Universities Need To Develop Entrepreneurs
Universities don’t do enough to foster an environment of entrepreneurship.
Certainly, some do. Stanford and MIT come to mind as great examples. But what about in Canada?
I’ve been speaking with a lot of people about hiring. The folks at Code Genome, for example, just recorded their first video job ad looking for a Web Developer. In almost all cases, companies are willing to hire developers and programmers out of university, but they’re looking for more than the basic knowledge they gain in their classes. It’s not enough that you learned C++ in a couple classes, what else have you done?
The frustration among many companies is clear; university graduates are coming out with very little enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, and very little sense of what’s going on beyond their classroom walls. Blogging? Social media? Ruby on Rails?
Montreal’s tech scene is exploding. Between regular BarCamps, DemoCamps, other unconferences and monthly Tech Entrepreneur Breakfasts there’s no shortage of opportunities for university students to get out there, network and connect.
But at the last BarCamp I only met one university student. And only one student has ever shown up to the entrepreneur breakfasts (that I’m aware of). Incidentally, that student found a great job at an awesome startup in Montreal. Not because he went to the entrepreneur breakfast specifically, but because he was plugged into what’s going on.
Why aren’t more students plugged in? And for that matter, why aren’t more teachers plugged in?
Entrepreneurship isn’t something that should be taught exclusively to business students. It should be taught across multiple disciplines. And more than that, it should be fostered more aggressively and continuously within university environments. The same holds true for things like blogging, social media, networking, etc.
The sooner we open students’ eyes up to the possibilities, the better. Start in highschool. And by the time students are in university they should already be thinking about businesses they’re going to start, and they should have the support infrastructure in place to help.
A couple weeks ago I received an email from a McGill student. Along with another student he’s started a business. I was glad they reached out. And I expressed my frustration with the lack of entrepreneurs coming out of university. His response was, “I think it’s a function of what’s being taught.”
Firstly, it was nice to hear of people in university trying to build a business. Secondly, I agree with this fellow, but I think it goes beyond that. It’s a cultural thing. Universities shouldn’t be spitting out graduates that are designed to find jobs in huge companies, treated like cogs, with the expectation that they’ll work there till they retire. Those days are over.
Universities Need To Develop Entrepreneurs
It starts with a cultural shift. Easier said than done, but if a university like McGill can understand the importance of entrepreneurship for society, then it can look for ways to help.
I don’t have all the answers, but I do want to make some suggestions (and not just complain!)
- Teach Entrepreneurship. There are lots of ways to do this, but encourage students in non-business disciplines to study entrepreneurship. Get Computer Science and Engineering students taking a few classes on starting businesses, etc.
- Provide Startup Services. Universities have lots of resources. Setup some support services - lawyers, bookkeeping, mentorship programs - stuff that all entrepreneurs need but don’t know how to find at such an early stage. More than likely, universities will want an equity position out of startups in a case like this, and that’s fine, but keep it reasonable.
- Bring in Guest Lecturers. Sometimes, people just need a little inspiration and a wee push. There are plenty of great entrepreneurs in Montreal and elsewhere that should be willing to come in and speak for a couple hours about their experiences…especially if they came out of university and started a business. Show students that there’s more than just a “day job” waiting for them.
- Encourage Experimentation with New Technology. Universities are always behind the times, it’s just the way it is. But it can’t be that hard to offer up a class or two that are based on experimentation with new technology. I think of these as “work classes.” Go build a project in a new technology, something the university doesn’t teach, and then teach the class what you did. Everyone benefits.
- More Co-Op Programs. Every single Computer Science and Computer Engineering student should be doing some amount of co-op work. Get them placed in a job somewhere, preferably a small company or startup and let them experience the real world.
- Get Teachers and Students Connected. Teachers and students should be very well connected with the rest of the world. It’d be cool if a new university student, with all of his/her introductory materials, was also given a list of great local and non-local blogs/websites they should be reading. That would instantly tell a student, “There’s more to life than what you’ll learn here. Go read OnStartups and Venture Hacks.” Teachers should be following the local scene for events that they and their students would benefit from.
- Contests and Cash Prizes. A little motivation never hurt anyone, right? Get some corporate sponsored contests with cash prizes in place for business plans, business ideas, prototypes, etc. Get students working together, challenging one another and receiving real world feedback (plus cash!)
Universities are doing their students a disservice by not encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship. And companies - particularly startups and early stage ones - can’t find the right combination of technical, business and entrepreneurial skills and passion they so desperately need.
I did co-op in Ottawa and I think part of the problem is that there isn’t an abundance of jobs where being plugged in would matter.
I feel that there’s always this stagnancy that prevents trying out technologies that aren’t at least 5-10 years mature.
Provocative post Ben. I sympathize, but don’t entirely agree.
I’m as cynical about our university system as the next guy, but I’m not sure entrepreneurship is something that can be, or even should be, taught by universities.
