of subjects, solve problems, communicate effectively, and harness good ethics. These are traits every business needs, especially in managerial roles.

From Wall Street to Omaha, Nebraska, Holy Cross continues to make its presence known in the financial services industry. The lessons Mr. Buffett taught us during our time at Berkshire Hathaway are ones that we will never forget. He continuously expressed the value in his relationships with friends and colleagues. When asked what the greatest investment he ever made was, Buffett replied, “My marriage”. The friendships he has built with people such as Charlie Munger and Bill Gates, and the love that can be found in his home are Buffett’s most cherished possessions.

After spending a couple hours in Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters, where Mr. Buffett answered the questions students never thought they would have answered by the finance guru himself, we were invited to tour a few of Berkshire’s largest subsidiaries. The tour included an inside look at Nebraska Furniture Mart, Oriental Trading Company, and Borsheim’s Fine Jewelry. In addition to our tours, we were lucky enough to be invited for lunch with Mr. Buffett at Piccolo Pete’s. The entire day was truly amazing. It’s one of those rare occasions when the reality of what you are experiencing does not fully register with you until it’s over.

The trip would not have been possible without the hard work and great leadership of a few people. They were the cornerstone to this entire journey and deserve great recognition for their long hours of commitment. Andrew Marzo ’14, President of the Holy Cross Finance Club, and member Christina Rudolf ’14 led the way as organizers of the trip. They were outstanding leaders throughout the months of preparation. From the beginning, we knew we could count on Andrew and Christina to keep us well informed, prepared, and supported on our journey to Omaha. Dan Riccardi ’06, from the Holy Cross Investment Office prepared us with an introduction to Berkshire Hathaway’s finances, and background on Warren Buffett’s life and career. Dan joined us on the trip and was always available to help make our trip the best it could be. Lastly, and perhaps most important to me, I cannot say enough about the group of students we had on this trip. As a senior at Holy Cross, I have met some great people over the past four years. And, I am happy to say that I recently met some of the kindest and most driven students on campus. I think we all gained some of the greatest memories we will ever have and it was a pleasure to enjoy this experience with them.
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Always great to hear directly from the students -Thanks Kevin, for your gracious post!

Don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and Follow us @HCPrebusiness and be on the lookout for our next post.

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

November 22, 2013

Pitch It!

Inspired by alum who wish they had more experience in public speaking while on the hill, Pre-Business decided to host a workshop. Professor Pat Bizzell of the English Department, who specializes in rhetoric, was happy to work with the Pre-Business students. In the interest of time, we asked students to rsvp with either a product or personal pitch already prepared. After a short intro regarding style, arrangement and delivery, Prof. Bizzell gave the students time to apply these techniques to the pitches they brought to the workshop.

We set up the video camera and one by one the students stood in front of the room to deliver their pitch. Rather than show the footage in front of the group, it was emailed to each student to watch themselves on their own time. This would bring Prof. Bizzell’s constructive criticism to the next level!

Do you have a personal or product pitch? Keep an eye out for our next public speaking workshop!

Cassie
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

September 25, 2013

HC Shark Tank Winner Ben Kaplan ’16 Set to Launch New Social Networking App

As those of you who are avid readers of this blog might remember, last spring the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies and the Entrepreneurship Club co-sponsored the inaugural Holy Cross Shark Tank competition where Ben Kaplan ’16 took home the grand prize for his original social networking app: WiGO.

Well, we are excited to announce that since last spring Kaplan has taken serious strides towards making WiGO (Who is Going Out) come alive and he has the initial launch slated for this early October. Holy Cross just might have its very own Mark Zuckerburg on its hands.

The goal of Kaplan’s app is to simplify the process of making social plans for college students. As a freshman at HC, Kaplan felt that making social plans and figuring out “who is going out?” was unnecessarily challenging. College students didn’t want to constantly be sending out group texts and no one wanted to always be posting all the details of social plans online and so WiGO was born.

