Do you
dream of business plans and spread sheets? Would being a CEO of
a major company fulfill your childhood ambitions? Do you fantasize
about pointing and saying “You’re Fired!” in
Trump-like fashion? For all those with entrepreneurial ambitions,
the new student organization Venture Forth provides opportunities
for networking and leadership training. The group is run like a
company with promotions based on merit and hard work. It was this
aspect that really appealed to club president Raj Kumar, ’06,
who discovered the group as a freshman. The group was founded by
Jeff Cho, ’03, who intended that the club serve as an incubation
chamber for entrepreneurial ideas on campus.
The group provides a number of services to help foster feasible
business ideas. These include the annual Business Plan Competition
and an
Entrepreneurial Conference in the fall, and are open to all students
on campus. They also hold roundtable discussions, pairing speakers
from particular industries with pizzas to get the creative juices
flowing. Past members have already started several companies including
Quad5, a forum to connect UCSD students. Cho has also established
the Triton Enterprise Network for alumni, especially those who were
involved with Venture Forth, so they can continue to network and
turn dreams into action.
Kumar thinks the founding members of the
group are particularly inspirational. “Everyone can say ‘I
want to be like Bill Gates,’ but it is great to have people
on campus you can look up to,” he says. Past presidents of
the group such as Shayan Alam, ’04, and Matthew Moore, ’05,
brought unique skills to the club, imparting everything from dealing
well with people to time management. Though many of the events in
the past years have been focused on technology-related business,
the group hopes to shift the focus to a wider range of businesses,
including real estate and business planning.
|
