The Business Management & Entrepreneurial Boot Camp came to an end on Thursday, April 9th 2015.
On the 2nd day Wharton professors, Mario Moussa & Derek Newberry provided the players with the task of completing Action Learning Projects. These professors gave the players a visual framework to effectively persuade their ideas. The players were divided into 5 teams & began brainstorming on Investments & Entrepreneurships. Kenneth Shropshire, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania & the Director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative, shared his best practices on negotiating employment and maintaining successful business relationships. Scott Rosner, Associate Professor in the Legal Studies & Business Ethics Department at Wharton, presented with Steve Gera, former officer in the United States Marine Corps, NFL Coach, & mentor, on the booming tech companies within the sports industry. The players were intrigued by some of the technologic wearables that are available today and discussed their potential investment value. The following presentation was the most inspirational of the day. Former NFL player & Olympian turned CEO, Jeremy Bloom, shared his journey from the start of his NFL career to his current position as CEO of Integrate & Co-founder of Wish of a lifetime. Jeremy shared poignant entrepreneurial tips including 5 pillars in building a culture of performance. His presentation had an underlying theme in keeping to the value of humility throughout the process of building a start-up. Bloom mentioned that “becoming a rookie all over again will help in starting your own company.” A Panel Discussion lead by Ronnie Lott, Rasheen Smith, Michael Siebel, & Jeremy Bloom discussed the importance of building networks to assist in transitioning to the next chapter as an entrepreneur. They stressed the importance of “creating dialogue with everyone & forcing yourself to be a recruiter, to find great people to be a part of your network.”
Day 3 took place on site, the players visited Facebook, Google Ventures, & Luxe. The morning kicked off at Facebook as players learned the history & development of the company. They toured the Facebook campus & even got to work on enhancing their personal Facebook pages. Our next stop was Google Ventures, where we heard from Bil Maris, Venture Capitalist & Managing Partner at Google Ventures. He shed light on his method to assessing start-ups & the decision making that coincides with investments. Our last company visit took place at Luxe, a valet parking company founded in San Francisco. It was impressive to hear about the company’s growth & expansion throughout the country. Players engaged in Q&A’s with the start up’s founders & received information on how to productively run a startup company. Following the visit to Luxe, players listened to a brief presentation on building high performance teams, led by Jordon Ormont & Jeremy Bloom. Derek Newberry, Wharton Professor & business anthropologist, presented on the fundamentals of communication & how to successfully communicate ideas to stakeholders. Players worked on their action learning projects and applied what they learned from the day to their presentations.
Day 4 took place back at Wharton where David Wessels, Wharton Adjunct Associate Professor, gave the players a brief background on investing & the importance on having perspective when making investments. Following a brief Q&A with Richard Kerby of Venrock, who shared his experience with assisting entrepreneurs, the players presented their active learning projects. Each group presented for roughly 10 minutes and were judged by Wharton Professors & the players themselves. It was evident that players applied the tools learned from the week, their pitches were strong in persuasion, content, & sustainability.