By its very nature, entrepreneurship requires a “go against the grain” nature within an individual. Anyone who thinks that a university can make a start up happen for them, is clearly not cut out for the road ahead. Entrepreneurs need to be combative. They need their own inner drive. Their own spark. If anything, maintaining the status quo in the university setting is a GOOD thing for entrepreneurship overall because only those truly able and motivated souls will set sail for the choppy seas that lay ahead. That’s what we want!
Besides, I think universities already do plenty to encourage (the upper bound on what they should be doing, IMHO) entrepreneurship — I’m aware of entrepreneurship clubs, IP-transfer agecies and networking that already takes place… at least at my alma mater (Queen’s).
I think it’s easy to heap scorn on our universities, but in this instance I’m not sure it’s entirely justified.
AMEN! I’ve been saying the same thing for years. Entrepreneurship is something most university students don’t even seem to be aware of. It should not only be taught, but praised. Entrepreneurs are the ones building up economies.
French Canadians in particular seem to be “scared” of entrepreneurship. It seems to be rooted in the mentality, unfortunately.
Everything you mention here is already being done to some degrees at the school I attend: the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, but it’s not working (by not working I mean I don’t see a huge number of people trying to start companies). I think the problem is there is no culture of expectation that you should be an entrepreneur. The core has not seen a shift yet from working as Cogs to working for yourself. If you don’t teach or believe why the latter is better then you can’t teach entrepreneurship.
engtech - There shouldn’t be any jobs (short of working in a factory or some such thing) where being plugged-in is of on value. I’m sure that’s the case, and I’m sure companies hire students as gophers and do little to help them, but that’s a shame all around.
I started a business while in school. I WISH I had been plugged in, things would have gone a lot different, I think.
Ryan - I agree, a cultural shift is needed. It’s sad to think those programs don’t have an affect, but hopefully they do something - they’re the start for something better, a way of encouraging a cultural shift.
Mat - I think if we looked at the available resources (in terms of actual classes and ancillary services) available in places like MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, etc. we’d see that universities are a suitable place for entrepreneurship.
It’s not JUST about teaching it, it’s about accepting and encouraging it. It’s about pushing people to go against the grain, all the while teaching them “within it.” I think there’s a workable model there.
I also don’t believe that you want to encourage the status quo for the purposes of seeing the truly bright sparks emerge. I’ve seen people work for years and years, only to discover later in life that there was something more. Perhaps had they had more opportunities at university to explore the world of entrepreneurship it wouldn’t have taken them that long.
You want to encourage TRYING, and sometimes people need a push - even the smartest and brightest…
What places like MIT, Standford and Berkeley have that many places north of the 49th don’t, is:
1) a culture of accepting failure (see Sylvain Carle’s presentation at BarCamp)
2) an ecosystem of financiers (i.e. the money to grease the wheels of entrepreneurship)
Do students at those american schools really have better ideas that students up here? Unlikely. What they do have though is the knowledge that they can walk up the street, start knocking on doors, and someone will give them a chunk of cash to start your project (and if you’re Google, that might even be one of your professors). Not only that, but the expectation that you’re unlikely to succeed.
Now you may counter that it’s a chicken and the egg problem, but trust me, if there was discernibly more money floating around our Canadian schools, we’d see plenty more of our students trading in their “cog-in-a-wheel” future for the start up roller coaster. And there’s nothing Universities could do (or not do) to stop it.
[...] to wait for that gut feeling that may be necessary to jump into other businesses. If you have the entrepreneurial spirit, you can probably make it work, bootstrapping your way to [...]
Mat,
Thanks for the ongoing discussion…so…
1) Why not? And how can we change that?
2) I’m all for more money, and it’s coming, slowly but surely. But it’s unlikely that the money will sniff around the schools until students get out and demonstrate an interest in taking the money.
Why are so few students attending the unconferences? We’ve had 4 or 5 to-date…
Why are so few students attending the Entrepreneur Breakfast?
Why can’t I find any good student blogs about entrepreneurship, technology, etc?
Where are they at?
The governments also need to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business. It’s actually MUCH more work to incorporate in Quebec for a Quebec resident than it is for a Quebec resident to incorporate in Delaware… go figure. That is, if you do your Quebec incorporation right. There are about a thousands small quirks that most people don’t know about.
[...] Instigatorblog writes this: The frustration among many companies is clear; university graduates are coming out with very little enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, and very little sense of what’s going on beyond their classroom walls. Blogging? Social media? Ruby on Rails? [...]
Some thoughts:
1) I honestly think it’s a cultural thing that takes generations to change. The American spirit is, if I can generalize, much more enterprising than the Canadian spirit (if there is such a thing) - and so they are simply more attuned to the “RISK-REWARD” trade off that we are up here, culturally. In everything they do, from geopolitics to starting companies, Americans love their “go it alone” approach, where as Canadians by nature are more conservative, consensus-building types. You see it across many facets of the culture. I’m not sure it will change here. But it raises an interesting question: when my ancestors saw opportunity in Canada, they picked up and left Europe to start anew here. Perhaps us entrepreneurs should eye the Valley with the same opportunism, rather than trying to bring about change in a culture that is not inherently suited for it??
