Student Entrepreneurs Tackle Real Problems.
By Ann Swardlick
鈥淭he goal of the entrepreneurship course is to give students direct experience with the process of starting a business, using real and highly relevant business challenges,鈥� explained Professor Beth Richardson after class one day in late September. Real and highly relevant is key, because some of these businesses may actually be launched on campus, generating revenue for the College, opportunities for students, and addressing critical needs within Maine.
Offered for the first time this fall, the entrepreneurship course is a deep dive into the basics of the Lean Startup methodology developed by Eric Ries in 2008. His approach, which has been embraced everywhere from Silicon Valley to Harvard Business School, focuses on a problem to be solved, rather than a product to be produced.
鈥淭he students need to generate viable ideas that integrate with problems鈥攁nd to come up with real solutions,鈥� said Richardson. 鈥淭his kind of thinking is new to them. It鈥檚 been challenging, but they鈥檙e getting there.鈥�
Many of the problems that Richardson鈥檚 students are tackling reflect the need to address regional food security issues, the growth of Maine鈥檚 food and beverage industry, and the development of the local agricultural economy in Greater Portland and the Lakes Region. These are problems that Saint Joseph鈥檚 Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Peter Nielsen, has also been approaching in his work to develop the College鈥檚 mission-aligned businesses.
The entrepreneurs in Richardson鈥檚 class were introduced by Nielsen to a set of challenges that revolve around the needs of farmers, food entrepreneurs, health-conscious consumers, and other potential customers in the Sebago Lakes region. Students were then asked to frame the problems and seek ways to utilize the College鈥檚 assets, like the organic farm and Stone Barn event center, in business models that offer financially viable and environmentally responsible solutions.
All sorts of ideas were being floated when Nielsen first visited the entrepreneurship class. Students were clustered into five teams, deep in brainstorm mode, focused on defining the problems their businesses will address.
For example, there鈥檚 the problem of poultry processing capacity in Maine. With only two such plants in the state, chicken farmers have to travel significant distances to get their birds ready for market, resulting in very few farms now raising meat birds in Maine. Seniors Max McCoomb and Dalton Roberts-Montreuil are part of the team that chose to tackle this problem
鈥淲e interviewed local farmers and found them very open to a new processing plant,鈥� said Dalton. 鈥淗owever,鈥� he admitted, 鈥渨e were surprised at how difficult it would be to build. There are so many laws and regulations tied to a plant like this.鈥�
Max added, 鈥淭he course has opened up my eyes to a lot of issues: location, community impact, marketing, money鈥攖here are a lot of factors to consider.鈥�
Other teams are looking at a range of potential businesses, including an agritourism operation that would host destination weddings at the Stone Barn, and a 鈥渇ood venture center鈥� that would provide infrastructure and equipment to help home kitchen operations scale the production of their value-added products for retail distribution.
Photo Caption: Students visit Fork Food Lab in Portland to learn about the food business incubator space from co-founder Neil Spillane.
Another student team is considering day camps: their plan is to utilize the farm and other College facilities during April vacation and summer shoulder seasons, when town recreational programs aren鈥檛 in session. The initial idea was to use sustainable agriculture as a theme for the camp.
To gather some customer intel on the day camp business, senior Lauren Sharples and her team polled 50 prospects and found that working parents loved the idea. But the sustainable agriculture theme? Not so much. Lauren explained, 鈥淲e learned we have to incorporate the lakefront and other recreational facilities on campus in order to market the product to children as being fun!鈥�
All the teams are engaged in this kind of customer research, which is central to the Lean Startup approach. Before you design a product, find out if anyone will buy it鈥攁nd learn as much as you can about your target customers.
What鈥檚 different about this course is that it goes beyond the theoretical, said Richardson. 鈥淪tudents are being asked to marry their knowledge and skills with new, creative ideas. Their task is to have a viable business plan that could be launched.鈥�
Nielsen is delighted to have the students bringing their fresh entrepreneurial perspective to the same entrepreneurial problems he is tackling with College administrators and policy makers statewide. 鈥淚t鈥檚 critical that students participate in identifying the problems and the solutions. Their curiosity, confidence, and determination are already influencing how these issues will be addressed by Saint Joseph鈥檚. I trust them to lead us to the right answers.鈥�
Dalton Roberts-Montreuil was enthusiastic about the course. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to deal with a real problem,鈥� he said, 鈥渘ot a 鈥榳hat if.鈥� It鈥檚 here, it鈥檚 now, we鈥檙e living in it.鈥�
His teammate Max agreed. 鈥淓very class is like a meeting, not a lecture. I think a lot of people learn better like this.鈥�
