Frederick Cook

Over the six or so years I’ve been a student at Virginia Tech, there have been a number of student entrepreneurship societies that have come and gone, but last night, something happened here that I haven’t seen before. The newest student group, Entrepreneurship Society @ Virginia Tech got together with some local start-up guys (Ken Maready and Bob Summers) and held an elevator pitch competition, with $500 cash for the winner. I couldn’t stay the whole time to see who won, but there were at least a few several sharp kids with some pretty good ideas.

Hopefully this kind of activity is a new trend here. This kind of partnership would not have been possible five years ago, but with VT KnowledgeWorks and the Virignia Tech Corporate Research Center very actively promoting entrepreneurship, there are plenty of resources for start-ups here in town.

My long-term hope is to see the establishment of some kind of center for entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech which will actively bind the start-up and student communities. (Here is an Entrepreneur Magazine article on some schools and towns that have done a great job of this.) This would not have been possible five years ago, but everything we would need is here today.

It is an exciting time to be in the start-up community in Blacksburg. Lets keep this momentum going.