Day 2 - Undergrad Panel and Entrepreneurship Mixer

Two days down. The Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Panel featured three great speakers and the Entrepreneurship Mixer at Tyler's drew quite a crowd.


The undergrad panel in Griffith Film Theater featured three current or former students from Duke (listed left to right from photo):

• Taylor Mingos, Pratt '07 - founder and CEO of Shoeboxed.com

• Breck Yunits, Trinity '07 - co-founder and CEO of SeeMeWin.com
  

• Dan Romero, Trinity '10 - co-founder of CouponDJ.com

The three provided valuable insight into their experiences founding and running start-up companies while students, fielding questions about protecting ideas, NOT writing a business plan (at least initially), maintaining passion and energy when growing the company, and how Duke prepared them for their current leadership roles.




The Entrepreneurship Mixer was held at Tyler's Taproom at the American Tobacco Complex in Downtown Durham. Week attendees snacked on finger-food, had a few drinks, and had even more laughs while chatting about business, Duke, the Triangle, the eWeek at Duke events, and more.


Tomorrow is a big day full of events - the High School Pitch Event, the MBA Entrepreneurship Panel, Venture Capital Speed Dating, and the Keynote Speaker, Ernest Mario, PhD.

See you tomorrow!

Day 1 - Tech Showcase, Opening Speaker and Kick-Off Party

Day one was a success and a great opening to the week!

The first event of the day was the Technology Showcase hosted by Duke's Office of Licensing and Ventures (OLV) and sponsored by Hutchison Law Group PLLC. The event was held in the Kirby Winter Gardens at Fuqua, and attracted a crowd of VCs, independent investors, inventors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, students, and faculty.



After the Tech Showcase, Aerie Pharmaceuticals presented in Faculty Hall. Aerie is a biotechnology company developing new therapies for sight-threatening diseases of the eye and is based on innovations from the labs of David Epstein, MD, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Eric Toone, PhD, Professor of Chemistry.

At 6:30, Howie Rhee opened the kick-off party and shared the stage and mic with Chris Lynch from Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, the headline sponsor for the week, and eWeek co-chairs Larry Boyd, Jeff Clark, and Jeremy Welch. Jeff spoke briefly about Duke University's entrepreneurial roots and the bright future ahead. Chris Lynch followed with a few words about his firm and their history of support for entrepreneurs from Duke.


Tomorrow is the Undergrad Entrepreneurship Panel and Entrepreneurship Mixer at Tyler's Taproom. Check out the eWeek at Duke homepage for a schedule of events for the rest of the week.