Isn’t Everything is About Money? No

One of the most common misunderstanding, from students to professors, from university administrators to parents, is that entrepreneurship is all about money.

We disagree.

We are involved in entrepreneurship programs because we think these programs provide alternative career paths to students and greater impacts to professors’ research discoveries.

How Much Money Do You Cost?

Do you know how much you are worth? Let’s ask the question in a different way: “How much money does your best friend need to leave you?”

It is much much lower than you believe.

In one of the lectures about entrepreneurship programs YHL attended, the speaker said, “Many beginning entrepreneurs think money is the best thing. They think if they have money everything would be fine. The truth is pretty much the oppositive. When a team is poor, they struggle but they are still friends. However, at the first sight when money is possible, either by investment or by a major customer, many teams break. Some people think they deserve more than the others. “

Over the short few years we are involved in the campus entrepreneurship programs, we have heard multiple incidents when money changess people and affects decisions. These are a few real stories.

A company started by several people in a research team. All co-founders are members of the board of directors. The company obtained SBIR (small business innovation research) grants and several awards, total more than $1M. After three years of operations, the company had several customers with revenue and was in the process of raising $3M investment. During the process, the CEO, as the major equity holder, removed the entire board because the CEO thought the board had not contributed to the company’s growth. One of the board members said, “We worked together to establish the company.” The CEO said, “I do not care about history. I have fired you. Leave.”

Two students wanted to enter a business plan competition. They worked with several other students and a professor. The entire team discussed the plan, the technologies, the market opportunities, the launch strategy, etc. The two students gave an excellent speech, answered every question well, and won a prize. After the presentation, several investors expressed interest to have further discussion. One week after winning the competition, the two students left the team and the professor so that they could talk freely to the investors.