byu rollins center annual report 2015

Rollins Center

KiLife Tech Rings the NASDAQ Bell

Shark Tank MeetsBYU Entrepreneurs

SimpleCitizen Making Sense Out of Chaos

5 Years in ReviewBuilding and Growing

As well asNew LeadershipNew ClubsAlumni Updates

2015 ANNUAL REPORT

ACADEMIC DIRECTOR

ACTING MANAGING DIRECTOR

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

ENTREPRENEURS IN RESIDENCE

WRITERS

EDITORS

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

PRINTING

Stephen W. Liddle

Steven R. Fox Jeff Brown

Corbin Church Scott R. Petersen Jeff Brown Jonathan Jarman Denya PalmerJenn Wilks Sara Smith Atwood Brooke Pathakis Madeleine Cooper BYU Print & Mail

THE ROLLINS CENTER ANNUAL REPORT IS PUBLISHED BY THE

ROLLINS CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP & TECHNOLOGY

IN BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY'S MARRIOTT SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

IN PROVO, UTAH.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

CONTACT THE CENTER

PHONE EMAIL

Rollins Center 470 Tanner Building Brigham Young University Provo, ut 84602

801.422.7437 cet.byu.edu

Cover photography by Mark A. Philbrick Copyright BYU Photo 2007. All Rights Reserved

Photography by Kyle Longhurst

BYU Rollins Center05

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Ballard Center Update

Alumni Updates

Who’s Who Directory

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I-Corps Grant

New Leadership

New Clubs

features

news & updates

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KiLife Tech Rings the NASDAQ Bell Shark Tank Meets BYU Entrepreneurs SimpleCitizen Making Sense Out of Chaos 5 Years in Review Building and Growing

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Annual Report | 2015 06

Steven R. Fox & Stephen W. Liddle

acting managing director and academic director

contents

This has been a sensational year for the Rollins Center. While we are delighted by the second- place ranking for undergraduate

programs nationally from Entrepreneur magazine, it is the talented and devoted people associated with the program who make our work so fulfilling. The people—students, faculty, staff, and founders—believe that Brigham Young University is an incredible place to learn substantive skills of innovation that can be applied across both entrepreneurial ventures and existing organizations. The student body at BYU has fully embraced this vision. An awe inspiring one in seven students cam-pus-wide enroll in at least one entrepre-neurship class during the academic year. We believe that level of engagement is one of the highest in the nation, and we thank faculty and administrative partners across campus for teaming with us so well. We also recognize and thank Scott R. Petersen for his five years of leadership as managing director of the Rollins Center. The past half-decade has brought global acco-lades to BYU's entrepreneurship program, and we move forward confidently based on the firm foundation that Scott helped build. The new year will find the Center fulfilling its mission to inspire and prepare students to be world-class leaders in innovation and entrepreneurship, and foster life-impacting mentorship between students and alum-ni. Along with you, we are delighted to be engaged in this great work.

Photography by Madeleine Cooper

Ringing in the Future at Times Square

The child-smartband company looks to capitalize on its recent big win in the world’s richest and largest student startup competition.

Ringing in the Future at Times Square

Photo @ 2015 NASDAQ, Inc.



New York City’s Times Square is one of the busiest pedestrian crossings on the planet. Among the throng of people in the square

on 14 October 2015 was Spencer Behrend. Joining him were three of his KiLife Tech cofounders, Jordan Baczuk, Jeff Hall, and Zack Oates. The setting seemed a fitting backdrop for the company to celebrate. The KiLife Tech management team had come to the financial capital of the world to ring the NASDAQ Closing Bell, a perk granted every year to the winner of the Rice Business Plan Competition. “Ringing the NASDAQ’s Closing Bell is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an en-trepreneur, but more importantly it will cer-tainly increase our exposure and continued growth opportunities,” said Behrend, a 2015 MBA alum who serves as KiLife’s CEO. Locations like bustling Times Square, a potential nightmare for parents with small children, resound at the core of KiLife’s flagship product—the Kiband, a smartband child tracker that allows children to explore their surroundings while granting peace of

“Ringing the NASDAQ’s Closing Bell is a

once-in-a-lifetime OPPORTUNITY

for an entrepreneur”

