The Professor behind the ELAB
Steve Bennet joined San Jose State faculty in 2006 and has taught Startup Founders and Funders, Entrepreneurial Finance, Entrepreneurship Lab, Venture Lab, The Silicon Valley Experience and Corporate Finance . He is also on the Steering Committee of the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship (SVCE) and faculty advisor to the E-Society. Most of his time is spent in the new venture ecosystem as CFO and Investor of high growth start-up ventures. He earned an MBA from UCLA, a BS Economics from Wharton and is a CPA.
He blogs under his alter ego ProfessorVC |
Entrepreneurship is best learned through hands-on experience and as an entrepreneurship educator, I often question whether entrepreneurship can be taught. The ELAB is a unique course offering at San Jose State University that I call the petri dish of entrepreneurship. The ELAB enables student to apply the theoretical knowledge gained from entrepreneurship courses to real life situations with early stage enterprises. During the course, each student interns at a start-up and shares their experience in the classroom (or entrepreneurial laboratory) with fellow students, faculty and key players in the new venture ecosystem. I can’t think of a better way to learn what it’s like to be part of a start-up. |