Getting to school, work on time

Collegiate entrepreneurs launch businesses while studying

By John Rodgers
361 Staff Writer
Published: December, 14 2004 5:40 p.m

Mark Cuban is one of the most well-known - a college entrepreneur who takes it upon himself to start his own company while still attending college. Cuban took that step when he was an undergraduate at Indiana University. Today, his hard work has paid off as he's a multi-millionaire and owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

Today, college entrepreneurs are following in Cuban's footsteps. While balancing a class schedule, young college entrepreneurs are often times using the Internet to start and maintain their companies.

It's part of a model that has been used before – just like Cuban, who used the Internet as a young entrepreneur to create www.broadcast.com and went on to

subsequently sell it for billions.

In giving advice to collegiate entrepreneurs, Cuban said it's up to you to go out and get what you want. But don't lose sight of school, including a degree, Cuban said.

“There are times when you don't want to get up,” Cuban said in a previous interview. “At that moment, your future is decided. You've got to dig down deep, focus on that goal, and get out of bed.”

It's a rigorous life, but somebody's got to do it. To be the next generation of risk-takers, this generation of collegiate entrepreneurs have used their age groups advanced skills in computers to create their own companies.

Brian Balfour and Ryan Allis illustrate this trend as young college entrepreneurs using the Internet to start and run their companies while taking classes.

Balfour, a senior at the University of Michigan, said it's all in the life of a college entrepreneur. The thrill of entrepreneurship, Balfour said, outweighs the stress of classes.

“Most of the time it's more exciting than stressful. When major issues come up, that's when it becomes stressful,” Balfour said.

Allis, a junior majoring in economics at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, said being a college entrepreneur while still attending classes can be done and done well. But for Allis, who hails from Bradenton, Fla., it was the hardest his freshman year at UNC.

“I think it's difficult, but it certainly can be done if you're willing to set your priorities,” Allis said. “It was quite difficult my freshman year. I really didn't know anyone coming from Florida.”

These two student entrepreneurs live a lifestyle built on great responsibility. Their first responsibility lies with their company. And while school is important, it doesn't provide the first-hand experience that entrepreneurship does, Allis said.

Allis and partner Aaron Houghton, also a UNC student, met in Chapel Hill in the fall of 2002 and started their current company Broadwick. Broadwick's mission, Allis said, is to be the leader in permission based e-mail marketing. Broadwick has designed software for his clientele that gives their respective customers the ability to grant permission to be marketed by that company.

Allis, who at age 20 isn't even old enough to drink a beer, has 12 employees under him, ranging from ages 24 to 58. Having 12 people depending on the major decisions you make isn't very enjoyable for Allis while the responsibility couldn't be more real.

All this for a junior in college?

“If you make the wrong decision and your company fails, you're responsible,” Allis said. “The lives of other people depend on you.”

In addition, Allis has another company named Virante, which is a web marketing company that focuses on search engine optimization.

Balfour's excitement comes from running one company while overseeing an entire region for the next. In Balfour's Celeftine Inc., once again, like Allis' Broadwick and Virante, rely heavily on the technology of the internet. Celeftine is an internet marketing firm focused on the college demographic by designing marketing campaigns for that segment.

Balfour also is the Great Lakes regional manager for an entertainment company called Danceheads, which markets and sells a new innovative form of party entertainment featuring wide-spread use of video and green screens.

But for Balfour, Celeftine is his self-described baby. He said he spends 90 percent of his time focusing on Celeftine with the remaining attention centered on Danceheads. In the spring semester in Ann Arbor, Balfour was taking a full class load. Come fall however, the time commitment and stress took their respective tolls and Balfour dropped down to part-time status.

“There's no sense in taking classes unless you can do well in them,” Balfour said.

While this might be seen as a unique perspective coming from the average college student, Balfour said he is always working on one thing or another – school or work – seven days a week. It starts at 8:30 or 9 a.m.

“I work from where I live,” Balfour said. “I get up and work while I eat. I'm always thinking about something work wise. I'll go to class. I'll work until probably close to midnight as much as I can. Usually around midnight or 1 o'clock, I'll go to bed.”

To avoid some of the stress of being a college entrepreneur, Allis took last year off academically to establish Broadwick and Virante. He also embarked on the quest to write a book, which was entitled “Zero to One Million.” The books goal was to lay the guidelines for how a company can reach $1 million in sales within its first year of existence.

During that year off while Allis was writing “Zero to One Million,” he also created www.zeromillion.com. Allis said he created the web site to have a network of aspiring entrepreneurs built already by the time the book was published. Zeromillion.com was the result.

“We have over 500 articles and a lot of interviews for entrepreneurs,” Allis said. “We get about 1,600 visits each day.”

Balfour is listed in the directory of college entrepreneurs on zeromillion.com . He is one of many young entrepreneurs that use the site to network and learn more about their trade. It reflects a growing trend that these entrepreneurs are starting younger and younger while becoming bolder and bolder.

To illustrate, when Allis was a senior in high school he was the vice-president of marketing for a health care company, in which he did not want to specify the name. Allis helped the company earn more than $1 million in sales in its first 14 months in business.

For Balfour, his entrepreneurial career started a few years older when he and a friend started a lawn mowing service their sophomore years in high school. After that, Balfour said he realized how much he enjoyed developing businesses on his own.

A young entrepreneur was born.

“Being an entrepreneur has been a part of me ever since I started working,” Balfour said. “Whenever I worked for somebody, I always thought about how I could do things better. I always used to get frustrated with that stuff.”

Getting the most out of their collegiate careers is a concern for college entrepreneurs like Allis and Balfour. That's why they and many others around the country start companies to maximize their learning potential within the great opportunities the college experience offers.

“I wouldn't say it's (Celeftine Inc. and Danceheads) more important but it's amazing the amount I have learned from starting to develop these two businesses,” Balfour said. “I would say I've learned more than in all of my classes combined. But at the same time, I value a degree quite a bit. You learn basically the hard stuff.”

“Developing these businesses, I've learned how to apply it and communicate it. It just doesn't happen in the classroom. You really get confronted with it in the workplace.”

The goal of entrepreneurs is to make the workplace wherever they so choose. Many collegiate entrepreneurs choose to run their businesses from their homes. While studying for a test they have the next day, a college entrepreneur might take a break to update their company's web site.

The little things that these college entrepreneurs hope will lead to big things to come.