The Father of Modern Entrepreneurship is coming to UC Santa Cruz. As the featured speaker for the first annual Entrepreneurial Day at UCSC, Steve Blank will host a fireside chat this Saturday, May 21 at noon in the Merrill Cultural Center. During the chat, Blank will engage with students, staff, and faculty about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. He will share his own experiences–and success–as an innovator, business person, author, and educator.
Credited with launching the Lean Startup movement and the curriculums for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps and Hacking for Defense and Diplomacy, Blank changed how startups are built; how entrepreneurship is taught; how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. Given these industry-leading accomplishments, Steve is often described as the Father of Modern Entrepreneurship.
Blank is an adjunct professor at Stanford and co-founder of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. He is also the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany and The Startup Owner’s Manual which revolutionized how startups are built. His Harvard Business Review cover story redefined how large companies can innovate at speed.
After Blank's talk, there will be a resource fair and networking event with clubs from around campus. Students will have the opportunity to connect with their peers and build upon the entrepreneurial lessons learned during the fireside chat.
This year’s inaugural Entrepreneurial Day at UCSC caps a series of Entrepreneurship Month events sponsored by Student Union Assembly (SUA), Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED), the Innovation and Business Engagement Hub, and Student Creativity and Entrepreneurial Empowerment (SCEE). The month-long programming effort started April 14 with a guest lecture by Toby Corey. Since then, students have had the opportunity to participate in Lean Startup BootCamp, attend a guest lecture about Marketing by Rick Vargas, and pitch their own business ideas at SlugTank.
Register to attend Entrepreneurial Day at scee.ucsc.edu. Admission is free and open to the public.
