In the midst of job-hunting season for seniors, two recent Duke graduates and a current Blue Devil will be on the other side of the interview process, deciding who will be the best fit for their Internet start-up companies.
As part of the first-ever Entrepreneurship Week, Shoeboxed.com founder Taylor Mingos, Pratt '07, SeeMeWin.com founder Breck Yunits, Trinity '07, and CouponDJ.com co-founder Dan Romero, a sophomore and a member of The Chronicle's independent editorial board, explained how they leaped ahead of the learning curve at the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Panel held in Griffith Film Theater Tuesday.
The week's events are sponsored by Wyrick Robbins Yates and Ponton LLP, a Raleigh-based law firm.
"There are a lot of students I talk to who have great ideas and just never end up doing it for whatever reason," Mingos said. "A lot of people think too small."
Junior Jeremy Welch, who hosted the discussion, estimated that approximately 40 undergraduate students attended the event and said he was pleased with the turnout.
"Entrepreneurship is not a well-known thing to do on campus," he said. "There's a lot of interest in marketing and finance, but entrepreneurship is another story. Considering that, I think it was a solid turnout."
All three Blue Devils said they started planning their companies on campus and accessed Duke's resources to transition their business blueprints to actual profit margins.
Yunits, who majored in economics, said the courses he took in computer science and his involvement in The Duke Entrepreneur prepared him for the business world.
Romero said he and CouponDJ.com co-founder Justin Wickett, a sophomore, will examine market research as part of an independent study program next semester. He noted that Duke could do more to foster entrepreneurship by bringing the founders of successful Internet companies to speak on campus.
"If you have that kind of mentality here at Duke, we as a school are smart enough to compete with any of the Stanfords or Harvards," Romero said.
He added that an on-campus incubator space-a resource center for aspiring entrepreneurs-would help students develop their start-up companies without offices. Romero and Wickett operate CouponDJ.com from six computers in their dormitory room, and Romero said the hum of the servers can make it difficult to sleep at night.
Despite these potential limitations, Romero said college can be the perfect time for aspiring entrepreneurs to get a venture off the ground.
"If I start a business in college and fail, it's just time spent," Romero said. "You don't have to provide for a family or anything like that, and you're almost in a risk-free environment so you can test out a lot of things while keeping your options open for the future."
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