Create the Future

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MOVEMENT Georgetown entrepreneurs use passion, knowledge, and creativity to tackle the world’s most challenging issues. We are problem solvers, change makers, and boat rockers. We are big thinkers, “roll up your sleeves” doers, and social innovators.

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We’re the Georgetown Entrepreneurship

From our home in the McDonough School

live the ideal of women and men for others.

Initiative. Under the banner of StartupHoyas,

of Business, we serve the campus-wide

Entrepreneurship can be a powerful driver

we enable students to see the world as

Georgetown University community and forge

of both economic prosperity and sustainable

entrepreneurs do, while providing the

strong connections across Washington, D.C.,

social change, and we challenge students

knowledge and skills they need to act on

and around the world.

to pursue a path that will help themselves

their insights and provide value to society.

We foster an entrepreneurial mindset in and out of the classroom and create a supportive environment that pushes students to think creatively.

Our diverse community of “hoyapreneurs”

while helping the world.

draws on Georgetown’s heritage as a Catholic and Jesuit institution. The students — who hail from all parts of the university —

“The entrepreneurial spirit is like a bug. Once you start developing an idea, your friends start to think, ‘I can pursue my vision, too.’ It’s contagious.”

Kamar Mack (C ’19)

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experience We offer a vast array of programs, organizations, courses, and events for graduate and undergraduate students from across the university to engage with the world of entrepreneurship, including: ✦ Chalk Talks – weekly, informal office hours with accomplished entrepreneurs

✦ StartupHoyas Challenge Pitch Competition

✦ Entrepreneurship Fellows Program

✦ StartupHoyas Summer Launch Program

✦ Entrepreneurs in Residence

✦ Startup Weekend

✦ MBA Venture Fellows Program

✦ Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)

✦ Social Innovation Pitch Competition

Student Organizations ✦ StartupHoyas Club ✦ StartupHoyas MBA ✦ StartupHoyas Law ✦ Social Impact 360

“ The Entrepreneurship Fellows coursework made me think about the future more than any other class at Georgetown. The program does not simply teach you how to build a business from the ground level, but how to approach day-to-day life with an entrepreneurial mindset.”

✦ Georgetown Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs (GAMBLE) ✦ Net Impact ✦ Innovo Solutions ✦ InSITE Fellows ✦ Hoya Hacks

Justin Chung (B ’17)

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Academics Undergraduate courses focus on developing an entrepreneurial mindset. The curriculum is designed both for students who want to work within a startup and students who want to launch an entrepreneurial venture.

Courses include:

✦ F oundations of Entrepreneurship ✦ L aunching the Venture ✦ E ntrepreneurship Practicum ✦ S ocial Entrepreneurship ✦ I mpact Investing ✦ E ntrepreneurial Finance The MBA Entrepreneurship Track is designed for McDonough MBA students with a strong entrepreneurial interest. Courses include:

✦ S tartup Feasibility ✦ U nderstanding Entrepreneurship ✦ F rom Startup to Scale ✦ E ntrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital ✦ S eed Investment Practicum Entrepreneurship courses at the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Georgetown Law Center offer a specialized way for students in those areas to experience entrepreneurship.

“ The Georgetown program is really great at encouraging on-the-ground, practical testing of your idea. I remember a number of entrepreneurship classes were about ‘go out and talk to people about your idea.’ To this day, I use a number of those reminders — to go out and talk to people to validate my ideas. The mentors and coaches also have the ability to connect you with the outside world.”

Logan Soya (MBA ’13), founder, Aquicore

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luisa santos (C ’14) Founder, LuLu’s Ice Cream

Luisa Santos answers the phone while supervising construction of her second location of LuLu’s Nitrogen Ice Cream in Miami, Florida.

In just two years since graduation, Santos has taken her hand-crafted nitrogen ice cream from farmers markets and small events in Washington, D.C., to successful brick-and-mortar locations in her hometown of Miami.

Santos started her business while a student at Georgetown, participating in the Summer Launch Program and winning the Rocket Pitch Competition and the StartupHoyas Challenge pitch competition as a senior.

“Everything I know started at Georgetown,” she says. “Through my involvement in these programs, I learned so much, from the basics of testing an idea to technical skills like coming up with financial projections. To this day, I’m using the format I was taught through these programs — and that I used to win pitch competitions!”

“The people I met during that time have made our growth possible,” she says. “Our investors are Georgetown alumni or friends of those alumni. These are people I met during the Summer Launch Program or at pitch competitions.”

Santos credits the Georgetown network with enabling her company’s growth.

For Santos, Georgetown provided the space and resources she needed to launch

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her business — and to share with the world her dozens of ice cream flavors like Nutella and honey lavender.

“I was able to say, ‘I have this idea,’ and I knew there was a room I could go to, there were people I could talk to, there were classes I could take, and there were competitions I could participate in.”

