Workshop C – 2018

Workshop C: Preparing Student Entrepreneurs for High-Impact and Breakout Careers: Joining UNC’s Entrepreneurs Genome Project

Additional $75 Fee

• Ted Zoller, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This session will explore one of the most important measures of success for university entrepreneurship programs: Does your program contribute to the future success trajectory of your students as future entrepreneurs? Specifically, this workshop will wrestle with questions balancing “entrepreneurial mindset” training with skills-based curricula, and question whether early start-ups actually lead to long-term success. The workshop will begin with some initial findings from UNC’s Entrepreneurs Genome project led by Professor Ted Zoller, who will review results analyzing the career trajectories of alumni entrepreneurs; their skills, backgrounds, experience, and training; and their career life cycle. The workshop will review the research results of the Entrepreneurs Genome project, a longitudinal study of entrepreneurial careers focused on preparing students for a future as a founder or growth executive. This research, the basis of the Adams Apprenticeship at UNC, takes a different tack at entrepreneurial education by preparing students for a lifelong entrepreneurial mindset. This session will help you examine how your entrepreneurship program may be designed to best prepare your students for both near-term and long-term success and impact, and it will also develop and present a keener understanding of the transition to entrepreneurship and the ways universities can prepare leaders for this transition. Workshop participants will be invited to compare the profiles of current students to alumni entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and industries, which will include not only “founders” but also “funders” and “growth executives.” Co-presenters of this workshop include Gallup Research Scientist Sangeeta Badal and UNC’s Dina Rousset.