KiLife Tech shows off their checks from the 2015 Rice Business Plan Competition Left to right: Jordan Baczuk, Jeffrey Hall, Zack Oates, Spencer Behrend


mind to their parents. The wearable tech lets parents use their smartphone to create custom boundaries where their children can explore and play. If the child leaves the pre-confi gured perimeter, both the phone and band vibrate and emit an audible alarm. Back in April, KiLife was named the grand-prize winner by 275 investor judges out of an elite fi eld of forty-two student teams from all over the world. The fi eld of competitors at this year’s Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s richest and largest student startup competition, was the most diverse in its history, chosen from more than four hundred entrants. Nurturing by the Rollins Center for Entre-preneurship & Technology at BYU’s Marriott School of Management and careful adher-ence to lean startup principles paid off in a big way: the company walked away with nearly $620,000 in cash and in-kind prizes, the second most in competition history. “We were incredibly honored to win the Rice Business Plan Competition,” Behrend said. “That big win coupled with the re-

KiLife's Kiband, a child tracker, allows parents to set custom distanc-es from a smartphone using the Kiband app which causes the band to sound an alarm if the child goes outside the specifi ed distance.

Besides taking fi rst place and receiving the Grand Prize in this year's Rice Business Plan Competition, KiLife has won over $82,000 in investments and cash prizes from variouscompetitions this year:

Utah Entrepreneur ChallengeSecond Place$11,000 cash prize

Rice Business Plan CompetitionFirst Place and Grand Prize WinnersOver $620,000 in investments, cash, and in-kind prizes

BYU Student Innovator of the YearSecond Place$3,000 cash prize

International Business Model CompetitionFifth Place$7,000 cash prize

BYU Miller New Venture ChallengeFirst Place $20,000 cash prize

sources we leveraged at BYU were such a huge part of our success. Through the Rollins Center we learned how to mod-el our business, get out of the building, and get customer feedback, and then we were pushed to do it over and over again until we discovered what the customer really wanted. Knowing what the cus-tomer wants is the key to our success.” With Times Square and the bell ringing in the rearview mirror, Behrend and KiLife are looking to the future with optimism and determination. The company recently exhibited at the 2015 ABC Kids Expo, the world’s premier juvenile products special-ty show, to show off the new design of their innovative product (pictured above). “Right now we are just laser-focused on getting the Kiband to market,” Behrend said. “Bringing this child smartband to market has meant overcoming huge challenges. We aren’t just repackaging off-the-shelf BT tags or modules. This is a groundbreaking smartband platform focused on family adventure simplifi ed.”

BYU entrepreneurs have taken their businesses to the

SHARKS

STUDENTS IN THE


BYU entrepreneurs have taken their businesses to the

Beating heart. Sweaty palms. Its a long walk down a dark corridor through double doors, coming face-to-face with some of the highest profile investors in the country and a fleet of camera operators. These are the experiences of entrepreneurs who make their way onto the ABC hit show Shark Tank for what could be the most important hour in the life of their young business. The entrepreneurs could walk away with an investment, a successful partner, and amazing exposure—or nothing. Among the hundreds of entrepreneurs who have pitched their ideas in the shark tank, a num-ber of BYU students, current and alumni, have taken the stage. And they all made quite the splash.


Company SummaryScan is a mobile QR code reader launched by Garrett Gee while he was a student at BYU in 2011. Within the fi rst three months on the App Store, Scan had reached 1 million downloads. By the end of the second year of business, Scan had reached more than 25 million downloads.

Shark Tank ResultsGee asked for $1 million in exchange for 5 percent of his company. Although Gee did not strike a deal on Shark Tank, the show gave the company high ex-posure. After the episode aired, Scan propelled to the top of the App Store.

Memorable MomentsInvestor Robert Herjavec called Gee the “fi rst person to ask for $1 million in flip flops.”

Where They Are NowOne year after appearing on Shark Tank, Scan was acquired by Snapchat for a ru-mored $54 million.

Company SummaryFiberFix is a “super” repair tape that’s one hundred times stronger than duct tape. Inspired by medical casting tape, FiberFix repairs anything from leaky pipes to broken bikes. FiberFix was created in 2012 by BYU students and alumni Reed Quinn, Chris Quinn, Spencer Quinn, and Derek Rowley

Shark Tank ResultsSpencer Quinn asked for $90,000 in ex-change for 10 percent of the company and immediately had three sharks fi ght-ing to make a deal. FiberFix sealed the deal with Lori Greiner for $120,000 in ex-change for 12 percent of the company. Greiner planned to make an infomercial for the company and feature them on QVC.

Memorable MomentsThe day after the episode aired on tele-vision, Greiner hosted FiberFix on QVC where they completely sold out in minutes.

Where They Are NowFiberFix now sells in thousands of retail and hardware stores throughout the world and has expanded their product line to include a heat wrap and a patch.

