The Barometer Online

Issue date: 5/25/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed

To listen to the full interview with Christopher click here.

Recently the Austin Entrepreneurship program had a slogan contest, what was the winning slogan?

We actually don't have one yet. We got dozens of responses that were close, but none hit quiet right. We will be awarding those who stimulated our thinking. It was a good exercise. The new slogan will be three or four words. The first word will be "collaborate," the second word will probably be "innovate." These words get at the core of what we're striving for and moving ahead to. Just a different way of looking at an existing problem, or just a whole new way of looking at things.

What were some runners up for the slogan?

A lot of entries pushed sustain as a slogan. Sustainability is definitely a core value for us, but we didn't see a good way to make it a central part of the theme. Some were funny, that went off on all different directions. Some of the entries were very cleaver and we really enjoyed reading them.

What was the old slogan?

Dreamers that do. First of all it's terribly a-grammatical. I like the idea of dreamers and doers, but I want innovators and collaborators as opposed to dreamers.

How long has it been around?

The program has been around for three years.

How does Weatherford Hall play a factor in the program?

It's central to the program. We're trying to provide an introduction to entrepreneurship. We will be redirecting the course of some programs, aiming more at freshman and sophomores to try and get them excited about entrepreneurship. We will also be working more to recruit juniors and seniors in high school who would be the right kind of people to bring into the hall. Our focus is to capture attention and interest of the entry level students.

What kind of events and programs do you put on?

We would like to stretch entrepreneurship campus wide. Currently we're trying to build business plan competitions, aimed at national and international teams. This hopefully will be in place by next spring. We also had a faculty interest group kick off. Randy Comrades who started Classmates.com is part of the group. We're trying to get more programs like that. Fireside chats provide students with a variety of people who are involved in entrepreneurship. It's also an opportunity for students to look at them as role models. Not all the presenters are full success stories, some of them are still very much in the process of starting their ventures.

What were a few of the most successful ventures to come out of the program?

I'm not aware of all of them, I've only been here for two months, and there's a lot that I don't know. There was one involving barbecue sauce. Some other ventures like computer building and an Ebay venture to sell a selected group of antiques. But I think the barbecue sauce one was the most successful.

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