{"id":18862,"date":"2017-04-12T12:43:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=18862"},"modified":"2022-03-16T12:48:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:48:30","slug":"georgetown-course-on-launching-the-venture-launches-new-student-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/georgetown-course-on-launching-the-venture-launches-new-student-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgetown Course on ‘Launching the Venture’ Launches New Student Authors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The business world is changing, as more and more college students seem to be steering themselves away from the world of big corporations and big business and opting to start their own business. This entrepreneurial mindset is spreading like wildfire, fueling creative visions and helping create employment opportunities across the country. The term \u2018startup\u2019 has become one of the most popular buzzwords in the business world, which is understandable as small companies continue to explode onto the business scene and redefine their industries. Given all this, it is hardly surprising that colleges and universities would be doing their best to create opportunities for their students to explore and learn about the world of startups and entrepreneurship. <\/span><\/p>\n

Georgetown University is one of those schools.<\/strong> Students with an interest in entrepreneurship at Georgetown University\u2019s McDonough School of Business were recently offered a <\/span>rare opportunity<\/span><\/a>. These students were enrolled in a course titled \u201cLaunching the Venture,\u201d taught by adjunct professor and entrepreneur-in-residence <\/span>Eric Koester<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A noted veteran of the startup world, Koester is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He has also founded multiple companies, such as new technology startup Main Street Genome and small business and service marketplace Zaarly, which is dubbed one of the Fifty Most Innovative Companies in the World by media brand Fast Company. In addition, served as an executive at Appature Inc., which was acquired by IMS, and was one of the founders at Learn That Name, which was acquired by Blackberry. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Koester is not just a businessman. He has published multiple books on entrepreneurship. In this year\u2019s class, his students wrote and published books of their own because he wanted to try something different, Koester told TUN.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’d taught the Launching the Venture course for the past three years but grew frustrated because it was more theory than practice. That’s why I decided to try something unique this year: I told the students they’d be creating books.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He told TUN that his instruction to the students was simple. \u201cFind something you are passionate about and write a manuscript that teaches your audience something<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal was to have each student demonstrate their purpose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems safe to say that Koester accomplished his purpose. The class contained 32 students, almost all of whom had never written more than 10 pages at a time prior to the course. By the time the manuscripts were completed, though, according to Koester, the average length was 21,000 words. The quality of the student works was so good that a publisher decided not just to publish 16 of them, but to create a new publishing imprint titled New Degree Press. Of the 16 new authors, one has been signed by a literary agent. The following semester saw these authors work with professional designers to create covers for their books and begin to market them. On April 25th, they are due to hit the shelves. <\/span><\/p>\n

The books written by these students cover many different fascinating and important topics. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a summary of a few books:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n