Have you heard about Davidson’s new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative? If so, you’re probably curious to learn more about Davidson’s Entrepreneur in Residence, Chris Boggiano. Chris, who has started two companies in the Davidson area, will be a figure on campus this year as he works with Davidson students interested in entrepreneurship.
According to Chris, he aims to interact with as many students as he can and share his knowledge with the students. Davidson’s growing focus on entrepreneurship makes him a great asset to have on campus. He currently is visiting classes, holding question and answer sessions, and meeting one on one with students who would like to talk with him.
He is really excited about the increasing interest in entrepreneurship and innovation in Davidson.
“Innovation can be found everywhere,” he said. “It isn’t only found in startups. Innovation is a way to solve problems and can be applied everywhere.”
Chris said that students looking to create a startup should go with their heart.
“You should pick something you are truly passionate about, otherwise you will get burnt out by the failures that come as a part of starting something new,” he said.
Failure is something that scares many people away from doing something new. Chris mentioned that dealing with failure may be even harder for Davidson students because of our past successes. His advice is to think of failures as “a series of experiments and with every experiment, even if it fails miserably, there is some lesson learned.”
So how did Chris end up here — starting his own companies and advising the Davidson community on entrepreneurship? According to Chris, his parents’ appreciation for education and service worked passed on to his generation, which influenced him to attend West Point and serve overseas in the Army as an armor officer. These experiences combined to push him to follow his own path and eventually led him to start his first company with his brother John, Everblue, which trained adults on sustainable energy practices. Now, the Boggiano brothers are at it again with their company VersaMe, which focuses on using technology to radically improve early childhood education.
Interested in learning more? Definitely check out one of his upcoming events and keep an eye out at Summit Outpost, his new favorite hangout spot.