2) Just because students attend university, doesn’t excuse them from their responsibility to plug themselves in. When I was leaving Vancouver to relocate to Montreal, I was quite easily able to identify who the people and events were in the Web tech field. All that information is quite readily available to the interested mind, and so I have to conclude that students simply are not sufficiently interested in making the effort to FIND STUFF OUT on their own. It’s sad really, but in no way the university’s fault.
Some would argue that universities should start by teaching real world skills. I’ve had this discussion many time in university with faculty staff, and I guess the answer depends on what you think the role of universities is, or should be (professors would say it’s research).
Most universities already offer most of the things you propose. At Polytechnique, there’s a four course entrepreneurship option you can follow, they have a service to help students convert their school work (mostly for masters and doc) to a company. There is the HEC entrepreneurship center that gives conference on all subjects related to starting a company. Starting last year I think, all program require at least one internship. And there is already a contest that rewards the best idea for a company with some startup money. I guess the part they fail right now is experimenting with new technology, although some professors try from time to time in one of their class.
I think most student just lack intellectual curiosity. It’s tough to try and convince most of them to come to a conference such as CUSEC, that is in their city, costs almost nothing (50$) and gives them world class speakers. And of those that do decide to come, half aren’t bothered to take 5 minutes to check about a subject they don’t know about, and they decide to not attend some very interesting talks.
I think Mat may be on to something about it being a cultural thing.
Mat - Point #2 that you make hits home. Maybe it’s not so much about the universities lack of focus on entrepreneurship as it is about the students themselves. I have a hard time believing that more of them wouldn’t be interested though, if they were given a peek inside what’s going on - by the universities, and the tech community at large.
As for the cultural thing - fair enough, the Canadian culture is different, less “entrepreneurial” if we want to phrase it that way. But that just feels like an excuse to me. “We are what we are, so there’s no point trying…”
It just doesn’t sit well. And considering that many (if not MOST) Canadians are products of people that came over here with barely anything in their pockets…I have grandparents that came over after the Holocaust with *seriously nothing* … they were entrepreneurial to an extreme. Not quite high tech entrepreneurs, mind you. *chuckle*
Jean-Francois — that’s a grim picture. Students with no intellectual curiosity. What the hell are they doing in university then?!? Getting a degree so they can wave a piece of paper around, get a job at IBM and retire in 40 years with 2 kids, 2 cats and a dog?
I’m not pointing the finger at you, I’m looking for answers. Are we all just soft, pansy Canadians?
I may have been a bit harsh about intellectual curiosity, but I still have a hard time explaining why I couldn’t convince more than 10% of the students in software or computer engineering to go to CUSEC. I shouldn’t even have to try.
But this makes me think that a good portion were interested in the gaming industry. Maybe the problem is that when they hear news about technology in Montreal, it’s generally about a big company opening a studio here in Montreal (Ubisoft, EA). Maybe there just needs to be a couple of hot Montreal startups all over the news so that they can see entrepreneurship as a viable solution instead of working for one of the big ones.
Jean-Francois — I agree. You shouldn’t have to try, it should be automatic.
And maybe many of them are interested in the gaming industry, although I don’t hear of a lot of university students experimenting with that style/level of technology.
Just the other day I was meeting with an HR person from such a company who didn’t speak whatsoever about the university “market” for hiring…
We are seeing more and more “hot startups” in the news, but they certainly don’t get the buzz that companies in the Valley get. But in general, Canada is getting a better and bigger profile: companies appearing on Techcrunch, new startup blogs appearing, etc.
So where are all the students? Those that want to be entrepreneurs and those that want to live the startup life as early employees?
[...] help but feel that there was more to the story and idea behind the ‘no playground’. Universities need to develop entrepreneurs - another great article at instigator blog, I was recently complimented on having many a hair-brain [...]
[...] Benjamin Yoksovitz, blogger, entrepreneur, and active member of the “web2.0″ entrepreneurs in Montreal, has written a series of posts on entrepreneurships on his blog. He wishes universities develop more entrepreneurs. [...]
Ben,
Post was so good I posted in reply. But the money quote from my post: “I submit, therefore, that what’s needed isn’t more or better entrepreneurship-focused instruction in universities, but rather a new kind of institution.”
Jonathan - Thanks for commenting and continuing the discussion on your own blog, very interesting stuff.
I think universities can play a role in instilling entrepreneurial values. There needs to be a culture of entrepreneurship within universities, even if the true entrepreneurs don’t stay in university because they run off to start their own companies.
[...] has both — although I question how effective our universities are at developing entrepreneurs. Still, there’s a lot going on in Montreal and elsewhere to help build out startup [...]