A startup or start-up is a company or project initiated by an entrepreneur to seek, effectively develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to grow big or become registered, startups refer to the new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. Startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns, i.e. privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, its central focus is on entrepreneurship education. It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute but is now coeducational.
Kathryn A. Finney is an American author, researcher, investor, entrepreneur, innovator and businesswoman. She is the founder and CEO of digitalundivided, a social enterprise that leads high potential Black and Latinx women founders through the startup pipeline from idea to exit. Her pioneering research, #ProjectDiane, drew widespread buzz for disrupting the dialogue around women and entrepreneurship. Released in 2016, #ProjectDiane is the first research initiative to explore the state of Black and Latinx women entrepreneurs. The report was covered by several major business and tech publications for shining a spotlight on the untold story about women of color founders and their startup journey. In 2018, digitalundivided released a follow-up to the 2016 report.
Matt Coffin is an internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder and was the president of LowerMyBills.com, which was sold to Experian in 2005 for $380 million. He was also the president of Experian Online Customer Acquisition Services.
Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Legatum is a partnership that uses its own funds to invest globally. The firm also invests in activities to promote entrepreneurship and free enterprise as well as anti-slavery, health and education initiatives.
Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an international initiative that introduces entrepreneurship to young people in six continents. GEW emerged in 2008 as a result of Enterprise Week UK and Entrepreneurship Week USA 2007. Since its creation, more than 10 million people from roughly 170 countries have participated in entrepreneurship-related events, activities and competitions during GEW.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, private foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri. The foundation was founded in 1966 by Ewing Marion Kauffman, who had previously founded the drug company Marion Laboratories. The Kauffman Foundation focuses on projects that encourage entrepreneurship, support education, and contribute to Kansas City civic life.
Tory Burch is an American fashion designer, businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC. She was listed as the 73rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2015.
Patricia (Pat) Cloherty is an American businesswoman, company director, and private equity financier. She was the chairman and CEO of Delta Private Equity Partners. Cloherty served as manager of The U.S. Russia Investment Fund and Delta Russia Fund, two venture capital funds which operated in Russia. In 2004, Cloherty was named Businessperson of the Year by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. In 2007, Crain's New York Business named her one of the Most Powerful Women in New York. In 2008, Cloherty received the Order of Friendship from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
David Turner Morgenthaler was an American businessman who founded the venture capital firm Morgenthaler Ventures. He was also instrumental in helping change the U.S. capital gains tax rate from 49% to 28% in 1978 and amending ERISA legislation to allow pension funds to invest in venture capital in 1979.
Daniel Isenberg is a Professor of Entrepreneurship Practice at Babson College Executive Education where he established the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project (BEEP). He is the author of the recent best seller "Worthless, Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value". Isenberg was an entrepreneur himself for 16 years and was also a venture capitalist. He is an angel investor in several ventures.
The Kauffman Fellowship, named after Ewing Marion Kauffman, is a two-year educational, networking, and leadership development program for venture capitalists. The Kauffman Fellows Program is a nonprofit with a 20-year history of identifying, educating, mentoring and networking future venture capitalists. As of 2011, it has graduated more than 250 fellows, who have worked at venture firms in the U.S. and internationally.
An entrepreneurial ecosystem or entrepreneurship ecosystem is the social and economic environment affecting local or regional entrepreneurship. Businesses located within places serving as incubators for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship have a greater chance of success.
Suren G. Dutia is an advocate for entrepreneurship and has served as a Senior Fellow of the Kauffman Foundation from March 2011 to December 2016. He has also served as a Senior Fellow with the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Washington University in St. Louis. From February 2006 to May 2010, Dutia served as the Chief Executive Officer of TiE Global based in Silicon Valley. With 61 chapters in 17 countries, TiE is one of the largest non-profit organizations involved in fostering entrepreneurship globally. Dutia founded the San Diego chapter of TiE in 2000 and was its President for three years. With the Kauffman Foundation, Dutia has been involved in varied initiatives, including building and growing entrepreneurial ecosystems, immigration policy, and mentoring a number of grantees who contribute to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Dutia has also authored papers on topics such as Diasporas networks, AgTech, Startup boards and Founder-CEO transition planning. In addition, Dutia also serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Digital Transformation, University of California, Irvine.
Female entrepreneurs are women who organize and manage an enterprise, especially a business. Female entrepreneurship has steadily increased in the United States during the 20th and 21st century, jumping from ownership of 26% of American businesses in 1997 to almost 36% in 2012. This increase gave rise to wealthy self-made females such as Diane Hendricks, Meg Whitman, and Oprah Winfrey.
Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a Filipino-American entrepreneur. She is the Founder, Chairwoman and CEO of Care.com, the world's largest online destination for finding and managing family care.
Shaker A. Zahra is the Robert E. Buuck Chair of Entrepreneurship, a professor of strategy, and department chair in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He is also the Academic Director of the Gary S. Holmes Entrepreneurship Center.
Jeffry A. Timmons (1941–2008) was an American Professor of Entrepreneurship, known as a pioneer of both entrepreneurship research and education. During his career Timmons published several books and over a hundred articles and papers. He lectured on the subjects of entrepreneurship, new ventures, entrepreneurial finance and venture capital. In 2004, Timmons was named Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the United States Association for Small Business Entrepreneurship and is said to be the first to have used the word “entrepreneurial” in a dissertation title, in his 1971 dissertation from Harvard Business School: “Entrepreneurial and Leadership Development in an Inner City Ghetto and a Rural Depressed Area”.
Prince Mohammad bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC) is a co-educational higher education business administration college in King Abdullah Economic City, Makkah Region, Saudi Arabia. It is the first college in Saudi Arabia which offers postgraduate degree as well as executive education. The college was founded by the Deputy Crown Prince, now Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and named it after him in July 2016.
