Are you curious about entrepreneurship but not sure how to begin? Attend the Business Plan Practicum “Resource Night” sessions each week and learn the essentials of business planning first-hand from local entrepreneurs. 

The January 14 session will cover the “ABCs” of company vision, identifying key trends and filling gaps in the market. The featured speaker will be Xiaoyu (Renee) Wang, CEO and Founder of Castbox.

Castbox is a free podcast app, built to solve a simple but frustrating problem: how do you find more podcasts and programming on topics we love? “20 million users and countless cups of coffee later, we feel like we’ve finally built a solution. We’ve invested in advanced artificial intelligence, robust recommendation engines, and pioneered the world’s first automated transcribing and indexing tool for podcasts that powers our In-Audio Search. With more than 95 million episodes in our library and a full suite of tools geared toward discovery, we’re confident that Castbox will help you find more of what you love—no matter what it is.”

The second half of class will feature a panel of student teams who have participated in the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship’s annual innovation challenges and Dempsey Startup Competition. Panelists will discuss the value they found in participating in a competition and offer tips and tricks on how to make the most of the feedback from judges, coaches and mentors.

Students are encouraged to stay after class for a Team Formation social networking event from 7:45-8:30pm. Food and beverages will be provided (students only).
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This lecture is part of the Business Plan Practicum course (ENTRE 440/540). The course is taught by John Zagula, founding partner at Ignition Capital. Students are encouraged to enroll in the course to gain access to course materials, office hours, pitch workshops and will have the opportunity to make a final pitch in front of a panel of experts (prizes included!).

Non-students are also welcome to drop-in and learn the essentials of business planning and to hear first-hand from local entrepreneurs. Please note that the first 45 minutes of each evening is a participatory lecture, followed by the featured guest speaker(s).