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Network We take advantage of our location in Washington, D.C. — a major entrepreneurial hub — to connect our students with the broader community.

We partner with 1776, a global startup

Our Entrepreneurs in Residence — an

incubator and venture fund with headquarters

accomplished and diverse group of business

in downtown Washington, D.C., to provide

leaders and industry experts — are a valuable

students with educational opportunities for

resource to students.

direct engagement with the District’s unique entrepreneurial ecosystem.

We also offer opportunities to connect with alumni through events in the nation’s capital and around the world.

“ With values rooted in the Jesuit principle of improving society, robust programming led by the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, a deep network of successful alumni ready to engage, and a location in one of the world’s best startup hubs, Georgetown University is a truly amazing place for entrepreneurship.”

Ted Leonsis (C ’77), Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Monumental Sports & Entertainment

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The greater Washington region is the top metro area for growth entrepreneurship in the United States.

The Kauffman Foundation, 2016 Index of Growth Entrepreneurship

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Support We support students and alumni in the pursuit of their dreams, whether that dream is building a startup from the ground up, working at a startup, or taking their passion for entrepreneurship to the corporate, government, or nonprofit worlds.

The Startup Stipend provides financial

The Summer Launch Program is a 10-week

We recognize that real-world experience

support to eliminate the anxiety of student

summer accelerator/incubator for students

is critical for aspiring entrepreneurs, so we

loan debt for aspiring entrepreneurs.

and recent alumni from across the university.

encourage students to intern at startups,

Graduating seniors — or graduate students

The program uses an intensive, mentor-

venture capital firms, and other companies

in their final year — can apply to receive

driven curriculum.

over the summer and during the school year.

periodic funding that will cover their student loan payments for up to two years after graduation, as long as they continue to work on a startup.

Our experts and experienced entrepreneurs, including the Entrepreneurs in Residence, provide advice and mentoring throughout the year. Students can request one-on-one

The Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize is a

meetings with mentors or can attend a

one-time cash award for student entrepreneurs

weekly, informal group mentoring session

and recent alumni who show great promise.

called a “Chalk Talk.”

We offer financial support for many students who choose to accept unpaid summer internships so that they can focus their energy on learning.

The prize helps recipients turn an idea from a student project into a startup company.

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Jeff Stefanis (B ’13) co-Founder and ceo, Riide

Jeff Stefanis “did literally everything” entrepreneurship-related while a student at Georgetown, he says, from the Summer Launch Program to the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) to the Entrepreneurship Fellows Program. Now the co-founder of Riide, which builds electric bicycles for urban commuters, Stefanis recalls those programs as the foundation of his entrepreneurial journey.

“The Summer Launch Program is a great example of all of the Georgetown schools coming together,” he says. “Those different perspectives enriched my experience and expanded my thinking.”

Stefanis, who was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2016, has seen Riide grow from a concept with fellow co-founder Amber Wason to a Kickstarter campaign to a retail store in the nation’s capital with bikes on the road in 37 states.

“Being an entrepreneur is fun and it’s challenging,” he says. “It’s everything I expected it would be and more. I get up every day excited for work. Every day is a new challenge.”

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For Stefanis, business can be an important tool for social change. He recognizes that philosophy in Georgetown’s Jesuit value of cura personalis, or care for the whole person.

“Cura personalis permeates every aspect of the university,” he says. “There’s a focus on entrepreneurs building a business that has

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a strong moral fiber and social backbone.

For me, entrepreneurship is the way that I can best impact positive social change in the world. I think a lot about environmental justice — policy is one way to do it. For me, taking cars off the road and giving people another option was a way for me to do my small part.”

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YOUR FUTURE We help students find their own individual vision and give them the tools to build their own future. This isn’t a cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all place. Participate in programs and events that ignite your passion and excite you.

Your future is what you create.

Georgetown McDonough was recognized on the Financial Times’ 2016 list of top MBA programs for entrepreneurship.

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in the D.C. area

“ Entrepreneurship is about making change creatively, however that looks. Any idea that changes the world can be a startup of sorts. And any person who sparks change can be an entrepreneur.”

Samuel Holley (C ’16)

in the United States

in the world

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Nicolas jammet, JONATHAN NEMAN, AND NATHANIEL RU (B ’07) C0-FounderS, SWEETGREEN

As students at Georgetown University, Nicolas Jammet, Jonathan Neman, and Nathaniel Ru often wished for healthier food options close to campus. They wanted an alternative to fast food, one that would be accessible and approachable. The summer after graduating in 2007, Jammet, Neman, and Ru turned their idea into the fast casual salad spot Sweetgreen.

What started with one location within walking distance of campus has turned into more than 50 locations across the country.

