Kimberly Grano: Students should take advantage of resources at UCLA to develop entrepreneurship

Would you drop out of college if a wealthy Silicon Valley billionaire offered you $100,000 and the chance to create the startup company of your dreams?

To students with an entrepreneurial mindset, the obvious answer is yes. Unfortunately, the venture capitalist Peter Thiel only gives that chance to 20 lucky students each year.

For the rest of us, becoming a successful entrepreneur ““ and finding the funding to do so ““ may seem like a stretch, especially when most students don’t have the time or money to turn a great idea into an actual company or product.

But if universities worked with interested students to develop their ideas and give them the skills to make it in the competitive business of technology startups, students would be more likely to succeed as entrepreneurs once they graduate and the university would gain a more prestigious alumni network.

Universities should give aspiring student entrepreneurs a boost, so that college students can have a chance to act on their ideas without needing to sacrifice their educational goals.

Though UCLA students may not be able to put in all of the time necessary to create a whole company from scratch, they should take advantage of the resources offered by UCLA to learn more about entrepreneurship and get involved in the startup culture of networking and recruiting.

By gaining footing in the field of startups, students from any major can be well prepared to enter the burgeoning Los Angeles startup scene.

A new program called Startup UCLA looks to help aspiring student entrepreneurs with their endeavors by offering a variety of opportunities to UCLA students and recent graduates.

Tim Groeling, chair of the communications department and a co-founder of Startup UCLA, said UCLA alumni active in the Bay Area startup scene were a driving force in the creation of the program.

After seeing how the Silicon Valley was dominated by the “Stanford Mafia” ““ recent Stanford graduates with numerous networking connections and entrepreneurial experience from college ““ these Bruin alumni partnered with the UCLA administration and professors to incubate a startup community on the UCLA campus.

Interested students should get involved with the Startup UCLA program by attending talks by guest speakers, seeking mentoring on their ideas for a potential startup, or searching for an internship at a local startup.

At some point, Groeling said the program may even work with specific departments to offer for-credit classes about entrepreneurship and launching startups.

By encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset on campus, UCLA has the power to bolster the expansion of Los Angeles’ so-called Silicon Beach and loosen Northern California’s stronghold on the technology industry.

Not only that, but entrepreneurship is the perfect way to bridge the North Campus and South Campus divide: UCLA should foster a cross-major program to allow students to network with one another through this newfound entrepreneurial community, encouraging innovative ideas for startups that can only result from combining different academic perspectives.

For students who are further along in developing their startup, one useful resource is Startup UCLA’s Summer Accelerator Program, in which nine teams made up mostly of students and recent graduates received office space, mentoring and a small amount of funding to turn their promising ideas into full-fledged startup companies, said Ali Baghshomali, a participant of the program.

Baghshomali, a 2011 UCLA graduate in mechanical engineering and a co-creator of the mobile navigation application Falcon, said he would recommend the Summer Accelerator Program to other
UCLA students and graduates looking to start their own companies. One of the most valuable elements of the Summer Accelerator Program is that UCLA does not take any equity from the projects it invests in, unlike most other firms that help startup companies financially, Baghshomali added.

Melanie Gin, a participant in the Summer Accelerator Program and a 2012 graduate in economics, said she enjoys working with the many young, passionate entrepreneurs that make up the UCLA startup scene. Gin is the CEO of the startup Travelstrings, an online resource for travelers abroad to share their stories with friends.

Getting involved in a brand new startup could seem like treading into unfamiliar and even risky territory compared to the traditional route of searching for a career at a long-standing and established business.

But the reward of creating something new and inventive ““ and potentially profitable ““ should make the startup scene an attractive option for creative and talented students.

Though UCLA may not reap any direct financial gain from the companies that it helps get started, it does stand to benefit from the successful entrepreneurs it produces.

These graduates ideally will form a stronger alumni network and give back to the university.

Additionally, by offering a strong entrepreneurship program and the ability to network with talented alumni, UCLA could set itself apart from comparable schools in a significant way.

UCLA students can minimize some of the hazards associated with pursuing a startup company by first working with the university to gain a solid understanding of the business and to connect with other would-be entrepreneurs, all the while working toward graduation.

That way, even if their first project fails to take flight, they’ll have experience and a degree to fall back on.

It’s possible the next Mark Zuckerberg could be holed up in Powell Library right now with a revolutionary idea that he or she doesn’t know how to turn into a reality; UCLA could help quicken this discovery by providing an encouraging atmosphere.

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