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12 October 2013 | Season 5, Episode 4 25 October 2013 | Season 5, Episode 6


Company Summary PhoneSoap is a device that cleans your phone while it charges. When BYU room-mates Dan Barnes and Wesley LaPorte learned that a cell phone has eighteen times more bacteria than a public re-stroom, they created a device that uses UV light to kill all bacteria on your phone.

Shark Tank Results PhoneSoap originally asked for $300,000 in exchange for 10 percent of the com-pany. Mark Cuban first offered them $300,000 for 20 percent, cutting their valuation in half. Lori Greiner countered with a $300,000 offer for 15 percent. In the end, PhoneSoap was able to talk Lori down to 10 percent—their original proposal.

Memorable Moments Lori told PhoneSoap that she would bring the offer down to 10 percent equity only if they took the deal with her that exact moment. They immediately did, turn-ing down Mark Cuban in the process.

Where They Are NowToday their B2C business is expanding, and PhoneSoap 2.0 has recently launched. They've also entered the B2B market with devices created for hospitals and schools.

Company Summary Cerebral Success is a brain-booster supplement created by Trevor Hiltbrand while he was studying at BYU. Each capsule of Cerebral Success contains proven ingredients to help stimulate and improve brain and memory power.

Shark Tank ResultsTrevor Hiltbrand entered the tank asking for $75,000 in exchange for 20 percent of the company. Cerebral Success was initially torn apart by four of the five sharks, who attacked the business plan and product. Finally, Barbara Cocoran stepped in saying she saw potential in Trevor and his compa-ny. Hiltbrand accepted her offer of $75,000 for a 40 percent stake in the company.

Memorable MomentsBarbara Corcoran later said that what she saw in Hiltbrand was a passionate fighter who had a real solution to a real problem. She has also said that Cere-bral Success is one of the best invest-ments that she’s made on the show.

Where They Are NowBefore the episode even aired, Cerebral Success sales had quadrupled. The prod-uct continues to sell online and recently received shelf space at GNC, the biggest supplement retailer in the United States.

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30 January 2015 | Season 6, Episode 1626 April 2014 | Season 5, Episode 26


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The pathway to citizenship in the United States is hardly straightforward. The road is wind-ing, full of multiple routes that of-

ten lead to dead ends, and littered with confusing and sometimes contradictory signposts along the way. SimpleCitizen, a BYU-inspired company, believes applying for US immigration should be simple, and is helping immigrants cut through all the clutter.

SimpleCitizen was cofounded by Sam Stoddard, ceo and a 2015 graduate of the Marriott School’s master of accountancy program; Brady Stoddard, Sam’s nephew and chief marketing officer; and Aydé Soto, the company’s chief technology officer. Per their website, the company is “dedicated to innovating immigration.” The company believes that “by creating tools that make the immigration process easier, affordable and online [they] are helping families es-tablish themselves in new communities around the world.”

An Idea Born Out of ExperienceAfter their marriage, Stoddard set out to help his wife, Ally, who is from South Korea, secure a green card. When the couple were told by an immigration lawyer that it would cost $2,000, Stoddard decided to take on the project himself to save money.

“I looked at the application and thought, ‘How hard can it be?’” said Stoddard.

Armed with his academic background and familiarity with confusing tax laws and forms, Stoddard plunged into the proj-ect. But soon his nights and weekends became consumed by the process. After a few months had gone by and after paying a professional a few hundred dollars to

SimpleCitizen, the do-it-yourself immigration

company, is helping clear hurdles in the US

naturalization process.

Left to Right: Brady Stoddard, Sam Stoddard,

Aydé Soto

Left: Brady Stoddard, Sam Stoddard, Aydé Soto

look over the few forms he was able to fill out, Stoddard finally threw in the towel and turned to Google for help.

“And that’s with me having a techni-cal background and English as a first lan-guage,” Stoddard said. “Even with that, half-way through I kind of gave up. I assumed that if TurboTax can condense mountains of tax law into a few easy questions, some-thing similar must exist for green cards.”

After an exhaustive search, Stoddard’s assumption was proven wrong. To his sur-prise no resource existed to help streamline the process or make sense of the compli-cated forms. Stoddard knew he wasn’t the only one who could benefit from such a tool: according to the u.s. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, the United States has welcomed more than 6.6 million naturalized citizens during the last decade with 729,995 people naturalized in fiscal year 2015.

Recognizing an opportunity to benefit so many with a needed service, Stoddard teamed up with his nephew Brady and struck out to build the online immigration tool himself.

Building a SolutionSince the idea for SimpleCitizen sparked during his final year on campus, Stoddard decided to take full advantage of the time he had left to utilize the entrepreneurial resources that byu offers.