The app creates networks based on a users’ college or university email address so that, for example, when an HCer logs in their homepage will show all of the other HCers who are users and indicate who has – or has not – said they’re headed out that night. There’s no specifics given, just “I am going out”, and there’s no friending process like with Facebook. Rather, if you go to HC you can see everyone else in your network and vice versa. From there, Kaplan believes that this app will make it easy to see who wants to go out and then utilize the app’s chat function to make plans. Additionally, if you see someone on the app who you’d like to encourage to go out you have the option to “shoulder tap” them, which lets them know you’d like them to see them out.

I had the chance to sit down and talk to Kaplan last week, as he prepared for the upcoming app launch, and what I was really struck by was the way he has developed an initial idea he had last spring into a real live app. He explained to me how he’d started the summer interviewing web developers and coders and ultimately settled on a team from Green Mountain Software, located in his hometown of Burlington, VT. He then spent the rest of the summer working with them to take what was initially an idea in his head and turn it into something that’s accessible and user friendly. We discussed why he decided to hire a local team, rather than outsourcing the coding as many app developers do, and he said that the opportunity to actually meet with, and have easy access to, his coding team was ultimately one of the best decisions he made. It allowed him to take real ownership in the creation process and meant that he could be involved making changes and decisions during the course of development.

Kaplan also credited the Holy Cross alumni network as being indispensable in this process. The time and feedback that he said so many alumni were willing to give him was very beneficial in the development of this app. Last spring, Shark Tank judge Chris Stephenson had told Kaplan that if he brought his idea to Seattle he’d meet with him to discuss. Kaplan cashed in on this promise over the summer, flying to the West Coast to meet, and also said that there were many other alumni who connected him with local entrepreneurs, weighed in on questions of copyright and intellectual property law and offered feedback as he moved through the process.

Obviously in launching an app, the marketing efforts are, in many ways, as important as the actual coding and Kaplan explained that he had a clear game plan for that too: he was starting by focusing on sports teams here at HC, because such a larger percentage of students are involved in them, and had reached out to individuals on the various teams to get them onboard as ambassadors. The plan is that these individuals will encourage their teammates to download, and use, the app thus creating the initial injection of users needed to get WiGO off the ground. From there the hope is that it will catch on organically and as students see how easy and effective it is to use they will encourage their friends to use it, too.

What’s the plan long term? Well, Kaplan is initially launching the app exclusively here at Holy Cross and you need to have a verified Holy Cross student email address in order to register. But, looking forward, Kaplan said his next step would be to roll it out to a handful of additional colleges, continue to monitor its growth, and then allow it to continue to spread to schools across the country.

Towards the end of our talk Kaplan said that he thinks no matter what happens with WiGO – whether it gets off the ground or not – the process of creating the app and bringing it to market has been incredibly valuable in and of itself. That being said, after listening to him for an hour – hearing where the idea came from, how he built the app, and how he plans to roll it out – this blogger has a hard time believing Kaplan isn’t going to make this a success.

September 18, 2013

HC students participate in “Building Your Brand” workshop with Mimi Doherty ’02, President of Future Steps, LLC

For this week’s blog post we have guest blogger Chris Muzii ’14 filling us in on last weekend’s COES Professional Programs workshop…

My name is Christopher Muzii, and I am a sophomore. This past Saturday, I attended the Building Your Brand Workshop hosted by Mimi Doherty ’02, President and Founder of Future Steps, LLC. After my wonderful experience participating in the Summer Business Program, I was interested in taking advantage of the many opportunities available to students through the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies. In addition, one of my good friends had participated in the Building Your Brand Workshop last year and highly recommended that I attend. The workshop proved to be a truly rewarding experience.

The first activity involved looking at what defined and individual’s brand. We used Jay-Z and Steve Jobs as examples of individuals whose personal brands have had a tremendous impact on society. Individually, my group discussed the factors that helped shape the personal brand of Jay-Z. Mimi asked us to consider not only the attributes of the individual, but also how these attributes are portrayed to the general public. How are we able to characterize Jay-Z as musically innovative without having ever met him? What does Jay-Z do or what impact does he create that allows us to identify his personal brand? We discussed with Mimi why we attributed certain traits to these individuals. Through thoughtful collaboration, Mimi helped us to redefine certain words that we were using to describe Jay-Z and Steve Jobs.

