创业生活博客/beplay官网体育巴布森企业家

高级副总裁顾问简介:Keith Hopper

基思漏斗

The Blank Center is delighted that Keith Hopper is part of the 2017夏季创业计划team as an advisor for the second consecutive year!基思是波士顿创业社区和SVP团队的宝贵资源。我们最近聊到,作为SVP的顾问与典型的导师关系有何不同,以及他希望团队今年能从这个项目中得到什么。

你在暑期创业项目和波士顿创业生态系统中扮演什么角色?
这将是我担任高级副总裁顾问的第二年,我曾担任高级副总裁顾问。Techstars in Boston五年了。我还正式向几家公司提供产品和市场了解方面的建议。ATOlin College of Engineering,我是一名企业家,帮助学生识别并完成新产品和业务开发的早期阶段。

奥林学院的创业场景是什么样的?
Because Olin is a small school with only 350 underbeplay官网地址graduate students,它不像其他学校那样有着同样的创业足迹——它确实是独一无二的。奥林的创立原则之一是创业,因此,有一个有趣的混合企业雄心勃勃的学生和更多具有创业精神。There is a small student-run group called the铸造厂which promotes entrepreneurship on campus.奥林的学生们不断地探索并将新事物带入世界。Many aspects of entrepreneurship run through the students and school itself.尤其是去年,there has been a great amount of startup energy.Two Olin teams will be participating in this year's Summer Venture Program!

你如何描述你去年参加暑期创业项目的经历?
It was great.Being an advisor for SVP is different than how I had imagined it.Generally,导师是“轻描淡写的”,每周一两个小时与公司会面,提供建议和联系。高级副总裁,advisors play a much more engaged role.它们涉及业务的各个方面,solve problems by rolling up their sleeves,and instead of just providing connections,they make physical introductions.关系更深入,甚至包括对企业家的情感和一般支持——这在导师关系中并不常见。你觉得自己更投入,更喜欢做生意的一部分。能与公司如此深入的合作,帮助他们度过这段激动人心的时光,是非常值得的。

暑期创业计划让你兴奋的是什么?
与该项目合作最令人兴奋的方面是观察企业家不仅改变了企业,而且改变了他们的思维过程。有了早期的团队和一个充当坩埚的加速器,你会看到很多认知转变。这些转变中的许多都是围绕着学生对创业的看法而进行的。At Techstars,这些公司通常在学术安全网之外更进一步,so they have already gone through many of these shifts.At beplay官网体育Babson,有很多原材料和更大的波动性-以一个好的方式!

What do you hope the Summer Venture Program teams get out of the program?
今年的一个巨大转变是该项目将设在波士顿。我希望这些团队能够融入波士顿创业生态系统——过去的团队还没有这么多机会接触到这个生态系统。我主要在这个城市工作,所以我很高兴能把他们带到我以前经营的世界。除了明显的联系之外,还有很多好处,including how the teams look at themselves,甚至是无意识的。当你在大学校园工作时,创业就像是你学业的延伸。被其他公司所包围,而这些公司并不这样看待自己,这将有助于高级副总裁团队体验身份转变,并在学校之外看到这一点。It will really help them leap forward.

此外,戴维张,今年的项目总监,真是太神奇了。His perspective,支持,and basic re-engineering of the program will be really positive.I'm excited to see what happens with the program.I am also excited about the teams!I have only met them briefly but they are a fantastic batch.There is a wide spectrum of industries,企业处于其生命周期中,and diversity of founders.应该是这样的!

What is your definition of entrepreneurship?
An entrepreneur is someone who brings new things into the world and they stick.从那边看,我们都是企业家。你必须理解需求并识别客户,不管你是在开发实物产品还是在开发创意。你总是给世界带来新事物。Entrepreneurs must be compelling,understand markets,有一个网络,设计解决方案。

我帮助设计了奥林学院所需的创业本科生课程。beplay官网地址Some students are reluctant about entrepreneurship,so we realized that the best way to teach entrepreneurship is to think about it differently.The class was designed to emphasize that even people working for existing companies must be creative and that entrepreneurial skills are important everywhere.

What does the world need from entrepreneurs today?
The world needs everyone to think like an entrepreneur.基于技术的速度和通信的广泛性,存在着巨大的机遇。世界需要人们有雄心壮志,思考他们能向世界介绍什么。这不仅是关于新颖性的问题,而且需要创造性地将经过考验的真正解决方案付诸实施。增量变化,当把它看作一个集合时,可以改变世界。如果我们都把自己的所作所为看作是大刀阔斧地改变世界的机会,在我们可能无法预料的地方,we would push ourselves to be more ambitious,创造性的,并连接起来。

你对企业家有什么建议吗?
当我开始与初创企业合作时,I realized there are two types of entrepreneurs.一个是开放的建议,另一个显示出很多阻力。企业家需要更加开明,愿意向他人学习。这不仅包括听取顾问的意见,也包括听取客户的意见。Humility is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs,但他们也应该能够为自己说话并做出决定。我的建议是要有远见,对你的决定充满信心,but also to be open to learning.虽然这似乎矛盾,the companies that grasp both of these concepts are extremely successful.认识到这些条件存在,并努力接受它们。

What do you do for fun?
与初创企业合作!I'm only partially kidding.辅导是不花钱的,但与下一代企业家合作是值得的。I have seven-year-old twin boys and we love the water.I like to sail,和他们一起玩,and help them pursue their own entrepreneurial ambitions.我也会演奏音乐。

用四个词描述你自己。
Visionary idealist,操作怀疑论者。我对伟大的想法感到非常兴奋,但我对人们的实施计划持高度怀疑态度。最好的方法通常不是他们想到的第一个方法!

还有其他人应该知道的吗?
我特别喜欢的一句话是“强烈的观点被松散地持有着”,这是一个观察世界的框架,当人们有了这个世界时,我会感到兴奋。These people come at problems with conviction and passion but when confronted with new evidence,are quick to absorb the new information and extend their world view.This is less about completely switching opinions than about the importance of nuance and understanding that we all have limited information about the world.当我们的知识库增长时,我们可以有不同的想法。Accept that you do not know everything and be open to letting new information change and direct you.