“There are so many resources that are readily available on campus between all of the events, programs, and clubs,” Stoddard said. “It’s all just there waiting for students to take advantage of it, and I definitely did.”

One of the most important resources for Stoddard was the lean startup approach


By creating tools that make the immigration process easier, affordable and online [they] are helping families establish themselves in new communities around the world.

SimpleCitizen takes home first place and $40,000 at the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge.

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to launching a business. This approach, which focuses on customer feedback and validated learning, is taught throughout campus and championed by the Rollins Center.

“If we have learned anything from [this approach], it’s that figuring this stuff out requires endless hours and dedication to the scientific method of having an assump-tion, testing that assumption, and either validating it or invalidating it,” Stoddard said. “It is very challenging, but there is beauty in the struggle.”

Adhering to the methodology proved to be extremely valuable and allowed the Stoddards to deeply understand the wants and needs of future customers.

“As we talked to customers, we dis-covered other pain points that we later developed features and parts of the site for,” Stoddard said.

As the Stoddards continued to work on their company, they also leveraged the robust mentoring program offered by the Rollins Center. The mentors they met with helped the small team avoid many pitfalls and more successfully navigate the waters of entrepreneurship, which were new to both of them.

“I was a heavy user of the CET’s men-toring program. I met with around twenty different business mentors, and their ad-vice was crucial to our early success.” Big Wins Along the Way

As the Stoddards refined their business model, they recognized the need for capital to get the company off the ground, leading them to seek out and compete in a number of startup competitions.

Even though his idea was still in its infancy, Stoddard decided to enter BYU’s

Student Innovator of the Year competition. At the annual competition, hosted by the Fulton College of Engineering and Technol-ogy, the team earned one of the honorable mention awards and walked away with the “Great Potential” title and $1,000.

Although they didn’t win, the “Great Potential” title became prophetic of big things to come. At the next competition, byu’s Business Model Competition, the team doubled its prize money and placed in one of the top spots.

With some additional validation under their belt from the Business Model Compe-tition, the Stoddards entered SimpleCitizen into the flagship competitions at both BYU and the University of Utah. All their hard work paid off as they took first place in both prestigious competitions, cashing in the biggest payday at the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge (UEC).


Sam Stoddard, ceo of Simple Citizen, competes at BYU’s Miller New Venture Challenge

“Winning the $40,000 [at the UEC] was critical to helping us reach our first mile-stone of launching our website [this past] summer.”

With the company hitting its stride on the competition circuit, Stoddard decided it was time to branch out and take their first sojourn into the investment world. Campus Founders Fund (CFF) was the first venture capital group to hear the company’s pitch. It didn’t take long for the innovative firm’s partners, all students at schools in the state of Utah, to recognize the company’s potential —they invested $20,000.

“SimpleCitizen has a team with first-hand experience and a deep understand-ing of a huge problem: immigration,” said Ryan Smith, a CFF partner, the founder and CEO of his own startup, Recyclops, and president of BYU’s Entrepreneurship Club (eClub).

Launching Into the FutureAfter graduating from BYU in April 2015, Stoddard added Ayde Soto to the team; her computer science background helped pave the way to launch their company website. That summer, the team participated in three accelerator programs: BYU’s Found-ers Launchpad, BoomStartup, and Start Studio.

“[Those experiences] gave us a lot of face time and interaction with VCS in Utah, and we were able to work with them as we refined our pitch and hashed out some of the finer details of our business model,” Stod-dard said. The team was ready to officially launch the company’s website in late July. “When we launched, we were able to see what we had correctly anticipated and what we had really missed the mark on, as far as features in the product, the process of handing off to the attorneys for attorney

review,” Stoddard said. “We were able to flush out what was really missing from the product and what needed to be added.”

The company’s launch and subsequent improvements to its online service paid big dividends when they entered and won the Start Madness competition at StartFEST, Utah’s first and largest grassroots startup festival. SimpleCitizen beat out 100 com-petitors for the $100,000 grand prize.That, along with the $25,000 audience choice award, put SimpleCitizen’s total competi-tion prize money winnings over $200,000.

“I was pretty nervous backstage,” Stod-dard said. “I had seen all the other com-panies present and each of them [were] impressive. Getting the grand prize was great but the audience choice was incred-ible. I’m happy to be a part of an amazing company with an amazing team.”

Recently the company announced a $700,000 seed round led by Kick-start Seed Fund, with participation from Peterson Partners, Pelion Venture Partners, Apple Tree Capital, and Jacob Sapoch-nick. Stoddard’s vision for the future of the company demonstrates how much his business acumen has developed and how much he has grown into his entrepreneurial role as the CEO of a fast-growing startup.

