Provided

Prue's Social Business Consulting Group works with groups that provide microfinance loans to small business owners, like these women in Bangladesh who Prue visited (in rear left of photo).

For entrepreneurial Cornell students, the 168 entrepreneurship classes offered on campus provide an academic foundation for their dreams of starting and running their own companies after graduation.

Those classes, which last year had an enrollment of 9,817, range from the popular Johnson School Entrepreneurship and Enterprise class to Social Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Problem Solvers, a new course focused on social businesses.

Students also can take advantage of several Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) on campus - at the Johnson School, the Hotel School and the Student Agencies eLab.

Starting a company

Some students, however, don't wait until graduation to start a business.

"I love being able to take something from nothing and build it up," says Andrew Grauer '09, founder and chairman of coursehero.com.

The Web site, an online study network, connects students from colleges across the country to share outlines, solutions, study guides, exams, presentations, notes and formulas. After two years, the site had 320,000 users in a single month.

"We were students, and we saw what we needed," said Armand Hershowitz '09, the company's vice president of marketing. "[Also] people who don't go to college can take part in the classes." The partners have raised $500,000 in financing and attracted a founder of ecandy.com as their new CEO.

"My heart is with startups," says Matt Dacey, MBA '09, who started multiple businesses while in college at Syracuse University and sold two of those companies. He now helps to run customgrocery.com, software for grocery businesses. "People have less time than ever, and they're more comfortable with the Web," Dacey said. "People are placing more of a value on convenience."

Organizing around entrepreneurship

Jon Reis

Jessi Prue '09 is founder of the Social Business Consulting Group.

Some students, like Jessi Prue '09, use their entrepreneurial skills to benefit others. An undergraduate business major in applied economics and management (AEM), Prue is combining her skills in marketing, finance, economics, management and Spanish with her desire to help people improve their lives. Last spring semester, she studied international and sustainable development in Argentina, visiting artisans, farms and other small sustainable businesses. She was particularly impressed by the women of Tekojoja Kuna Rembiapope (TKR) in Paraguay, who create beautiful leather bags, clothing and other handworks but needed new international markets for their goods.

Four new projects - in India, Ecuador, Cameroon and Colombia - are under way for spring 2009.

"These people are passionate about their cause, but they don't have the business background or entrepreneurial skills they need," Prue said. In Ithaca, she put together a team of students -- the Social Business Consulting Group -- to research the fair trade movement for TKR. They designed a Web site, produced a catalog and price sheet, conducted market surveys, examined international distribution channels, prepared a final report for TKR and initiated contacts with retailers and importers to get the process started.

"I realized that there are so many nongovernmental organizations and international agencies that would love to be connected to business students," she said. "I know that each one is only a band aid on a huge wound, but right now we're starting small to make sure we're effective."

Projects in 2008 included Pellital, a microfinance institution in Senegal, run by Isys Johnson, AEM '11 and Prue; TWG Partners, a microfinance investment fund in Michigan that makes loans to entrepreneurs around the world, run by Rahkeem MorrisAEM '10 and Prue; and Brightstart, an educational and mentoring institution in Ghana that helps prepare high school students for admission into selective universities, run by Jenna Walker, Engr '10 and Suleman Iddrissu, AEM '10.

Meanwhile Joe Strandberg '10, through his Web business weplace.net, offers product placement on YouTube. Although the business is still in its initial stages, Strandberg sees great potential because of the growing self-publishing market on the Web.

"I like jumping in early on something," he said. "I like creating things and seeing them grow."

Jon Reis

Santomauro

Jonathan Santomauro '10 has started a business that helps companies procure everything from needles to nectarines, saving them money and time and helping them to focus on the more valuable aspects of their business.

A government major in the College of Arts and Sciences, Santomauro is the newest student to sign on with Student Agencies eLab, where he hopes to connect with alumni mentors and learn more about growing his business, Global Procurement Strategies.

"I know it will be important to have this knowledge base behind me as I'm making decisions," said Santomauro, who started his company in 2005 as an offshoot of his parents' office supply business in Philadelphia (ISG Office Concepts). "The eLab will really help me with business planning and development."

Santomauro said the business works mainly with pharmaceutical companies and large contract research organizations, which need products for clinical trials and research.

"On average, we've saved customers 31 percent," he said.

Santomauro is president of the company, focusing on marketing, sales and strategy from his cell phone and laptop, taking conference calls, designing presentations, calling clients and doing research while his mother handles daily operations in Philadelphia.

"I knew a lot of business concepts going into the [Cornell entrepreneurial] classes, but I didn't know what they were called and why they worked," Santomauro said. "What I've learned in class has made me a much more effective business leader."

Kathy Hovis is a writer and editor for Entrepreneurship@Cornell. This article is adapted from eship magazine.