Governor's School for Entrepreneurs
Week Two Recap
An Entrepreneurial Journey
GSE Week Two
Newport on the Levee
Justin Otto, Assistant General Manager at Newport on the Levee, visited with us last week. He spent time sharing his own entrepreneurial journey, and gave our entrepreneurs candid advice about what it means to be an entrepreneur. Justin's character speaks for itself. He arranged for us to spend the day at the Levee last Sunday - complete with tickets to the Aquarium, GameWorks, Axis Bowling, Dart Rush, and the AMC theater. Our Es had an absolute blast!
At GSE, we recognize that our entrepreneurs work very hard. It is important that we play equally as hard as a result of the work ethic required to complete our program.
Justin - thanks to you and your team for helping to make this happen! Your entrepreneurial spirit and generosity helped us make a lifetime of memories out of a single day!
Justin Otto: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-otto-csm-mba-mpa-90297517/
Newport on the Levee: https://www.newportonthelevee.com
Awesome Inc and Icon Marketing
On Monday, our Es chose between a development workshop focused on Mobile App Development and a branding workshop focused on the basics of a brand identity.
Awesome Inc helped our Es explore what it takes to develop an app - and how they can apply it to their own startups.
Icon Marketing led our Es through logo design, color scheme, typeface, and several other components that help bring brand imagery to life.
Thanks to Awesome Inc and Icon Marketing for taking time to work with our entrepreneurs!
Awesome Inc: https://www.awesomeinc.org/
Icon Marketing: https://iconmc.com/
Guest Entrepreneurs of Week Two
Matt Hollenkamp, St. Elizabeth Healthcare
We enjoyed hearing Matt's story and how he's constantly working to better the healthcare industry. Our Es ask a lot of questions - and Matt provided a unique insight into the inner-workings of his role.
Matt is a marketing and sales executive with an incredibly rare combination of experience: 17+ years creating, revitalizing and building businesses across consumer packaged goods, B2B, health care and non-profit industries.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-matt-hollenkamp-9408395/
Nancy Aichholz, Aviatra Accelerators
Nancy hails from the corporate industry, starting her journey with Chiquita - that's right - bananas. She designed and executed three of the most successful marketing campaigns in company history.
Now, she works to help women take flight in entrepreneurship. Aviatra Accelerators has a unique, proven business model. She's seen the success of many women through Aviatra's programming. In fact, recently, one woman made nearly a 100 million dollar exit. Not only are the women participating in Aviatra taking flight - they are soaring!
Susanna Wong, Oriental Wok
Susanna's family and her respective entrepreneurial journey is the epitome of the American dream. We were so fortunate to hear about the obstacles they overcame and their humble beginnings in entrepreneurship. Susanna shared about the importance of grit, determination, and hard work.
Oriental Wok is a staple in Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio. Their cuisine is renowned - but so is their customer service! We enjoyed trying some of their delicious menu items and learning about the attention to detail that goes into everything they do, inside the restaurant and for their community at large.
4th of July!
Team Progress
Week two brought prototyping and the completion of the business model canvas. Our entrepreneurs started to flesh out their solutions, as we're seeing fully developed ideas and concepts. Es learned about the importance of customer discovery - and seeing your product or service through the eyes of your customer. What key partners, activities, and resources will they need? Es took time to research and apply these concepts to their own teams. We dug into financials - a 12-month budget, startup expenses, cash flow, and breakeven analysis. We have brand identities as our startups take shape - and even our first round of pitch practices!
Entrepreneurship is a journey full of twists and turns. GSE ensures our entrepreneurs are prepared for whatever obstacle - or opportunity - comes their way!
Pitch Practice #1
GSE's Demo Day
About our Host
" NKU is a growing metropolitan university of more than 14,000 students served by more than 2,000 faculty and staff on a thriving suburban campus near Cincinnati.
Located in the quiet suburb of Highland Heights, Kentucky—just seven miles southeast of Cincinnati—we have become a leader in Greater Cincinnati and Kentucky by providing a private school education for a fraction of the cost. While we are one of the fastest growing universities in Kentucky, our professors still know our students' names. "
Thank You CIE!
Governor's School for Entrepreneurs
Email: tasha@keenstart.org
Website: www.KentuckyGSE.com
Location: 300 Sower Boulevard, Frankfort, KY, USA
Phone: 859 - 583 - 7066
Facebook: www.facebook.com/governorsschoolforentrepreneurs
Twitter: @KentuckyGSE