“I am excited for growth,” Stoddard said. “I am excited about nailing the unit economics of our business and really understanding the cost to acquire each customer.”

Stoddard’s personal progress and Sim-pleCitizen’s growth display a welcoming sign to those traveling the road to US citizenship.


BUILDING AND GROWING

Back in September, Scott R. Petersen announced that he would be stepping down during fall semester as managing director. After more than five years at the CET helm, it was time to take the reins full-time at Omadi, his latest startup. The Center made significant strides the last few years. We built on a solid foun-dation from earlier years that had pro-duced many successful student-founded ventures, top entrepreneurship curriculum, historically excellent rankings, and a won-derful Founders Organization. During Scott's tenure, the leadership team created a

vision to “be the global leader in suc-cessful campus-inspired entrepreneurial ventures,” and this is exactly what happened during these past five years at the Center. The years 2010–2015 have been ex-cellent for the Rollins Center, continuing the long-established tradition of strong growth and innovation within the Center. We are grateful to the many people who have contributed to our success. At this inflection point, we especially thank Scott for his service and leadership. We will miss him, but we are committed to continuing to grow and refine our efforts.


2010 2011 2012

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International Business Model Competition (IBMC) is founded by BYU and is the first lean startup competition in the world. Final-event judg-es include world-renowned experts Steve Blank, Alex Osterwalder, and Nathan Furr.

Student Innovator of the Year (SIOY) competition, sponsored by the Fulton College of Engineering and Technology and cospon-sored by the CET, is founded to inspire and launch student innovation across campus.

Entrepreneurship Week is hosted for the first time on BYU’s campus. Its purpose is to foster and celebrate the spirit of entrepreneur-ship and innovation across campus.

BYU Business Plan Competition is endowed and renamed as the Larry and Gail Miller New Venture Challenge.

The Crocker Innovation Fellowship program is initiated with funding from Gary and Ann Crocker. The program includes faculty from across campus and builds interdisciplinary inno-vators with students from various majors.

by the Princeton Review (highest ranking ever)

45 teams 6 schools 2 countries

BYU's GRADUATE entrepreneurship program ranked

#2

"Be the global leader in successful campus-inspired entrepreneurial ventures."

Vision Statement


Startup Cycle

2014 20152013

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Global Student Entre-preneur of the Year is awarded to Spencer Quinn, BYU undergrad student and cofounder of FiberFix. The competition is ran and sponsored by the Entrepre-neurs’ Organization.

BYU is named an Innova-tion Corps (I-Corps) Site by the National Science Foundation and receives a three-year grant to spur tech commercialization through monetary grants.

BYU is ranked in the top ten for the fi fth year in a row for both graduate and under-graduate entrepreneurship programs. BYU becomes one of only two schools in the country to claim this distinction.

Founders Launchpad, a summer program for BYU startups, is piloted with fourteen student-founded companies and the fi rst-ever Investors Day is held at the end of the summer.

by the Princeton Review(highest ranking ever)

Miller Competition Series evolves to include:BIg Idea PitchBYU Business Model CompetitionMiller New Venture Challenge Final

2,000 teams200 schools20 countries

BYU's

UNDERGRADentrepreneurship program ranked

#2

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Curriculum and competition calendar brought into alignment with the cycle: idea, model, launch, and scale.

BYU Becomes an NSF Innovation Corps Site

Steven R. Fox was born and raised in the Seattle area and is a Washingtonian at heart. He attended BYU, where he ma-jored in business management with an emphasis in finance. Steven met his wife, Debbie, during his freshman year and the future couple ran into each other again in Paris where Steven was serving a mis-sion and Debbie was completing a study abroad program. When they both returned to the US, they began to date and decid-ed to get married. Steven completed an MBA at Harvard Business School and then moved his family to Seattle, beginning his career in sales, marketing, and operations in the medical electronics industry. After experiencing the highs and lows of two software startups, Steven took a job at Microsoft, where he served in a variety of marketing roles for the Office suite of products and MSN for almost twenty years. Steven and Debbie have five children and five grandchildren with one on the way.

CET Welcomes New Leadership

Steven R. FoxActing Managing Director

campus news

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Thanks to the efforts of Steve Liddle and Tom Sederberg, byu has been recognized as an Inno-vation Corps (I-Corps) Site. Liddle

and Sederberg are the principal and co-principal investigators respectively on the proposal that brought the unique program to byu.

