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BASES and Sponsors Commit $50K Towards Building Next Gen Entrepreneurs
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Palo Alto, CA–May 29, 2009–BASES and its sponsors are committing $50,000 towards building the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES), one of the largest student entrepreneurship organizations in the United States, is working with leading firms to promote entrepreneurship at Stanford University. In addition to inviting prominent leadership giants in the business world to speak on campus in the “Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders” seminar (ETL), hosting a competition to promote social entrepreneurship, providing mixers with business mentors, connecting students with potential careers in business, and creating a community to foster the business spirit, BASES hosts one of the country’s largest entrepreneurial competitions, called the “E-Challenge.”
This year’s winners include the following: first place goes to HemorX, a medical device company with a better solution for hemorrhoids, and the tie for second place goes to Togetherville and Properat. Togetherville is a new child-friendly internet interface with community building and educational tools, and Properat is a system designed to “solve the email problem” by consolidating inboxes with mass email into easily readable formats. BASES wishes to congratulate this year’s winners, finalists, as well as all who contributed business plans and hopefully learned from the experience.
E-Challenge participants learn about venture formation and explore their entrepreneurial dreams in a supportive environment. Throughout the year, the E-Challenge team encourages entrants to participate in workshops, team building activities, a mentorship program, and the Industry Thought Leaders’ Seminar. It is an opportunity to share and develop skills, produce business ideas, and start companies.
“Entrepreneurship is important especially in an economical downturn,” says Alvin Tse, Co-Vice President of the E-Challenge. “It not only creates opportunities for others but is also the main agent for change and improvement. Though some people think that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, we believe that education still provides the fundamental basis and impetus for the next generation to explore entrepreneurship on their own.”
Geoff Woo, a Stanford sophomore who helped organize the E-Challenge, says, “E-Challenge has given me insight on both sides of the start-up world: the entrepreneurs’ and the VC’s. I now have a better picture of what VCs look at when they’re evaluating start-ups, and what characteristics make a good start-up. This experience will be valuable when I venture out myself in the next few years.” BASES unites students, professors, and professionals to promote entrepreneurship on the Stanford campus. Besides its competitions, the 45 BASES Officers organize a wide-range of events for its more than 5000 members.
BASES, a non-profit, student-run organization, was founded in 1996 by a group of five Stanford University engineering students. They looked to gain top-level business advice and experience from industry leaders in the high-tech world, including high-profile CEOs, engineers, and prominent venture capitalists. Chartered with cultivating the next generation of entrepreneurs, these students received valuable insight as they developed their own business ventures and entered the working world.
Today, BASES has evolved to include undergraduate and graduate students along with faculty members from all schools at Stanford, including Business, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Humanities and Science. BASES strives to help strengthen entrepreneurship collaboration at Stanford by working with a variety of student groups across campus.
“We are empowering students to be true entrepreneurs through the E-Challenge,” says Alvin Tse. “Managing the business plan competition is no easy task. Ultimately, it is a very rewarding experience, and I learned a lot through leading a great team with my Co-VP Ryan Kottenstette.” The competitions run from February to May each year and have spawned several successful ventures including Voltage Security (2002), T-RAM (2000) and Ingenuity (1998).
BASES is made possible through the generous sponsorship of Lightspeed Venture Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler, New Enterprise Associates, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Plug And Play Tech Center, Philips, and Northwest Venture Partners.
For more information, contact:
Matt Cook
(310) 944-1661
mscook@stanford.edu
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