Surveys Confirm the Positive Impact of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center on Student-Run Businesses
The Lavin Entrepreneurship Center within the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University, recently conducted a series of surveys that collected feedback from the center’s mentors, interns, former students, and many other partners. The surveys were designed to measure the effectiveness of the center’s resource distribution, educational programs, events, and community outreach over the past few years.
One survey was sent to former and current SDSU entrepreneurs who have received funding from the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Startup Fund. Established in 2018 by Carol Lavin Bernick, daughter of the center’s namesake, Leonard Lavin, the fund has provided student teams or individual student entrepreneurs with more than $102K in seed money to help move their businesses toward commercialization.
Twenty-eight businesses operated by student teams or individual student entrepreneurs have been provided with the seed money as of July 2020. The teams or individuals are made up of budding entrepreneurs who are part of the Lavin Entrepreneur Program, the Zip Launchpad, or both and have been granted anywhere from $250 up to $10,000.
Of those companies, 14 representatives of the student-run companies responded to the survey. The results indicated that most of the students used their seed money to fund market research and product development, however, the funds also went toward other necessities such as legal fees, advertising, equipment and supplies. These same respondents also revealed that the vast majority (90%) are continuing to pursue the venture-funded with the seed money, while the rest have transitioned into full-time jobs, different ventures or other activities.
Another custom survey was sent to alumni of the 12-year-old Lavin Entrepreneur Program to determine how many of the former Lavin students had established businesses, the revenue generated by those businesses, and which assets provided by the center they found to be the most valuable.
Of the 77 responses received by the center, 51 of the respondents (approximately 66%) established one or more businesses with 26% of those saying their businesses generate at least $100K in revenue.
The Lavin Entrepreneur Program alumni also reported that the most valuable thing they learned from the center was networking skills, followed by the assistance they received from mentors and advisors.
In addition, five of the respondents said that they had either hired or mentored a current Lavin Entrepreneurship Program student — a number that the center’s executive director, Alex DeNoble, finds promising. “The fact that we are starting to see an influx of past Lavins hiring or mentoring current students is highly encouraging,” he said. “This is a fairly young program and the Lavin alumni who are starting to return to hire and mentor our current students offer great opportunities for the next generation.”
(From the Fowler College of Business Newsfeed)
SDSU Alumni becomes Board Chair of the Lavin Advisory Board
The Lavin Entrepreneurship Center is happy to announce the naming of Mark Monahan as the new Board Chair for our Board of Advisors. As the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center grows, it is an exciting milestone when entrepreneurs join our entrepreneurial efforts, especially when members, such as Mark, are SDSU alumni. Mark initially joined our board in 2018 but has since shown continuous commitment to improving the entrepreneurship efforts at SDSU.
Mark Monahan is a financial technology executive. He has run many electronic brokerage firms in various asset classes - including CEO of MTS Markets International, CEO of Ballista Securities, CEO of IEB Asia and Global Head of Sales and Service for EBS. He is currently a Partner with Inversiones Seguras, LLC, a financial technology consulting firm. Mark has extensive international experience having lived and worked throughout Europe and Asia, but has recently returned to his native San Diego where he previously earned an MBA from SDSU.
When asked why he initially joined the Lavin Center Advisory Board, Mark mentions, "Over the past 20 years I have been more of a global oriented executive. Now that I'm back in San Diego, the Lavin board was a great starting point for me to jump back into local entrepreneurship. I have been part of four acquisitions in the fintech (financial technology) space; and as an SDSU alum I'd like to use that experience to help students if I can." We know that our center is headed in the right direction with Mark and are optimistic for what is to come for the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center.