I-Corps is a program funded by the National Science Foundation to promote technology commercialization through fi-nancial grants and lean startup curriculum. The I-Corps initiative was created with the help of Steve Blank, whose seminal book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany, launched the lean startup movement. The purpose of an I-Corps Site is to nurture and support multiple teams at an academic institution to transition their ideas, devices, process-es, or other intellectual activities into the marketplace.

I-Corps grants range from $1,000–3,000 and byu is able to give larger awards to teams who are commercializing byu-owned intellectual property, and who in-clude women and underrepresented par-ticipants. Grant money is provided to fund the validation of a promising technology or innovation with potential customers, not product development or team-member compensation. The goal of each grant is to make a “go” or “no-go” decision regarding the the market feasibility of the technology or innovation within a short period of time, usually 1–3 months.

Grant teams are ideally composed of three members: a principal investigator, an entrepreneurial lead, and a mentor. The principal investigator is the technical lead and project manager. He or she possesses relevant technical knowledge and is deeply committed to studying the commercial

What do you enjoy most about working at BYU and the Rollins Center?“The people, especially the students. How-ever, I quickly learned there are so many other awesome people here including the staff, admin, faculty, and our great donors—whom we refer to as Founders. When you think about the Founders, not just the fi-nancial piece but the time they give back in terms of mentoring, that is our ‘secret sauce’ and BYU’s competitive advantage.” What are your goals/aims as it pertains to your role in the Center?“First of all, the Center is terrific and the growth over the years has been phenom-enal. To build on that firm foundation we need to help students from any major learn skills of innovation. Many students will start businesses, which is fantastic, while oth-ers will be intrapreneurs, becoming highly valued sources of innovation within com-panies of all sizes.”

landscape surrounding the innovation. The entrepreneurial lead should be prepared to support the transition of the technology, should the conclusion be a “go” decision. The mentor is an experienced entrepreneur who understands how to guide the team through the customer validation process.

“The I-Corps Site grant is exciting for several reasons,” says Liddle, academic director of the Rollins Center and professor of information systems. “First, it focuses students on lean startup techniques and gives them access to a modest budget to perform customer validation work that is crucial to startup success. Second, it gives us a platform for greater visibility across campus; an NSF grant conveys legitimacy that faculty from all colleges can easily recognize. And third, it showcases byu as a place where exciting things are happening in entrepreneurship.”


Graduate Entrepreneur AssociationThe GEA was founded three years ago as an opportunity to increase the number of graduate students participating in entre-preneurial activities. This club is primarily composed of MBA students but the current goal is to expand the club among all grad-uate students.

The mission of the club is to "develop leaders with an adaptive management style that will allow them to launch their own company, lead early-stage startups, or work in high-growth companies driving innovation.” The club accomplishes these objectives with many activities including guest speakers, group dinners with men-tors, visits to startups and high-growth companies, and an annual retreat.

When asked why graduate students interested in entrepreneurship should join the club, Brody Horton, GEA vice president, said it is "the go-to resource for graduate students to connect with innovative and high-growth companies or to get mentoring for their own startup.”

Many club members aspire to have an ownership position in a company upon graduation. Other members hope to gain the skills necessary to one day step into an

New Clubs Help BYU’s Entrepreneurial Students

Two new BYU clubs help students with their entrepreneurial endeavors and academic pursuits.

BYUeClub

entrepreneurial role. And a third group of members hope to hold an entrepreneurial role within a larger company (intrapreneur-ship). Ultimately, the club strives to provide support and reduce the risk for students who are taking an unconventional path to business out of an MBA program. Doug Hicken, gea president, summed up the vision and purpose of the club:

“The long term vision for the GEA is an interdisciplinary environment where students with advanced degrees can join forces and develop great businesses at the intersection of the Founders’ expertise,” said Hicken.

Entrepreneurship Association (ea)Earlier this year, students and faculty in the entrepreneurship major came to agree that the program was missing something: a lack of community. As they looked at other pro-grams in the Marriott School, they saw that these societies and associations bonded students together, prepared students for job interviews and internships, and better managed the flow and experience of a student’s scholastic career. To counter this gap, they formed the Entrepreneurship Association.

The Entrepreneurship Association kicked off this fall as a club exclusively for students majoring in entrepreneurship.

The purpose of the club is threefold: to help students navigate the major, provide career and internship opportunities, and create a sense of community within the major.

The club realizes these objectives by providing on- and off-campus opportu-nities for students to interact with each other and with startups in the thriving lo-cal entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ultimately, the more the students interact, the stron-ger the community grows. This sense of community is important to establishing a network of support, mentoring, and career opportunities.

