Karen Mills, the Obama administration’s top small business adviser, kicked off a tour of college campus discussions on entrepreneurship at George Washington last night.
The top official at the U.S. Small Business Administration was joined by GW alumni and entrepreneurs Bo Davis, B.A. ’97, founder of Prometheus and Wasabi Sushi, and Amit Kapoor, B.S. ’02, M.S. ’04, co-founder of First Line Technology, at the Jack Morton Auditorium for “The Path to Entrepreneurial Success” moderated by GW Office of Entrepreneurship Director Jim Chung.
GW President Steven Knapp, who introduced Ms. Mills, said small businesses will be especially important in the District as the city and the greater Washington region find ways to diversify their economies.
“Through our own efforts at technology transfer and developing entrepreneurship across the university, we’re looking to contribute to the diversification of the Washington, D.C. and greater Washington metropolitan area economies,” said Dr. Knapp. “So we have a keen interest in this topic as well.”
In her remarks, Ms. Mills spoke about the importance of small businesses in today’s economy and detailed the ways the Small Business Administration supports entrepreneurship, including providing financial assistance, counseling and training opportunities, and offering more than $750 million in direct loans to homeowners, renters and businesses.
Ms. Mills said there is government support and “entrepreneurial capital” for the risk takers who want to start a small business.
“One of the first, greatest assets that America has is our entrepreneurial spirit,” said Ms. Mills. “We have a long history of people coming to this country and starting up businesses, and we have innovation here at this great university.”
Ms. Mills also encouraged the entrepreneurs in the audience to find a mentor to help them build a business plan and to “take the next step.”
“I believe in access to the American dream. It’s how we built this country, it’s how we build a strong middle class,” she said. “I believe that as we come out of one of the toughest recessions that we’ve ever seen, it’s Americans and people like you who are going to…take those innovations and turn them into companies and grow those companies and create jobs. And we’re going to be with you every step of the way.”
Mr. Davis and Mr. Kapoor shared how they found capital for their companies and answered questions from the audience about their own business ideas.
Mr. Davis, who wrote the software for Prometheus in the basement of Gelman Library, said the resources at a university make it the perfect place to start formulating a plan.
“I’ve always been a big fan of academia as a place to launch businesses,” he said. “You’ve got time to think about a plan and to look at different things. The university also provides an enormous amount of counseling and networking.”
In his introduction, Mr. Chung spoke about the university’s long history of entrepreneurship. He noted GW’s Business Plan Competition, which had a record number of entries this year, and GW’s new partnership with District I/O, which provides students with workspace to grow their business ideas, as ways the university is a “pioneer” in entrepreneurial education.