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 Networking Entrepreneurs
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Helen
K. Chang, 650-723-3358, Fax: 650-725-6750
November 2000
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — New at the School's Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies (CES) are two services geared to help alumni who
are starting new companies, financing growth, or facing the wide range of
issues that come along with business enterprise.
The Entrepreneurship Resource Database is an online conduit to connect
alumni (and students) seeking help with their businesses to mentors,
investors, and service providers. Answering a few qualifying questions—such
as, What kind of industry focus are you looking for?—connects the
user to a list of people who have signed up as willing to help. Business
School alums are the majority of those in the database, but anyone can
recommend someone for inclusion. CES program development consultant Linda
Wells also has personally contacted some of the San Francisco Bay Area's
leading venture capital firms, which usually have a Stanford graduate or
two among their employees.
The site, launched in April, had more than 1,000 log-ins as of late
October, and Wells is starting to collect stories from users. One, Kitty
Powell , MBA '93, vice president of Brand Fidelity, an online brand and
name creation firm, found an investor through the database. "It was a
wonderful tool to help us tap into," she says. And the Stanford
connection "gave us instant credibility."
Wells also has initiated the Founders Forums, three groups of alumni
entrepreneurs who get together for monthly discussions about the similar
challenges they face in their businesses. "It helps develop a bond,
relationship, and trust that is hard to find in other formats," Wells
says. So far about 30 people are involved in the sessions held in San
Francisco and Palo Alto, but Wells is seeking to expand them to other
cities.
Center for Entrepreneurial
Studies (CES)
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