Chase Bryan, president of the Entrepre-neurship Association, recognizes that it is essential that the club maintain its close ties to the Rollins Center.

"The EA is extremely grateful for the connections and relationships that the Rol-lins Center has with local startups and its donor base of successful entrepreneurs,” said Bryan. “The EA looks forward to learn-ing from and being mentored by these amazing individuals.”


Thanks to the Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance, BYU is finishing up its third year as an Ashoka U Changemaker Cam-pus. With the motto “Do Good.

Better.”, the Ballard Center is the central campus resource for social entrepreneur-ship, a unique sector of entrepreneurship that plays a large role at BYU. As one of only thirty-three universities worldwide designated as an Ashoka U campus, BYU holds a prestigious position. The campus underwent a rigorous evaluation and se-lection process, and it was awarded for its ability to produce influential students who make a difference on a local and a global stage.

“It was a very intense process to be designated as an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus,” said Todd Manwaring, director of the Ballard Center, “but it provides for us a very important recognition and places us in a valuable network with other top Ashoka U campuses.”

Ashoka U was established by the in-ternational nonprofit organization Ashoka as an initiative to promote social entrepre-neurship at universities. According to the Ashoka U website, “these institutions share the vision for higher education to become the next global driver of social change by transforming the educational experience into a world-changing experience.”

The Ballard Center continues to prove its worthiness of this prestigious title every

BYU joins thirty-two schools from around the world with a “changemaker campus” designation.

BYU Named Ashoka U Changemaker Campus

year. The Center increases social innova-tion and entrepreneurship across campus with many classes, clubs, competitions, and events, including TEDxBYU. It is also a valuable resource to help students find internships in social innovation.

The selection criteria for the Ashoka U Changemaker Campus designation in-cludes the following:

• Institutional commitment to building the field of social innovation education

• Evidence of strong student, faculty, and administrator interest in social entre-preneurship

• Campus leadership buy-in: Support from president and/or provost, and active championship from one or multiple deans on campus

• A programmatic initiative is already underway around social entrepreneurship: initiative, major, minor, certificate, center, or a variant thereof, ensuring an “institutional home” for social entrepreneurship

• Multi-year commitment: A mandat-ed Change Leader is accountable for the partnership from one year to the next, with senior-level support and commitment to this as a multi-year initiative

• Resource longevity plan: Commitment to developing a long-term funding strategy to keep social entrepreneurship as a core part of the institution’s offerings

We are proud of our colleagues at the Ballard Center. They consistently do great things.


Utah’s high-tech industry has been burgeoning for a while now. How-ever, until recently the roughly 4,000 technology companies—

mostly concentrated in a region nicknamed “Silicon Slopes”—have been missing a key ingredient: talented and qualifi ed coders. During his days at BYU, DevMountain co-founder Cahlan Sharp recognized the prob-lem. “I couldn’t fi nd a good fi t for the kind of education I wanted, which was learning to do web development,” Sharp said. “At that time web development was still kind of a new thing. It was right after the dot-com boom. I wasn’t interested in taking a huge, gnarly core of computer science just to learn web development. So, I ended up grad-uating from BYU with a Portuguese degree.” After teaching himself to code, working in a number of web and media develop-ment positions, and even launching his own award-winning interactive media develop-

Coding Bootcamp Fills Unmet Need

alumni updates

ment company, Sharp was ready to take the problem head on and train other coders who would be worthy of Silicon Slopes. In 2013 Sharp joined forces with Tyler Richards and Colt Henrie, both BYU stu-dents at the time, to start DevMountain, an industry-leading code school with a hands-on, project-based curriculum that allows students to build the foundations they need to achieve their career goals. The trio opened their doors to their fi rst cohort of students later that same year at the Startup Building in Provo. “We thought that for the Utah market, it would be better to offer an after-hours class,” Sharp said. “A lot of people who are inter-ested in enrolling in a course like this are al-ready engaged in jobs or school, and many don’t have time to just drop everything for twelve weeks to learn web development.”The idea has paid off in spades. In addition to the part-time, after-hours

program, which was one of the fi rst of its kind at the time, today the company also offers a full-time, immersive pro-gram and teaches classes in iOS and UX design. The coding bootcamp will train around fi ve hundred students this year. Henrie, the chief operating offi cer at DevMountain, says the company is focused on scaling its offerings. “Right now we are extremely focused on scal-ing our industry-leading code school,” Henrie said. “Our recent expansion to Dallas is exciting, and we look forward to repeating a lot of the same success we’ve experienced here down in Texas.” However, no matter how big their compa-ny gets, Sharp, Richards, and Henrie remain grounded by focusing their attention on what is most important—the success of their students. Tiafau Purcell, a father of three and a DevMountain alumnus, was laid off from his part-time job during his time at the school but was able to land a new one as soon as he graduated. “Stuff like that makes me so excited,” Sharp said. “That's ultimately why we started DevMountain. Teaching is about empowering people. Especially when you’re teaching a skill that is highly marketable. It’s a fulfi lling thing to be a part of—empow-ering people to better their lives.”

