Successful Start-Ups Start Here

Read this entire Venture Development Center story about how useful your UMass Boston degree will be to your start-up success

UMass Boston's close proximity to some of the world's strongest circles for technology, finance, and health care makes it easy for students to overlook some of the incredible resources for learning available right here on Columbia Point. Particularly for students who dream of starting their own business someday, it can be easy to become so immersed in one's own plans, that we forget to pick our heads up and recognize the mentors and living lab around us.

The Entrepreneurship Club is one way we bring people together with similar visions and aspirations. We welcome students of all phases of their academic careers, and from all disciplines of study. Once a week, we get together and exchange our thoughts and goals. However, students should recognize that there are success stories starting out right here at UMass Boston that provide a live look at what it takes for an entrepreneur to succeed.

Several years ago, The Venture Development Center highlighted two divergent paths of two massively successful Beacons of our very own: Paul English, co-founder of Kayak, and Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. The former earned his master's in computer science at UMass Boston, while the latter dropped out before he finished his theater arts education. (Their examples alone demonstrate that you do not to be a business major to become a successful founder of a new company!) However, if you're already asking yourself whether you should stop studying right now, drop out, and start the next Twitter, I encourage you to finish the VDC story above. Anyone on campus will tell you that a degree is a good investment in your future, especially when you aren't getting the financial investments you need to grow your company.