OwlSquad promotes entrepreneurial culture

By Andrew Ta     1/23/13 6:00pm

 

Two student organizations, OwlSpark and OwlSquad, are hoping they can bring exactly what Rice needs for a culture of entrepreneurship. On Saturday, Jan. 26, OwlSquad will hold its first event, an entrepreneurship summit, to reach out to curious undergraduates and initiate an interest in business creation, according to OwlSquad co-founder Allison Garza. OwlSpark is a startup accelerator program that will happen each summer, she said. 

OwlSquad and OwlSpark were both created to focus on undergraduates, Garza, a Duncan College junior, said. 

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"The OwlSpark team wanted to create an accelerator program at Rice, but there wasn't the culture to facilitate it." Garza said. "That's where OwlSquad comes in. We are the community arm, the student arm that will foster that culture that will allow more teams to apply to OwlSpark. We wanted to bridge the gap between organizations." 

Garza said she hopes the summit will attract at least 150 students but that OwlSquad had backup plans in case more showed up. 

"This kind of event hasn't been done before," Garza said. "We want it to bring everyone together and allow Rice students to see what being an entrepreneur entails. There will be 100 entrepreneurs from around Houston [who] will be there to work with participants as they work in teams of five to create a pitch for their business. This isn't a lecture workshop; it's an interactive one." 

Garza said she wanted to clarify that the summit was not another business pitch competition. 

"You don't come in with something prepared. You have to go from nothing to a pitch in six hours," Garza said. "We're trying new, innovative ways to bring students into this entrepreneurship-friendly environment that we're trying to build. Rice has awesome students, but why aren't our graduates like Mark Zuckerberg? The goal is to take us outside of our problems and paper and make innovative, awesome ideas a reality." 

Rice does not currently have anything directed toward undergraduate entrepreneurs, according to OwlSquad co-founder Isabel Scher. 

"Rice students need to get internships and make connections with alumni who have seen it all," Scher, a Wiess College freshman, said. "The Rice Alliance is for MBAs and is very exclusive. They don't reach out to undergraduates at all. The Rice Business Collaboration is more of a club whose members have small interactions like lunches. People don't have the time for small lunches. They'd rather devote half a day to really exploring entrepreneurship. Our vision for OwlSquad [is] these amazing events. We've reached out to these other organizations, though, to see how we can work with them." 

Garza said Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby asked what prevented Rice graduates from being Zuckerbergs. 

"For me, it was definitely the events at Rice that inspired my passion, but even with the passion, I hadn't been exposed to the number of events that's necessary to give me the experience to be a successful entrepreneur," Garza said. 

Scher said she wanted more collaboration and enthusiasm from Rice students about entrepreneurship. 

"I want Rice to become a place where people are energized about entrepreneurship and are bouncing ideas across campus," Scher said. "At a college, you only know so many people; you need more interaction and collaboration. You need to engage the Houston community. I know that's a very cliche statement, but a lot of Houston companies are looking for skilled, unpaid labor, especially from Rice, to help solve Houston's problems." 

The entrepreneurship summit will help gauge interest and influence OwlSquad's future, especially since this year is largely a trial for OwlSquad and OwlSpark, Scher said. 

"We're setting all the regular events," Garza said. "We're definitely in a [trial period]. At the end of the day, we're only successful if we provide events that matter, [events] that students like and enjoy." 

Scher said OwlSquad and OwlSpark made Rice more competitive and that she and Garza were looking at other successful programs as examples. 

"There's Tigerlabs at Princeton, [StartX at Stanford, i-lab at Harvard and Beehive at MIT]," Scher said. "Stanford is an entrepreneurship hub. If you want to do something right, you look at Stanford. They made a transformation; they have classes on entrepreneurship, they have accelerator programs. The [alumni] at Stanford are very connected and come back often to give talks. They have a vibrant online community. This is an example of what OwlSquad should be." 

According to Scher, OwlSquad should facilitate the transformation of Rice into an entrepreneurship hub, something she said the Rice administration eagerly supported. 

"They have so many different ways for students to develop and take risks," Scher said. "Undergrads are typically risk-averse. Being an entrepreneur is saying, 'I'll take on the financial risk and exploit this opportunity.'" 

After the entrepreneurship summit, OwlSquad will stay connected with the undergraduate population, Garza said. 

"To be successful, we need a constant set of events," Garza said. "At the end of this semester, we're bringing Glowfest, who contacted us. What they do is throw this huge party with big names like Tiesto and Deadmau5 and then bring startups from around the nation to recruit in a career fair afterwards. 3 Day Startup is happening in March. There's going to be another career fair, too." 

Rice has the potential to become a great school for entrepreneurship, Scher said. 

"I've yet to meet a person who I've pitched the summit to who has said, 'I'm not interested,'" Scher said. "It's about reaching the students. I know they care and that they're interested. I don't know how many there are, but we've already engaged at least 130 for the summit. I think they're passionate; I hope they are. The summit isn't about branding OwlSquad. It's about empowering students." 

Brown College junior Salvatore Testa said he thinks opportunities for undergraduate entrepreneurship at Rice are currently expanding. 

"COLL207: Launch-Entrepreneurship taught by Bryan Hassan (Lovett '01) teaches students how to plan their own startups, culminating in a pitch day with actual [venture capitalists]," Testa said. "However, I find the student-driven initiative to form ... OwlSpark to be the greatest and most tangible sign of a new wave of entrepreneurial opportunity at Rice." 

Owlspark, as Rice's first startup incubation program, will ignite Rice's entrepreneurship spirit, according to Testa. 

"Rice students will have a structured organization with the resources to help turn their innovative ideas into realities," Testa said. "While Rice undergraduates in the past have started successful businesses during Rice's previous century, most famously John Doerr, I believe this next century will see an explosion in the volume and quality of startups by our student body." 

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