Summer Founders Program to offer new opportunity for student entrepreneurs

The Penn State Summer Founders Program is a new initiative to support student teams for the summer as they develop their entrepreneurial ideas.

Engineering alumnus Matt Brezina, a 2003 graduate, Smeal College of Business student Eli Kariv and Schreyer Honors College Director of Development and Alumni Relations Sean Miller were instrumental in making it happen. 

While in graduate school, Brezina started developing an idea for his own business, then landed a $12,000 grant from Y Combinator — a seed accelerator that funds early-stage startups. It was the push he needed to really get Xobni, a product offering search and people-based navigation of email archives, off the ground.

"It changed my life," Brezina said of the grant. "Since then, I've gone on to sell two companies and have been on this crazy trajectory of career growth that never would have happened without that. I want to give Penn State students that same opportunity that was given to me." 

The Summer Founders Program, funded by a number of Penn State alumni and entrepreneurs — including Brezina, will offer six student teams $10,000 each so they can spend the summer focused on developing their ideas. 

"We want to give these student teams ten weeks to do nothing but work on their idea," said Kariv. "We're giving them time to go heads-down on their own projects rather than accepting a summer internship — to just work for themselves full time." 

Kariv was a first-year student at Penn State when he put his entrepreneurial dreams into practice with his company Crossed Clouds, a web design service focused on small businesses and nonprofits. An opportunity like the Summer Founders Program would have helped him immensely, he said. 

Brezina, who has stayed close with the University through board memberships with the Schreyer Honors College and Innoblue, a student organization that supports entrepreneurship, said he's seen institutional support for student entrepreneurship grow "massively" over the past several years. And the Summer Founders Program comes at a good time for Penn State as President Eric Barron ramps up his "Invent Penn State" initiative to support of entrepreneurship and innovation, backed by a $30 million investment.

This kind of support from the University will provide an already enthusiastic student body with an extra push to really believe in their own ideas and take the leap into bringing them to life, Kariv said. 

"For the inaugural year of the Summer Founders Program, we received more than 60 applications," he said. "At an average of two or three people per team, that means there are more than 120 students on campus ready to say, 'I want to start my own thing, and I'm willing to work nonstop over the summer so that I can make a difference.' I think that's a really powerful statement." 

And, more than giving an extra push to a group of motivated and talented students, Brezina and Kariv believe this program will help move the entrepreneurship and innovation culture forward at Penn State. 

"I think this sends a much broader message to the community," said Kariv. "It's right in line with what President Barron is saying about accepting innovation and creating new things." 

Enough money has already been raised to fund the first several years of the Summer Founders Program; the goal now is to endow the program indefinitely. 

"We believe the Summer Founders Program is part of the future of creating entrepreneurs at Penn State and in State College," Brezina said. 

Brezina and Kariv will present "Summer Founders Program: Seeding undergraduate entrepreneurship" at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 15,  in 113 IST Building as part of the 2015 IST Startup Week.