For years, the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State has helped students turn fledgling ideas into full-blown innovative business ventures. Students can go to the EMC when they need help formulating a business plan, building their résumé or when they simply don’t know where else to turn for business advice.
The EMC was founded in 1987 by professor emeritus Darryl Mitton and former Dean of the College of Business Administration Allan Bailey. Academically integrating the center was then developed by professor Sanford Ehrlich and current EMC Executive Director Dr. Alex DeNoble.
The EMC is home to innovative thinkers from the College of Business, but also from a variety of majors across campus. According to EMC Director Bernhard Schroeder, about 70 percent of students who visit the center are not business majors. It mentors students from the film, science and journalism departments too; anyone in need of entrepreneurial advice can be counseled. In addition to guidance, the EMC provides internship opportunities and real-life experiences that give students a chance to practice what they learn in their classes.
The center has mentored many students who have gone on to create nationally recognized companies: Wing Lam of Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, Ralph Rubio of Rubio’s Restaurants Inc. and Thom McElroy of Volcom are some of the biggest names to graduate from SDSU.
One of the most recent success stories to stem from the EMC is currently available on campus. Shake Smart was founded last year and is already a popular stop for students. Co-founders Kevin Gelfand and Martin Reiman said the EMC helped them with the basics of starting a business. “We had a great idea and we knew what we wanted to do with it, but you need to formalize it into business plans and then from there put marketing strategies behind it … [the EMC] helped with [that] part of it,” Reiman said.
That sped up the time it took them to get Shake Smart up and running because they were able to use the staff’s knowledge and guidance rather than having to learn hard lessons from personal experience. The result? Gelfand placed fourth in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards last year, and Shake Smart will represent SDSU in the 2012 Venture Challenge, an international business plan competition hosted here on campus. Shake Smart is also working on expanding its business into Horton Plaza and other school campuses.
The message the EMC wants to spread to SDSU is that anybody can be an entrepreneur. According to Gelfand, “The difference between an entrepreneur from everybody else is … taking that idea and making it a reality. We’re not these Albert Einstein people who thought of this crazy idea. We just had an idea and we put in the hard work to do it.”