After the conclusion of the first exercise, Mimi asked us to consider our own personal brand. What attributes or skills do we possess that help define who we are as individuals? Through a similar process, we came to understand how to better distinguish ourselves individually by examining our own attributes and skills. We then edited our personal résumés, at this point having a better understanding of our personal brand and how to portray this brand to potential employers.

I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in this workshop. The advice and questions that Mimi presented us with were both informative and valuable. The exercises that we completed throughout the day allowed us to gain a better understanding of what constitutes a personal brand. Having this knowledge, I feel that I will be able to relate my attributes to the past experiences that I have had appropriately in a professional setting.

Thanks Chris! We’re glad everyone found the workshop beneficial and hope to see many of you at the information session for the Executive Leadership Workshop on Monday, September 30 at 5P.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK, follow us on Twitter and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN.

Helene

Helene Horan ‘06
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

April 8, 2013

First Annual HCEG Shark Tank a Success: Great ideas & How to make $1 million…

Last evening’s First Annual Shark Tank competition, sponsored by the Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group and Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies, was a resounding success. With registration somewhat uncertain right up until the event started, no one in the room was totally sure what to expect, but by the end of the night the feeling was unanimous – these Holy Cross students had some really great ideas!

The night kicked off with pizza and soda and the room was filled not just with competitors but spectators who showed up to see what their classmates had managed to come up with for ideas. Seniors Andrew Coury and Ed Pesce, co-chairs of the HC Entrepreneurs Group on campus, were in charge of planning this event and they recruited quite an esteemed panel of alumni judges to give feedback – both positive and negative – to the student teams participating. These judges included: Mary Moran ’77, Patrick Sansonetti ’93, John Schiffmann ’82, Chris Stephenson ’97 and Bryan Sparkes ’04.

Unlike the television version of Shark Tank, the HC competition didn’t involve a lot of yelling but that didn’t stop the judges from asking critical questions and really challenging the students to think about how, exactly, their business would work.

In all, there were 5 pitches – two teams and three individuals – and the ideas included a dorm delivery service where students could order necessities and have them delivered in under an hour, a service to help people more successfully embrace the tailgating experience, an autodetailing company that would come to your home or work to clean your car, and a video game where the player assumed the character of a dog and faced “dog-like” challenges.

However, at the end of the night, it was freshman Ben Kaplan who walked away with the $100 prize for the top idea. Not only had Kaplan clearly spent a great deal of time thinking about how, exactly, his idea for a new social media platform would work but he had already come up with a clever acronym for the name of the product and had a logo. (Specifics are being omitted because Kaplan is in the process of working to actually get this idea off the ground and this blogger doesn’t want to be accused of “over sharing”!) To give you an idea of how impressed the judges were with Kaplan’s presentation, let’s just say that when he was awarded top prize one of the alumni judges offered him the chance to get in a room with real investors and do a formal pitch.

The other great thing about this event was not only did the students give impressive presentations, but the alumni all took the opportunity to use their professional experiences to give the students in the ro0m insight and advice on how to go about launching a successful idea. One of the favorite take aways from the night was Chris Stephenson’s advice on how to make $1 million: “Figure out how to make $1. Then do it one million times.” Sounds pretty simple, right?

Overall, a great night. The level of excitement was definitely high as people left the competition and lots of people indicated that they are looking forward to seeing this grow into an annual event at Holy Cross. If the ideas that keep coming in the future are as strong as last night’s, there’s no doubt that Shark Tank will become even more competitive and, hopefully, attract a growing number of students to take the risk, come up with an idea and participate.

Thank you to all the judges, student participants and spectators for taking the time to come out and we’ll see you again next year for Shark Tank Round #2.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK, follow us on Twitter and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN.

Helene

Helene Horan
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies