Courtesy: www.therisetothetop.com
By Kelly Swanson
Becoming an entrepreneur is easy. Convincing everyone your idea might be brilliant is a whole different story. Getting someone to fund your idea is next to impossible. That’s why when I turned to TAN, the Thunderbird Angel Network, I was greeted with open arms or rather an open website with lots to help anyone seek help in starting your dream. I also turned to crowd source funding and spent months learning all about it. As an On-Demand Global MBA student I challenge myself all the time. I am always on the lookout for something that needs to be fixed, and has a need that needs filling. That is the purpose of an entrepreneur. Don’t let success pass you buy. That’s what I was taught in Professor Hisrich’s class.
Early Saturday morning, Nov 30th at 1:20AM, I jumped off the tallest ledge in the world. The leap very few people take. I launched an entrepreneurial idea. I took the leap of faith in something that I hope will change the world. http://igg.me/at/onepizza My idea was simple, a fast food Italian franchise complete with a drive-thru. Think of it like a McDonalds for pizza and spaghetti. I reached out to some others in my cohort who appreciated my vision and we ran with it. As day one is beginning, I am writing this Das Tor article and thinking when will the first crowd source funding come in? Who will be the lucky first $1 to believe? It’s scary. It’s exciting. It’s exactly what I wanted and dreamed of when I decided to apply to Thunderbird. Thunderbird gave me the encouragement. Yes I stumbled, but who doesn’t? I didn’t let that get in my way, and maybe that’s what Thunderbird saw in me, a person that wouldn’t quit with it seemed impossible. I never quit.
TAN has lots of services for the budding entrepreneur like Gust. http://gust.com is a global platform startup funding. Before you go signup you better be ready to have all your ducks in a row. Gust wants everything about your business. All the things we learned about in our classes are called upon. I have begun my application process and started this part of the puzzle too. Another piece is Liveplan. http://liveplan.com LivePlan is a business toolkit for business plans. Dr. Hisrich mentioned it to me because he had the software in his hard copy of his book. I chose the online version for Mac. It’s incredible. It really helps you to develop a business plan. All the parts are there that are covered in our Global Enterprise class and then some. It’s very helpful with lots of videos to further explain what you need.
Your Gust application is just the first step and that takes 2-3 weeks. Next is several rounds of selection that you have to proceed through. They want to make sure your have a solid grounded business plan, idea, and are willing to go all the way. Commitment is key and respect to the process is essential. Once you reach that last round you have to present your idea to the investors. This is it. It’s for all the marbles.
Thunderbird has lots of other tools available to students who are willing to commit their time to. Don’t just take a class; change your life. Have fun and learn. Explore and be rewarded.