Students and employers mingle at one of DevMountain’s Meet & Hire lunches

Andrew, Pia, and Easton. Those are thenames of the babies whose parents were alerted by the Owlet Monitor just in time to intervene when the babies stopped breath-ing in the night. Two of the infants were turning blue when their mothers picked them up and stimulated them to start breathing again—making a full recovery. “This is our announcement to the world today: Owlet has strong initial evidence that it really can alert parents if, for some reason, their baby is unable to breathe,” said Owlet cofounder and BYU alumni, Jordan Monroe, in a recent post on the company’s blog. This is quite the game changer for parents. The second leading cause of death for babies aged one month to one year old is suffocation, which most often occurs when the baby is sleep-ing. To put this in perspective, rough-ly ten times more infants pass away from suffocation than from car crashes every year. These accidental suffoca-tions are real, heartbreaking tragedies that often go unmentioned in the news. In the early days of Owlet, cofounder Zack Bomsta made the decision to take almost a seventy-fi ve percent pay cut and quit his day job to work at Owlet full time. This wasn't an easy decision for a

Stanford (10)

Harvard (9)

Cal Berkeley (6)

Cornell (5)

MIT (5)

Michigan (4)

BYU (4)Domo Insidesales.com QualtricsPluralsight

Univ. of Waterloo (4)

Brown (4)

Dartmouth (4)

BYU ranked 7thfor alumni who have started a unicorn company

u·ni·corn/yoon-e, kôrn/ noun

1. a mythical horse with a single horn projecting from its forehead.

2. a company that reaches a $1 billion valuation before going public.

Unicorn list based on fi ndings reported by research fi rm Pitchbook. Number of unicorns listed in parentheses.

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3

4

5

6

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Owlet Already Saving Lives

new father of a three-month-old baby girl. But what he said about that decision has become part of the company’s DNA: “I want to make Owlet a reality. Even if we fail, I want to do work that really matters.” The BYU-inspired venture, which re-cently raised $7 million in additional Series A funding, also announced that they are taking the Owlet Monitor out of private beta and making it available to the public. The monitor has already gar-nished a multitude of awards, including recognition as an Innovation Award hon-oree at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show and a JPMA Parent’s Pick Award.

The wireless Smart Sock fi ts snug on babies' feet, monitoring their heart rate and oxygen levels while they sleep.

Stephen Liddle

Steven Fox

Jeff Brown

Scott Petersen

Corbin Church

Nicole Collins

Jennifer Hutchins

Mary Teichert

Devlin Daley

Gary Williams

Gavin Christensen

Jon Bradshaw

Kim Scoville

Nick Greer

Ralph Little

Scott Johnson

Tom Peterson

Academic Director

Acting Managing Director

Assistant Director

Entrepreneur in Residence

Entrepreneur in Residence

Program Coordinator

Financial Specialist

Office Manager

Instructure

Sterling Wentworth Corp./SunGard

Kickstart Seed Fund

TinyTorch

Silvermark Services

One on One Marketing

Little & Company

Workfront

Trammell Crow Company

Alan Boardman

Brian Reschke

Chad Carlos

Chris Mattson

David Benson

David Busath

Eric Dahlin

Gary Rhoads

Gibb Dyer

Gordon Smith

Jeff Dyer

Jeff Humpherys

Jim Brau

Justin Zsiros

Marc Hansen

Matt Wickman

Nile Hatch

Mike Hendron

Rick West

Steve Liddle

Taylor Halverson

Tom Sederberg

Taylor Nadauld

Manufacturing Engineering

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Mechanical Engineering

Strategy

Life Sciences

Sociology

Marketing

Strategy

Law

Strategy

Mathematics

Finance

Manufacturing Engineering

Life Sciences

Humanities

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Education

Information Systems

Creativity, Innovation, & Design

Computer Science

Finance

Scott Johnson

David Watson

Travis Cook

Davis Smith

Chairman, Founders Organization

Vice Chairman, Founders Org.

Chairman, Associate Founders Org.

Vice Chairman, Associate Founders Org.

byu rollins center annual report 2015

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