We just rented an office for $400 or $500 a month -- some really tiny little office in Palo Alto. [It] was cheaper than an apartment. And then [we] bought futons that converted into a couch, which was sort of like a meeting area during the day. We would sleep there at night and shower at the YMCA, which was just a few blocks away. That was [an] extremely low burn rate. [It was] way cheaper than a garage. Garages are ... expensive. So we were able to ... putter along for several months until we got venture funding. - Elon Musk

Ever since reading the Knowledge at Wharton article , (which was actually covered by a previous College Mogul post on burn rates,) I've spent quite some time analyzing the correlation between affluent student entrepreneurs and their rates of success. Specifically in comparison with student entrepreneurs from more economically unstable backgrounds and their track record. It is of particular interest because what you can extract from the results is the effecitvenss of a just economic distributive system. That is to say, if the students of inherited wealth are using their financial opportunity to increase their chances of entrepreneurial success. A case can be made for a strong capitalist economic system since their success will lead to greater, broader social progress, somewhat borrowing Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'. However if the results instead suggested the wealthier student entrepreneurs were either too entitled or found their motivation too abstract given for the most part they had all the material goods they needed or wanted, then there could be a stronger argument for social redistribution, especially welfare and education funding. Continue Reading...

Burned out?

Give your brain a boost with this charged roundup of a week's worth of business-building stories and advice from around the Web:
 Continue Reading...

What does it mean to commercialize technology?

In general, it's the process of taking a technology and turning it into a product that can be sold to companies, governments, or individuals that adds some type of value or solves a specific problem.

The commercialization of technology is important because it's the process of applying  technology in meaningful ways so that people, markets, and society can adopt new innovation.

The ability to integrate new technologies into society is important because enables society to progress in directions that increase the standard of living, open new opportunities, and ultimately propels society and our civilization to new heights. Continue Reading...

 "Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't." -- Seth Godin

It's terribly frustrating to repeat mistakes, and I definitely agree with the old adage that a failure is a greater lesson learned than a success. One of the things we did really well at MOTM was we caught onto what our consumers wanted really early on. We were lucky in a sense in that the service we offered was adopted without any real push. It is fair to say that our interaction with our consumer was effective. Continue Reading...

As part of our goal to provide resources for college entrepreneurs, we've launched a new section called "Mogul Blogs." It will host blogs written by young entrepreneurs who are either in school, or have recently graduated and are starting companies. Each blog will have its own column that can be accessed by clicking on the start-up's logo on the right hand side section. At the same time, we'll promote all of the articles to the front page so that they're intertwined with our posts and that of all the other entrepreneurs who we hope will join us.

While magazines and media sites such as Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Inc. also cover entrepreneurs, they're mostly written by journalists. This is fine, but I believe the most meaning and value can be derived from stories and advice that are actually written by the entrepreneurs themselves. We hope this will drive more meaningful conversations and insight from those actually living an entrepreneurial life.

To kick start the section, Fan Bi, a student a Babson College and co-founder of Blank Label, has already joined College Mogul. His start-up aims to provide high quality, highly customizable, tailored suits, coats and smart casual wear for men and women. He's also part of the E-Tower at Babson College that serves as an incubator and 10 week entrepreneur program during the summer. Fan is originally from Australia, where he attends the University of New South Wales, but is studying abroad here in Boston for two semesters. You can check out his posts here.

We have several goals in doing this: Continue Reading...

(Source: Bloomberg via YouTube)

Related links:

• Better World Books
• Notre Dame Entrepreneurship Society

You might be an active Facebook user, but how much do you really know about how this Harvard-born company?

With the new book "The Accidental Billionaires," Ben Mezrich goes behind the headlines and hype around the founding of Facebook.

Over at Amazon.com, Kevin Spacey offers up his take on the book:

"Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were two geeky, socially awkward Harvard undergrads who wanted nothing more than to be cool. While Eduardo chose the more straightforward path of trying to gain acceptance into one of the school's ultra-posh, semi-secret Final Clubs, Mark used his computer skills by hacking into Harvard's computers, pulling up all the pictures of every girl on campus to create a sort of 'hot-or-not' site exclusive to Harvard. Though the prank nearly got Mark kicked out of college, he and Eduardo realized that they were on to something big. Thus, the initial concept of Facebook was born; what happened next, however, was right out of a Hollywood thriller."

For Spacey's full review and for more on this book (available July 14), check out the "Accidental Billionaires" page on Amazon.

Some things just work well together. Picture a burger with a side of fries or Adobe and Macromedia. Now, how about T-shirts and tattoos?

In the summer of 2007, soon after graduating from Boston University with a degree in film production, Jeremy Parker joined forces with his cousin Ben Parker -- at the time, a junior at the University of Maryland -- to the start a business. That business: a high-end tattoo-influenced T-shirt company called Tees and Tats.

In April, Tees and Tats was a finalist in the University of Maryland’s fourth annual business competition, the "Cupid's Cup."

With an eight-person staff, overseas manufacturing and growing retail network, Tees and Tats is on the move.

Meet Parker:Continue Reading...

Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures) recently spoke at a University of Pennsylvania technology conference. The title of his presentation: "The Art of Innovation.”

The latest edition of Knowledge@Wharton states this “amounted to a 10-point manifesto on how to make something of value for customers.”

Interested? Grab a pen and a pad...Continue Reading...

Bloomberg reported today that Zipcar "is gearing up to publicly sell shares in 2010," just as it is on track to make its first profit next quarter.

In 2000, Zipcar -- now the world’s largest car-sharing company -- got up and running with one car to serve Boston's thriving college community. The company was founded by Robin Chase, an MIT Sloan grad and Antje Danielson, who was a PhD post-doc at Harvard.Continue Reading...