Blogs

Originally posted in our March 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. So you’re setting out to test an assumption that you hope will solve a problem in the world that others will value. As we reflected in the previous article, it is important to start testing ideas rather than carefully planning, especially in the early stages of an idea. But knowing how potential users will interact with the concept is also essential. If you’re establishing a new…

Originally posted in our February 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. The line between product and service has become a continuum in recent years, and as such, we have to adjust how we conceptualize new ventures. As the services organizations provide become more complex, there is a potential strain on both the end user and the team propping up the internal process. Enter service design. “[L]eaving services to individual talent and managing the pieces rather than the…

Originally posted in our July 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Startups are often seen as risky, requiring significant time and monetary investment to get going. While that’s not an entirely false perception, we at ELI have found that there is much more we, as educators and entrepreneurial support workers, can do to prepare someone for the trials of starting a fledgling business. In this piece from CB Insights, we see the top 12 reasons (by their…

Originally posted in our June 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. While we’re considering paths towards growth and innovation, we also need to think about developing effective systems to channel these goals. As this piece from 2019 suggests, many entrepreneurs treat each sale opportunity as a way to uniquely meet their clients’ needs. Initially, this is great for them to try out many little tweaks to their proposed solution. However, it very quickly limits you from scaling…

Originally posted in our May 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. After two full years of pandemic life, we can better reflect on how we as a society and as individuals handled ourselves. A stark contrast emerges between those who froze and those who found a way. Despite limitations to school or work, some of us found areas of our lives we could control, and made the most of a difficult solution. What was the difference? As…

Originally posted in our March 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. We end this month’s Top of Mind by reflecting on “choosing joy” from the blog formerly known as Brain Pickings (now The Marginalian). Maria Popova writes beautifully about how we should choose joy “at first consciously, effortfully, pressing against the weight of a world heavy with reasons for sorrow, restless with need for action.” She urges us to choose joy despite all that the world throws…

Originally posted in our November 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. As we close out our discussion of building entrepreneurial culture, let’s consider one more option for fostering innovation: the side project. In his recent essay, Paul Graham thinks through the beauty of a self-directed project. That is, a project “that you’re doing voluntarily, rather than merely because someone told you to, and…that you’re doing it by yourself.” Graham shares the wealth of positive emotions that come…

Originally posted in our November 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. As we think more about creating an entrepreneurial culture, we must consider various ways to promote the behavior. For example, in a recent blog from Matt Clancy, we see more evidence that social influence promotes entrepreneurship. In this piece, we see that entrepreneurial co-workers increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity in us. And, it is even more likely if we have other things in common such…

Originally posted in our October 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter. “Is good ethics good for business? Crime and sleazy behavior sometimes pay off handsomely. People would not do such things if they didn’t think they were more profitable than the alternatives.” With topics of climate change, societal inequity, and governance at the forefront of many big thinkers’ minds, we need to talk about the role of ethics in business. This piece suggests that while unethical behavior…