Betaspring model is paying dividends on Bryant campus

THINKING AHEAD: Sandra Potter, director of the global entrepreneurship program at Bryant University and Bryant Ventures adviser, says the program was founded because students need a chance to learn the basics of how to think about innovation. / COURTESY BRYANT UNIVERSITY
THINKING AHEAD: Sandra Potter, director of the global entrepreneurship program at Bryant University and Bryant Ventures adviser, says the program was founded because students need a chance to learn the basics of how to think about innovation. / COURTESY BRYANT UNIVERSITY

In 2012, Sandra Potter founded Bryant Ventures – originally called Entrepreneurs on Campus – an entrepreneurial component of the global entrepreneurship program at Bryant University. She became director of the global program in February 2013.
While not yet available for academic credit, participation in Bryant Ventures is high and student startups are emerging from an accelerator modeled on Betaspring.

PBN: What is the global entrepreneurship program?
POTTER: The program was founded in 2009 for two reasons. One was [that] students need a chance to learn the basics of how to think about innovation, so the program coursework allows them to get some time learning about the structure of how to think about opportunities, evaluate and seize them. In addition, they need a way to practice, which is what Bryant Ventures is about. Bryant as a university is committed to fostering a culture on campus of innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. Bryant has been entrepreneurial since its inception 150 years.

PBN: How is the global entrepreneurship program connected to Bryant Ventures?
POTTER: Bryant Ventures was started to allow anyone on campus regardless of what they’re majoring or minoring in to have a chance to pursue a dream to start a company. It’s important if you have an entrepreneurship program at a university that you also have a way for students to practice their skills. You can’t read about being an entrepreneur; you have to try it. You have to get out there and swing at the ball.
PBN: How has your own experience with startups informed the teaching and advising of students in entrepreneurship?
POTTER: My entire teaching team is a team of practitioners. We all come from what’s called the real world outside of academia. So, in addition to having the academic credentials to teach we are also entrepreneurs ourselves, so we can bring the war stories from the trenches right into the classroom to reinforce lessons.

PBN: What led to the creation of Bryant Ventures?
POTTER: The actual formation of Bryant Ventures was a process where I made myself available one on one to students wanting to talk about launching a dream, to the point where the numbers multiplied and there were too many for me to handle one on one, so I decided to form a group.

PBN: How many students are involved today and who gets to participate?
POTTER: Anyone at Bryant who wants to participate can. There are 70 on the mailing list. Because it’s not for academic credit, I have about 25 or 30 who are really pushing to start making money and then I’ve got an equal number who have an idea: so it’s a continuum of everything from, «constant ****SSLq»I have a very rough idea’ to «constant ****SSLq»I’ve constructed my website and I have an order.’

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PBN: What is the accelerator and how is it like a “Betaspring for students?”
POTTER: Betaspring’s format is to select high-potential concepts or early-stage businesses and they bring them in-house for 13 weeks. We’re doing something similar. Betaspring has an incredible group of mentors who advise their startups. I have emulated pieces of it because I like the model. We have spaces on campus, mentors and events, all of which Betaspring has on a different scale. And [Betaspring founder and managing partner] Allan Tear and [Chief of Staff] Melissa Withers are both mentors who participate, and they both have been truly awesome.

PBN: In what other ways has the program developed?
POTTER: There are two additional organizations besides Bryant Ventures and bryantventures.org that are integral to the global entrepreneurship program. Another leg of the program is CEO, which stands for Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization. That’s where our students get their first exposure to entrepreneurship and why they should care. A lot of our startups come to Bryant Ventures from that organization. The other program is brand new; it started [in March] called Bryant Ventures Consulting. This is for students who know about Bryant Ventures and want to be involved helping the entrepreneur, but do not want to be the entrepreneur.

PBN: Are there any plans to provide academic credit for Bryant Ventures?
POTTER: We’re considering that.

PBN: Do you have a physical space yet for meetings and when can you start using it?
POTTER: We actually just obtained space last September that we’ve been using this year. It’s obvious to the administration that we have outgrown it already so they’re looking at options to give us more space.

PBN: Can you share a success story or two from the program?
POTTER: There are more than 20 students who have started companies at various stages of growth. Most are at very early stages. Last year, founding member Melissa Ellard, ‘13, was a finalist in the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition with Fashion Force, an online B2B virtual trade show platform. She walked away with about $17,000 in prize money and services.
Startups run the gamut: we have street-wear apparel firms, food startups, mobile apps and commercial and consumer products in many fields. •

INTERVIEW
Sandra Potter
POSITION: Director of the global entrepreneurship program at Bryant University and Bryant Ventures adviser
BACKGROUND: She founded Micro Tech Research, Inc., in Chelmsford, Mass., in 1983. From 1998 to 1999, she was a head of the Linux consulting practice at the Aberdeen Group in Boston. Since 2005, she has also been principal of another startup, Strategic Potentials of Providence.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in marketing from Bryant University, 1973; master’s degree in education for counseling psychology from Cambridge College, 1997; MBA in management from Bryant University, 1976; master of arts degree in organizational development from Fielding Graduate University, 2006; Ph.D. in human and organizational development, Fielding Graduate University, 2010
FIRST JOB: Cashier at a chain supermarket
RESIDENCE: Providence
AGE: 63

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