Entrepalooza is a celebration of entrepreneurship run by Startlabs, MIT’s premier undergraduate entrepreneurship club. As our 2nd time having this event, we will be teaming up with MTC’s t=0 week to bring you a great series of talks and fun, featuring you, the students, along with key members from startups and VCs from MIT and the greater Boston area, as well a fireside from the co-founder of Android and head of the east coast GV.
LIGHTNING TALK:
Chris has over twenty years of experience in software product development, sales engineering, and technology investing, having worked in development roles in venture backed software startups including two companies in the INC 500, two IPOs and one company that was bought several times. Castor Ventures is a natural evolution of his extensive career as an investor in private companies and director of business development, evaluating, guiding, and backing a variety of innovative companies. He has an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and a BS from MIT in EECS.
LIGHTNING TALK:
Previously, Ethan was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company and a leader in the global travel practice. Over the past 7 years with McKinsey, Ethan helped leading clients accelerate growth and profitability through applied expertise in customer experience, online distribution, and strategy topics. Ethan’s client base spanned Fortune 500 travel suppliers (e.g., cruise, car rental, hotel, airline clients), private equity investors, and sharing economy players.
FIRESIDE CHAT:
Rich established GV’s east coast investing team in 2009 and was a general partner with the fund for seven years. He came to Google through the acquisition of Android, a mobile platforms company that he co-founded. During his early years at Google, he helped lead the development of the Android platform and ecosystem. Prior to Android, Rich was a vice president at Orange, where he led R&D activities in North America and was an original principal at Orange Ventures when it was founded. Rich came to Orange through the acquisition of another company he co-founded, Wildfire, which developed a voice-based personal assistant.
One of the most critical parts of putting your ideas out into the market is pitching your ideas to potential investors, employees, and consumers. But pitches are hard, especially when you don’t have an “actual business idea”. That’s why we created the Bad Ideas Pitch Competition: a serious pitch competition for ideas that are much less than serious.
Prizes
A huge $1 check to grand prize winner
$10 gift cards for 2nd and 3rd place groups
$25 gift cards for 4th and 5th place groups
Sign Up
We want to see your crazy ideas and wacky business proposals! Applications are accepted on a rolling basis - apply to pitch here! Find the rules and a bunch of resources (links, suggested articles, etc.) here.
The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship provides the expertise, support, and connections MIT students need to become effective entrepreneurs. We serve all MIT students, across all schools, across all disciplines.
The de Florez Fund for Humor was created in 1988 by MIT alumnus Peter de Florez '38. Taking its mission from the language of the founding charter, the Fund supports "means of impressing students with the importance of humor in all aspects of life, both personal and business.”
StartLabs is the premier undergraduate entrepreneurship club of MIT. We host various events throughout the year, from connecting with entrepreneurship resources around MIT and Boston, bringing speakers to campus, and co-running InnovateEDU, a cross-campus semester long venture creation competition. Check us out at startup.mit.edu!
