Huge thanks to NU Alum and founder of Greenhorn Connect Jason Evanish for speaking to us tonight!

Jason taught us 10 things they don’t teach us about entrepreneurship in college – check out his awesome slide deck here! From learning how to send a proper email to maintaining a network, Jason passed on some very tangible advice. Jason’s stressed the importance to learn how to handle failure, as failure is engrained in the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Member Spotlight

Annika Morgan

What entrepreneurship means to Annika: Independence, innovation and the ability to stray from what is conventional and start something new.

Your Passion: Seeing the good in everyone and everything.

Your Interests: Photography, traveling, running, meeting new people, backpacking, cooking, eating, and innovation.

Your Future plans: Not a clue. I would love to do something involving photography, social entrepreneurship, and travel, but we’ll see.

Something interesting about Annika: I can’t sit while I watch TV or movies, so I knit, but I have never actually completed anything.

Special thanks to Director of Terrible Labs and Co-Founder of Dart Boston Cort Johnson for coming out to speak to us tonight! Cort walked us through all the steps of his first attempt at a startup, and explained all of what went wrong. One of his main failures was that he built in so much unnecessary functionality, that it ultimately diluted the value to the user. Cort left us by saying that the importance of reaching out and engaging in the entrepreneurial community.

Member Spotlight

Eileen Han

What entrepreneurship means to Eileen: Not only preparing for getting the chance to be successful but actually getting the opportunity to fully shine my light and that of others.

Your Passion: Facing challenges and being adventurous that make me feel fearful for the first time but that bring me a great joy of accomplishment. This is the biggest reason I came to the States.

Your Interests: Meeting people, cooking and baking, playing the piano, taking pictures, traveling, and learning different cultures and languages.

Your Future plans: I want to be a great mentor so that I can give advice and support someone to live up to his/her potential.

Huge thanks to Mike Dreese CEO and Founder of Newbury Comics for coming out to speak to us today! Mike humored us with his stories of his involvement with Newbury Comics and how it became a multimillion dollar business. Beneath the humor, he stressed the point of taking risks and not fearing mistakes. In fact, one associate at Newbury accidentally put in an extra order for Pokemon cards, which gave Newbury Comics 25% of all Pokemon Cards in the United States at one point! Mike concluded by stating that in order for startups to succeed, there must be team players willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes.

Thanks to CEO and Founder of Boloco John Pepper for speaking to us today! John was very real with us, and his passion for burritos shined through when he spoke. John seems to have a firm grasp on the importance of always doing right by the customer, as they are a businesses’ most important asset. John left us on the note that “you should never stop saying what’s important to your employees” – because, as a business owner, you have the vision and it’s your mission to help your employees understand what that vision is.

Member Spotlight

Brandon Bogan

What entrepreneurship means to Brandon: Entrepreneurship is the art of utilizing business to make some component of society better.

Passion: I like learning/trying new things that make me an interesting and well rounded person.

Interests: Entrepreneurship, of course. Also I like the culinary arts, and like sports, especially hockey (Go Bruins!)

Future plans: I plan to be the founder of several startups, become rich, and spend the rest of my life with my family, traveling, helping others, and having fun.

Something interesting about Brandon: I’m semi vegan.

Special thanks to Jason Henrichs COO of Perkstreet Financial for coming out to speak to us last night! Jason told us that all of our ideas sucked. Why, you ask? Because ideas alone are worthless. Without action, no progress is made. Jason stressed the fact that too many entrepreneurs fall in love with their idea, and often forget the road that must be taken to turn that into a reality.

Member Spotlight

Stephanie Zhang

What entrepreneurship means to Stephanie: Taking an innovative idea, turning it into a profitable business, learning along the way.

Passion: Traveling/exploring/adventuring, excelling every day.

Interests: Cheerleading, music, fashion, cooking/baking, volunteering, hugs.

Future plans: I prefer moving in a general direction as opposed to making plans in the distant future.

Something interesting about Stephanie: I went to five different elementary schools in four different school districts, and three states.

A huge thanks to Ryan Durkin, the COO of CampusLive for speaking to us last night! Ryan discussed the lessons he learned as an entrepreneur and stressed the importance of hard work and perseverance. It is difficult to work in a start up (nearly all employees lost their girlfriends) but it truly pays off. Ryan showed us the importance of developing leadership, networking, and the critical success of a building a strong personal brand.

Member Spotlight

Brendan Teebagy

What entrepreneurship means to Brendan: Working towards something that you feel can benefit yourself and the world around you, and then acting on it so it becomes a reality.

Passion: hearing different people’s stories about life, and giving back to the community

Interests: playing sports, watching sports, meeting and interacting with new people

Future plans: to help make people’s lives better in some way

Something interesting about Brendan:When I was born my name was originally Connor, but my parents changed it toBrendan 3 days later.

We want YOUR opinion!

We put together a brief survey to get your feedback and ideas for how the club can be awesome in 2012.

The survey will take less than 5 minutes and you’ll have the chance to win a FREE $25 Boloco gift card.

Click here to take the survey!

Happy holidays from the EClub exec team!

Thanks to Dave Bisceglia of The Tap Lab for coming out to speak out our last get together of the semester! Dave, a recent BU graduate, gave us a great look into the world of freshly stepping into the start-up scene in Boston. Dave stressed the importance of building a company, and talking about the future plans as if they’re “on the horizon.”

A special thanks to everybody who took part in our programs or get togethers this semester. This semester has been nothing but a great success, and it’s all due to the effort and dedication of our exec board, and the passion that our members show whenever we see them.

Member Spotlight

Tyler Raduzycki

Freshman Pharmacy Major

Entrepreneurship to Tyler: Having the ability to turn an idea all your own into something you can share with others and transform into a profit.

Passion? Always going above and beyond my expectations and proving to others that I can do anything.

Interests: Running, Entrepreneurship, Skiing, Medicine

Future plans? I want to learn all I can about pharmaceuticals, and eventually open my own chain of independent pharmacies serving low income communities.

Something interesting about Tyler: I have two different color eyelashes; One blonde, and one brown.

With over 200 in attendance from Northeastern and the Boston community, Demo Day was an incredible close to the Husky Startup Challenge!

Congratulations to all of our winners!

First place ($1,250) – Notely

Maroun Najjar

Second place ($1,000) – A Face For Me

Anthony Ciampa

Audience Favorite ($750) – World Wide Women

Brandy Mitnick, Lillee Tissot

Congratulations to all who participated – you are all at the heart of innovation and entrepreneurship at Northeastern, and you all have done an amazing job throughout the Husky Startup Challenge! Thanks to all who made this possible!

Thanks to all of our BUILD students, members, mentors, and facilitators. BUILD came to a close this semester with the Ideastorm workshop, which a 2 hour session full of brainstorming and innovation. These BUILD students had some fantastic product ideas, and their excitement within the program truly shined through. Great job by Kasra Farivari and Dan Asulin for making this all happen!