An entrepreneurial life

 

We had not planned to be entrepreneurs—we were academics who believe that complex research could make a difference in everyday lives. The Durationator forced us out of our academic comfort zone, and we put on the new hat of entrepreneur.

 

Over the last few years, we have been helped by a tremendous number of people. We began our entrepreneurial journey as incubator fellows at Idea Village, where Tim Williamson has always been incredibly generous with us. We were assisted by U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Businesss students through IdeaCorp and a few years later by a group of DePaul business students. Over the past year, we have been fellows at Propeller, a social incubator, where Andrea Chin, Brett Long, Kevin Wilkins, along with our 2013–2014 fellows, have been there in every way possible. We are incredibly grateful for their advice and thoughts and for giving us a place to call home. We will continue to be active Propeller alumni.

 

We learned a greal deal along the way. So much so that we have started the Law/Culture/Innovaion Intiative at Tulane, which focuses on two primary goals: orienting law students to the experiences of entrepreneurs by connecting to local community needs on a project basis; and developing what we call the academic lean start-up model.