Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Start@Shea Channels Student Entrepreneurial Energy into New Ventures.

Boston College has long been home to a band of undergrads committed to entrepreneurship—they participated in the Venture and SEED competitions and recruited entrepreneur-alums to come to campus as speakers and mentors. With the opening of the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship, current BC students have reorganized what had been informally coordinated efforts into Start@Shea, a new undergraduate club.

They’re rethinking the ways in which they encourage student entrepreneurship, says Robbie Li ’16, the chairman of the club’s board. In the past, many students have devoted themselves to winning the University’s Venture Competition, a business-plan tournament, and worked almost exclusively with their own team members.

This year, Start@Shea, in addition to the tournament model, will try what Li called an accelerator. Students will propose business ideas and be admitted to the accelerator, which will operate like a business incubator. Folks from different teams can then interact throughout the year, sharing ideas, encouragement, and late-night cups of coffee. Toward the end of the spring, they’ll present their business ideas on a demo day.

“We’re having a physical space built out for them on the second floor of Cushing Hall,” where the Shea Center has its offices, Li says. “They’ll be eligible for non-equity grant money.”

Another change is the closer integration of student-led programs addressing social entrepreneurship. In the past, the social entrepreneurs have worked mostly on their own, running and participating in the Social Entrepreneurs Envisioning Development (SEED) Competition. Their programs will be part of Start@Shea too.

“Some of us were concerned that SEED would get lost,” says Cindy Xu ’17, a Start@Shea board member and coordinator for social entrepreneurship. “But the integration has been fantastic. We’re able to take advantage of the publicity and resources of the Shea Center.”

Start@Shea also coordinates the Elevator Pitch Competition, which was hosted on October 27.