Name: Uday Misra
Year: Senior
Major(s): Information Systems
Minor: Technology Entrepreneurship
Hometown: North Potomac, MD
Q: What exactly is enTERPreneur?
enTERPreneur is an SGA-recognized club based in Stamp that I co-founded last year. We envisioned a club that provided an accessible, inclusive path to the UMD entrepreneurship scene for students of all years, majors, and background, through company visits, workshops, panels, vlogs, and more.
Q: Where did the idea to start enTERPreneur come from?
I didn’t start out in the business school – I entered UMD as a cell biology & genetics major. One of the main reasons I transitioned to business was because I joined a startup that my friend was working on, and our team ended up pitching for funding as finalists at the Pitch Dingman Competition. That first taste of the business world at UMD had me hooked, and it was because of my exposure to entrepreneurship.
As I settled into the Smith School environment, and engaged frequently with engineers and computer science majors through Hinman CEOs, the Dingman Center, and other entrepreneurial programs, I felt compelled to find a way to make students outside of business, engineering, and computer science aware of all of the entrepreneurship opportunities on campus – that’s how the idea was born.
Q: What is your executive board currently working on? What should we look forward to?
Our nine-member executive board has been super busy this semester figuring out just what we want to offer students. This semester, we have rolled out a biweekly vlog that spotlights students involved with some aspect of entrepreneurship on campus, whether they are founders, VCs, or involved in other ways. We hope students who watch our vlogs will get a sense of all of the opportunities on campus, and learn about what it takes to be successful in this field…Aside from that, we have initiated a biweekly General Body Meeting, where in April we hope to incorporate workshops to instruct students on various skills that will serve them well in the field.
And what we are most excited about are our company visits – following our partnership with SUSA for their entrepreneurship track company visit that took place on March 9th in DC, we will be visiting Greenbelt-based Cybrary on Thursday, March 29th and Bethesda-based Spotluck on Friday, April 20th (in partnership with TerpAMA), and we hope to visit at least one more company before the semester is up!
Q: What goal did you have for this year and how are you working towards it?
We hoped that enTERPreneur would be a recognizable brand on campus with business, engineering, and computer science majors. Once we develop a presence with individuals that are more engaged with the entrepreneurship scene, we can expand our brand to hit segments of campus that are less exposed to entrepreneurship, and we can ultimately fulfill our key vision. We believe that by May, we will have a strong, loyal general body of students passionate about the field, and we have been attempting to do that through a mix of physical promotion (such as tabling and fundraisers) and digital promotion (such as consistent posts, a website, our vlog series, a newsletter, a Facebook group, and more).
Our second major goal this year was to develop meaningful relationships with other entrepreneurial brands on campus, and collaborate with them as opposed to competing. We have gotten the chance to work with Startup Shell, SUSA, 301Ventures, the Dingman Center, Contrary Capital, TerpAMA, and others – I think it’s really important to form a united front among campus leaders in the entrepreneurship space, so that we can make the community as visible and accessible as possible to Terps.
Q: Can anyone join enTERPreneur or do members have to be of a certain major?
Any undergraduate student can join enTERPreneur. One of the foundational pillars of our organization, and one can safely say a primary cause of inception, was to make students from all over campus aware of the entrepreneurship-related opportunities available on campus, whether they are a studio art major spending most of their time in the Art-Sociology building studios or a chemistry major working away in a lab on Regents Drive. The field of entrepreneurship might as well be housed in every degree program, because it can attract such a diverse, eclectic mix of people that all share the love of creating something new. We hope to help students discover that passion for entrepreneurship who otherwise might not have.
Q: What would you like students to gain from joining enTERPreneur?
We would like students first off to gain an understanding of the opportunities they have at their disposal at UMD. Recognized as one of the most innovative colleges in the country, UMD has a thriving entrepreneurship scene, offering a myriad of funding sources (some student-led, such as 301Ventures and Contrary Capital), a student-run incubator (Startup Shell), innovation courses and workshops over at places like the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (AIE), and so much more.
Students have a real opportunity to build a successful business without spending too much of their personal income, and they have a host of ways to gain access to mentorship and a strong founding team – we aim to be the launching pad for students, and give them a home base community where they are exposed to all of the opportunities they have available, and meet like-minded Terps that will inspire them and perhaps join their venture.
In addition, we want students to develop a knowledge base and skill set through our organization that will serve them well in the field. We aim to give them a sense of what it takes to be successful in entrepreneurship, as well as grow their network, through company visits, partnered events, our vlog series, our GBM workshops, and more.
Q: What connection do you have the entrepreneurial world in College Park and its surrounding area?
We have strong connections with a variety of on-campus organizations, having partnered with a number of them, as I mentioned earlier. In addition, myself and fellow co-president Emily Gee will be collaborating with students from schools across the DMV for the “Top 100 DMV Student Entrepreneur” event taking place at American University’s Center for Innovation in mid-April. We hope to continue to expand our presence in the future, and attend conferences, networking events, and other events in DC. In addition, we will continue to build our network of startups and companies in the surrounding area as we visit more companies!
Q: Where can our readers see more information on your club and keep up with future opportunities?
Readers can join our General Body by finding our Facebook group at Ter.ps/enTERPgroup, where we post frequent updates and special opportunities. From there, they can join our newsletter at Ter.ps/signupenTERP – we aim to send at least one out every week. Every two weeks, we release a new Vlog on our YouTube channel, which we highly recommend your readers check out!
Aside from that, follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay posted on what we are up to, and take a look at our website to learn more about the club!
Facebook: Facebook.com/enTERPreneurUMD
Instagram: Instagram.com/enTERPreneurUMD
Website: enTERPreneurUMD.com