Bringing Innovation to Africa
During a meeting Tuesday night Marcus Anderson and Kabir Maiga shared their passion for entrepreneurship to some fellow Entrepreneur Society members, focused on bringing innovation to Africa. Kabir, an international student from Niger, explained how most of Africa is very much an untapped market, just waiting for innovation and business to flourish. Kabir went on to say “Africa is split into the rich and the poor, there is not much middle, and the rich tend to invest in other more developed countries.” Kabir enlightens the group to some of the markets that can be capitalized on: real estate, loans and credit, as well as IT and technical infrastructures.
The two students have also come together in attempts to create a scholarship program, giving students educational opportunities that would otherwise be unattainable. Marcus, an industrial engineering major, explains their concept as “a non-profit, that could help reduce the large costs of education in the states”. The two plan to work with their local network in Flint to make this dream a reality. You can contact Kabir for any further information here.
Adelais Networks: Simple and Affordable Web Hosting
One of the youngest entrepreneurs involved with the Kettering Entrepreneur Society is Jordan Ruthe, owner of Adelais Networks. Jordan is no stranger to the internet, and has been operating his web hosting company since he was in high school. Jordan explains that “A web host provides a location on the internet to store files, and every website needs this.” Adelais Networks maintains their own servers and offers different levels of web hosting to clients. The business model that he has adopted is one that is extremely flexible, as he saw a need for this with his clients, and he offers complete web hosting packages for $2 per month (beat that GoDaddy!). Jordan’s company has grown to over 100 clients as of this year, and he is continuing to expand his services.
Jordan even hosts the Kettering Entrepreneur Society website, and is a highly experienced web developer.
Marc Alexander Co-ops for Himself
Marc Alexander, owner of the non-profit company Youth of Tomorrow, serves as an inspiration to many student entrepreneurs at Kettering as he is the first student to co-op for himself. On Tuesday, Marc gave the Kettering Entrepreneur Society a presentation on what is new with his company. Since 2005 Marc has created programs for young inner-city kids to get involved with to take their focus off the negative aspects of their surroundings, and provide an outlet for positive growth.
Marc focused on two programs, the Future All-stars and the Special Security Agency. The first of these two is a basketball league Marc runs throughout the year. This year Marc hosted the championship game at the Palace of Auburn Hills, giving the kids involved an opportunity a lifetime. This program is built to give kids a positive place to spend their time, taking them off the streets which is a place where they might find themselves otherwise.
The second program, known as “SSA”, creates special agents out of kids ranging from 11 to 17 years old. Marc teaches the students in this program what it takes to be a special agent; whether it is event logistics, or ways to utilize technology to gain information. Marc says “These kids are looking for an identity, and want to be part of something. The SSA program gives them a purpose, useful skills, and a reason to do something good for themselves.”
Marc is a driven entrepreneur, and will be graduating this year with a degree in business. Marc will continue running Youth of Tomorrow full time in January, and is consistently growing his network as well as the programs his company offers.
Kettering at New Enterprise Forum
Entrepreneurship Professor Art DeMonte traveled Thursday to Ann Arbor with five aspiring Kettering entrepreneurs to attend the New Enterprise Forum meeting at Ann Arbor SPARK. The panel of experts, including 1992 Kettering graduate Eric Sieczka, discussed the realities of start-up valuations and how it affects investment in their business.
Kettering students attending this event included Valentin Hernandez, Dennis Indrawan and Marc Alexander all from DeMonte’s Innovation & New Venture class. Also joining were TechWorks business accelerator interns Alexander Masters and Hyongkon Son.
During the Business Introductions/Open Forum all Kettering students introduced themselves to the 100 attendees of the meeting. “This was a worthwhile event that made our classroom work really come to life”, said Marc Alexander. “I like the energy of networking with new people and learning more about innovations and new ventures,” said Dennis Indrawan. Professor DeMonte will be leading additional trips to NEF meetings in the future, contact him if you are interested in being alerted to future trips at ademonte@kettering.edu.
Entrepreneurship Throughout the Curriculum
A recent push at Kettering University, made possible by a $225,000 grant from the Kern Family Foundation, is injecting innovation and entrepreneurship into the curriculum. Many Professors have been attending workshops where they learn, and collaborate on ways to do this. One example seen this school term was from Dr. Melton, professor of electrical engineering, when he made the first assignment to his communications class to create an NABC product proposal.
Need, Approach, Benefit, and Cost/Competition, or NABC, is commonly used by entrepreneurs and investors to quickly gauge and asses the viability of a product or business idea. The students in Dr. Meltons class were told to create a product idea that makes use of electronic signals, similar to those that are examined in his class, and write a one-page proposal for it using the NABC approach. It came as a surprising, but welcoming shock to students, and is one of the first instances that the university has directly been able to adjust the mindsets of students, focusing them on the innovative applications of their studies.
Prime Studios talks Company Management Tools
On October 13th, student owned company Prime Studios shared some valuable insight into their digital media company with the Kettering Entrepreneur Society. Matt Gaidica and Brad Birdsall (Prime Studios) broke down the logistics of their everyday operations into three categories: project management, invoicing, and accounting. The team stressed the use of digital media applications, and how their business can be conducted from any computer with the internet; they can even send invoices from their phones.
Matt went on to talk about Basecamp, their online project management software. He said “Me and Brad use this tool daily, if not hourly. We can assign tasks, share files, and create milestones. Most importantly, our clients can login and collaborate with us.” Matt went through the system with the KES members, showing them the insides of it and how beneficial it is to have this organizational tool.
Next on the list was invoicing, for which the team uses Freshbooks. Through this application Prime Studios can send estimates, invoices, bill to projects from Basecamp, and provide clients a login to track and make their payments. Brad mentioned “This application is just dead simple, it does everything we need quickly and effectively.”
The last application Prime Studios discussed was their accounting software, Outright. This application integrates with Freshbooks and bank accounts, as well as allowing the input of assets, effectively tracking all aspects cash flow. This application makes taxes easier for the small company, eliminating the burden often associated with mainstream accounting software.
Prime Studios has spent a lot of time finding the best systems for their business, and ended their presentations with this, “We pay a premium for these systems, but the value it adds to our clients, and the continued support from the vendors makes it completely worth it.”
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In an effort to raise awareness of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Kettering Entrepreneur Society, with the support of Kettering University, has partnered with Prime Studios to create a weekly blog-style press release.
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