Coaching Entrepreneurs

Cornell Entrepreneur-in-Residence Dan Cohen coaches students about taking leaps of faith and turning ideas into bona fide businesses.

Cohen, who also teaches business strategy and entrepreneurship at ILR, knows all about it.

For 15 years, he nurtured a business in the waterproofing and structural repair industry in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

"There were many ups and downs," he said. "I can help remind students that tough patches are temporary."

Cohen is the go-to person for 10 teams of students based at Cornell's "eLab" incubator for undergraduate entrepreneurs.

Part of his role is matching students with entrepreneurial mentors who are Cornell graduates.

"Most entrepreneurs have been humbled at one point or another. When you've negotiated challenges like that, you learn a great deal and you really want to give back," Cohen said.

In its first year, the eLab has expanded its mentor network to 30 and helped spawn businesses such as Wiggio.com. Wiggio.com developed a web application for working groups which has spread to hundreds of campuses.

"Our vision at eLab," Cohen said, "is to become the standard by which all college incubators are measured."

Management dilemmas, risk assessment, financial decisions – Cohen has been on call for all of it since the eLab was launched in April 2008 by Cornell Student Agencies in partnership with Entrepreneurship@Cornell.

Membership in the eLab is competitive. Forty-five teams applied this year. Ten were accepted.

Membership continues through a student's senior year and includes office space in Collegetown, legal and accounting assistance and many intangibles, such as access to experience.

Angeline Stuma '09 turns to Cohen to help keep the Bernales & Goretti fair trade fashion business on track.

"Focus – Dan's really emphasized that. Don't spread yourself too thin," said Stuma, an applied economics and management major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Stuma is a business partner with Constanza Ontaneda '09, a fiber science and apparel design major in the College of Human Ecology.

In the form of fair wages, part of the price of Bernales & Goretti clothing is returned to the Peruvians who make the garments, Stuma said. "Economic development is enhanced through high fashion."

The business won $10,000 in the "100 Projects for Peace" competition sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was also a first runner-up in The Big Idea social track competition for undergraduates April 17.

Outside Cornell's incubator, known as the "eLab," the recession deepens.

The entrepreneurial spirit inside the eLab, though, seems untroubled.

Aniq Rahman '09 said the depressed economy provides a wider pool for recruiting talent to HireCube.

The business produces software which allows employers to test for customized skills during on-line interviews.

In non-recession periods, top talent "would have been going to Goldman Sachs" for internships rather than working for a start-up, said the College of Engineering student.

It is especially gratifying to be running a business during a recession, Rahman said.

"There's nothing more fulfilling than giving people jobs," he said. HireCube was a second runner-up in The Big Idea business track competition this year.

Jonathan J. Santomauro '10 is president of Ancillare, an eLab business which specializes in procurement services.

Entrepreneurs are key to reversing the downturn; their innovations will propel an economic upturn, said Santomauro, a government major in the College of Arts and Sciences.