“My two business partners and I met at Georgetown,” says Jammet. “We founded the business at Georgetown. Being here, in this environment, was a big part of us creating our company. All three of us took an entrepreneurship class together, and to this day, we look back at that class and realize how much we learned from it.”

The brand has gone beyond salads to the annual Sweetlife Music Festival and “sweetgreen in schools,” a program that educates kids about healthy eating, fitness, and sustainability.

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The co-founders, who have been featured on Forbes and Inc.’s 30 Under 30 lists, emphasize the importance of the Hoya community.

“There are so many different types of people here, and you are in one of the greatest cities in the world,” says Jammet.

“Being exposed to people who come from so many different places gives incredible perspective when you are starting or thinking about starting a business.”

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“Georgetown taught me the value of community and how it was important to surround yourself with people who are more experienced than you are, who are smarter than you are, and who can really help you along your journey,” Ru adds. “Georgetown is a great place for entrepreneurship because it is really like a family.”

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Shreya adiraju (mba ’17) AND jesse cushman (mBa ’14) StreetShares As she describes her introduction to the field, Shreya Adiraju (MBA ’17) stumbled into entrepreneurship.

“My early exposure to the world of entrepreneurship and startups was very basic, especially in terms of career prospects — think Wall Street Journal headlines!” says Adiraju, whose prior professional background was in financial services, working for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

After a year in the nonprofit space in India, she started the Full-time MBA program at Georgetown McDonough. “Through talking with Professors Lee Pinkowitz and Jeff Reid and other students, I started to understand entrepreneurship as a profession,” she says.

“I had 30 to 40 informational interviews about entrepreneurship, and in the course of that, I was led to StreetShares.”

Adiraju spent a summer as a finance and data analysis intern at StreetShares, a small business marketplace lender that connects small business owners with investors. The internship tapped into her passion for financial inclusion while still leveraging her academic background.

“Being passionate and personally invested in what I’m doing — to me, that is being entrepreneurial,” she says.

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Currently the vice president of finance at StreetShares, Jesse Cushman (MBA ’14) also took an indirect path into the startup world.

“If you had asked me as a first-year MBA student, ‘What does it mean to be entrepreneurial?’ I would have said, ‘to come up with an idea for a product or company’,” says Cushman, who started his career as a trader at hedge funds.

After he met the CEO of StreetShares and learned more about the organization’s philosophy and social goals, Cushman turned down an offer from a multinational financial services corporation in favor of a position with StreetShares.

Hooked on the startup culture, he spent the second year of his MBA program taking as many entrepreneurship courses as he could and spending time at 1776’s downtown D.C. headquarters before joining the StreetShares team full time after graduation.

“I realized that I don’t need to be the ‘ideas person’ here,” Cushman says. “Helping people execute is just as important as coming up with the idea.”

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Sara Zulkosky (mba ’14) principal, CNF investments, LLC

Sara Zulkosky (MBA ’14) is a principal at an investment firm, a mentor, and an international champion. She was one of five Georgetown McDonough MBA students on the 2013 Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) global championship team.

VCIC brings together teams from the best business schools for the world’s largest venture capital competition. A panel of venture capitalists judges each team based on how well they analyze startup companies, interview entrepreneurs, structure a deal, and negotiate terms.

“My participation in VCIC was one of the highlights of my time at Georgetown,” she says. “It uncovered a strong interest in venture capital and opened my eyes to job opportunities in that space. Before VCIC, I thought I’d continue to work in startup operations. VCIC made me really excited about the other side of the table. From that point, I dove in head first.”

Now a principal at CNF Investments, LLC, Zulkosky serves as an entrepreneurial adviser at Georgetown. Two years after her own victory, she helped coach the

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Georgetown team to another global championship title.

“As a student, there were a lot of people within the Georgetown community, including alumni, who were supportive of my interest in venture capital and helped me and my team prepare for VCIC,” she says. “Now, being part of VCIC as a judge, coach, and adviser, it has been really fun and very rewarding to play that role for other students. I get to pay it forward.”

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In addition to her work with Georgetown, she volunteers with InSITE, a nonprofit that connects graduate students with highpotential startups, and is a venture partner with NextGen Angels.

“Georgetown is very collaborative,” Zulkosky says. “There are a lot of programs available to students to help them develop and nurture their ideas. It’s wonderful how supportive the community and alumni are of students.”

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP INITIATIVE Connect with Us Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Rafik B. Hariri Building, Suite 305 37th and O Streets, NW Washington, DC 20057 startuphoyas@georgetown.edu (202) 687-4750 www.startuphoyas.com @StartupHoyas @StartupHoyasClub @startuphoyas

“ If you have a desire to create solutions, to solve important problems in the world — or if you want to help the students that do — join us in growing the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative.”

JEFF REID, FOUNDING DIRECTOR AND PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE ALYSSA LOVEGROVE, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR