This is my tribute to Chris Hadfield’s tribute to David Bowie.
It is also on Society6.
(via laughingsquid)
This is my tribute to Chris Hadfield’s tribute to David Bowie.
It is also on Society6.
(via laughingsquid)
"You won’t keep control of your time, unless you can say ‘no.’ You can’t let other people set your agenda in life."
- Warren Buffett at a conference earlier this week. (via parislemon)
Great new website, Urban Compass, for finding and renting an apartment.
“It fascinates me that older objects were so well-built, and were most likely put together by hand. These items were repaired when broken, not discarded like our devices of today.” —Photographer Todd McLellan tears apart objects to expose their hidden complexity.
The Smith-Corona typewriter from 1964 has 621 parts. The Swiss Army Knife? 38.
"If I get a cup of tea, it’s a cup of tea — there isn’t a chance that it’s actually made out of solid gold. But that’s how this works."
- YC’s Paul Buchheit explaining why the public doesn’t understand startup economics. (via parislemon)
Heineken WOBO bottle. cool.
The first recipe made by AI. IBM Watson and it’s development team are working on using computers to be creative. Uses a mix of databases and a dose of inductive thinking. Although this is can and will come up with crazy food combinations that may challenge what food even is, but creativity is so much more than a formula or algorithm.
![fastcompany:
Come To College! Get Funded! Northeaster Offers The Nation’s Only Student-Run Venture Accelerator, Idea
Northeastern University has a student-run venture accelerator with $250k cash. Is this what it takes to keep kids on campus?
College is crazy expensive—and it’s getting more expensive all the time. Entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel are fond of saying it’s not worth it. But 23-year-old Chris Wolfel, who is getting his bachelor’s from Northeastern University this spring, found college to be not only a good investment, but the perfect launching pad for his entrepreneurial dreams.
For the last two years, Wolfel has been the CEO of IDEA, the only student-run venture accelerator in the country. Founded in 2009, IDEA offers workshops, meetups, coaching, mentoring, and most importantly, funding, all from alumni donors, for student startups. Wolfel and his team were able to raise $250,000 to help launch almost 300 businesses by students from every school across the university.
The eclectic group has spawned Uturn Audio, which created a retro turntable that raised over $245K on Kickstarter; Njabini, a sustainable apparel company based in Kenya; Tuatara, an e-textbook platform; Pure Pest Management, an organic pest control company now operating in six states; and Mini Pops, a snack food featured in Oprah’s “Favorite Things.”
“Northeastern right now is one of the biggest hotbeds of entrepreneurship I’ve seen,” says Wolfel. He points to the longstanding co-op model to explain why—Northeastern’s five-year bachelor’s degree program includes three six-month-long full-time internships, so “people come here knowing they’re going to work no matter what.” For the last few years there’s even been a self-co-op model for student entrepreneurs to take time off to work on their own projects.
It could be said that IDEA is challenging the very idea of university education. Is the major purpose of convening a university and charging tuition to allow students to ponder the good life or expand the boundaries of human knowledge—or to turn collegians into entrepreneurs?
Maybe it can be both. From art studios to biology labs to law seminars, ideas at Northeastern are actively being converted into cash, and the university is staking a piece of its reputation on the dream of hitting it big. But what happens when the current bubble bursts?
For now, no one is asking. The student entrepreneurs are happy—they find less risk starting up while still on an academic track, and that their student status and alumni network open doors. The administration is happy, too. “Chris Wolfel is the most extraordinary student leader I have had the privilege to work with in my entire academic career,” Hugh Courtney, dean of the College of Business, said in a farewell letter. Alumni are happy to be able to support up-and-comers, and sometimes become early-stage investors.
And Wolfel, who is joining a Boston software startup called Yesware and advising other colleges that trying to start venture accelerators, is happy. “I learned as much if not more from IDEA than in my classrooms,” he says. “It’s real life.”
[Image: Flickr user Steve Jurvetson]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/ce0442092cbfa6169df880958788f486/tumblr_mm2rzkMw411qzt7h7o1_1280.jpg)
Northeastern University has a student-run venture accelerator with $250k cash. Is this what it takes to keep kids on campus?
College is crazy expensive—and it’s getting more expensive all the time. Entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel are fond of saying it’s not worth it. But 23-year-old Chris Wolfel, who is getting his bachelor’s from Northeastern University this spring, found college to be not only a good investment, but the perfect launching pad for his entrepreneurial dreams.
For the last two years, Wolfel has been the CEO of IDEA, the only student-run venture accelerator in the country. Founded in 2009, IDEA offers workshops, meetups, coaching, mentoring, and most importantly, funding, all from alumni donors, for student startups. Wolfel and his team were able to raise $250,000 to help launch almost 300 businesses by students from every school across the university.
The eclectic group has spawned Uturn Audio, which created a retro turntable that raised over $245K on Kickstarter; Njabini, a sustainable apparel company based in Kenya; Tuatara, an e-textbook platform; Pure Pest Management, an organic pest control company now operating in six states; and Mini Pops, a snack food featured in Oprah’s “Favorite Things.”
“Northeastern right now is one of the biggest hotbeds of entrepreneurship I’ve seen,” says Wolfel. He points to the longstanding co-op model to explain why—Northeastern’s five-year bachelor’s degree program includes three six-month-long full-time internships, so “people come here knowing they’re going to work no matter what.” For the last few years there’s even been a self-co-op model for student entrepreneurs to take time off to work on their own projects.
It could be said that IDEA is challenging the very idea of university education. Is the major purpose of convening a university and charging tuition to allow students to ponder the good life or expand the boundaries of human knowledge—or to turn collegians into entrepreneurs?
Maybe it can be both. From art studios to biology labs to law seminars, ideas at Northeastern are actively being converted into cash, and the university is staking a piece of its reputation on the dream of hitting it big. But what happens when the current bubble bursts?
For now, no one is asking. The student entrepreneurs are happy—they find less risk starting up while still on an academic track, and that their student status and alumni network open doors. The administration is happy, too. “Chris Wolfel is the most extraordinary student leader I have had the privilege to work with in my entire academic career,” Hugh Courtney, dean of the College of Business, said in a farewell letter. Alumni are happy to be able to support up-and-comers, and sometimes become early-stage investors.
And Wolfel, who is joining a Boston software startup called Yesware and advising other colleges that trying to start venture accelerators, is happy. “I learned as much if not more from IDEA than in my classrooms,” he says. “It’s real life.”
[Image: Flickr user Steve Jurvetson]
