Biz Start-Ups Encouraged

Despite the gloomy economic conditions, a group of 20 business-minded undergraduates found encouragement yesterday in the form of Albert E. Wenger ’90.

The former president of the social bookmarking site Del.icio.us and current partner at Union Square Ventures—a firm with a diverse portfolio that includes the popular social messaging site Twitter—shared his entrepreneurial advice and experiences as part of a speaker series hosted by the Harvard College Entrepreneurship Forum.

“It’s all about getting started,” he said. “There are a lot of statistics, but an important one is that 100 percent of start-ups that don’t start fail,” he said.

Wenger also spoke about the difficulties associated with start-ups in particular.

“Being able to handle failure well is an entrepreneurial requisite,” he said.

Shankar G. Ramaswamy ’11 said he found Wenger’s words helpful in considering future developments for his own start-up, which he is working on with David A. Kosslyn ’11, co-president of the student group that sponsored the talk.

“The hardest thing once you get started is adapting to unforeseen circumstances,” said Ramaswamy, who is also a Crimson editorial writer. “We change our direction every two days.”

Their project is still in the process of recruiting users.

Christina J. Kelly ’09 was another attendee who had already accrued some entrepreneurial experience through a company she started in order to promote computer gaming as a sport.

Wenger also discussed the impact of the current economic crisis on start-ups but told the students not to let the current market turbulence deter them.

“If the financial crisis has proven anything,” he said, “it’s that working for a large institution is just as safe as starting your own business.”