Entrepreneurs Advance Businesses At Babson College's Summer Venture Program

WELLESLEY, Mass., June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Babson College's Summer Venture Program is host to 17 entrepreneurs representing 14 different startup ventures.

Now in its 4th year, Summer Venture is sponsored by The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson, and is open to students and recent alumni from Babson College, Wellesley College, and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

The program provides an optimal environment for undergraduate and MBA entrepreneurs to further refine their business skills, and accelerate their ventures.

The 10-week program includes many unique features, and in reality, is a social community of entrepreneurs and mentors networking in an open, communal workspace on Babson's bucolic campus in Wellesley, MA.

Noontime lecture series cover a wide range of topics in entrepreneurship, including conversations with successful entrepreneurs, investors, and company advisors.

Participants also engage in "Hot Seat" sessions where they learn to critique presentations and develop engaging sales and investor pitches.

All of this culminates with Demo Day, when each team presents their entrepreneurial concept to venture capitalists, angel investors, friends and family. This year's Demo Day is July 26th.

The 2012 Babson Summer Venture Businesses and Entrepreneurs are:

• BEEP for Monopoly (Ramon Salinas - Babson M'12) - BEEP is a nonprofit that creates Extension Packs for popular board games to help teachers teach business concepts and entrepreneurial skills to high school kids.
• Bien Fait (Rebecca Borenstein - Babson M'13) - Bien Fait offers business women in the prime of their careers luxurious apparel to suit their busy lifestyles.
• BYOBeats (Thomas Lavin & Greg Schwartz-Babson '12) - BYOBeats offers a unique wireless surround sound system that connects sound from any home media device.
  http://signup.byobeats.com/
• CAMFormulas.com (Josh Harwell - Babson M'13) - CAMFormulas.com is an online retailer of high-quality, pharmaceutical grade vitamins, dietary supplements, and other nutritional products.
  http://www.camformulas.com/
  http://www.facebook.com/CAMFormulas
  @CAMFormulas
• Expressionality (David Blutenthal - Babson M'13) - Expressionality is a dating site that calibrates matches based on musical taste.
• Game Day (Demetri Demascus - Babson '13) - Game Day provides high quality, masculine grooming necessities, including skincare and hair-dye, at affordable prices for the busy man on the run.
  http://register.gamedaymens.com/
• HeSpoke (Njweng (Jojo) Yangni & Stella Odewumi - Wellesley '14) - HeSpoke is an online menswear destination with unique boutique apparel at an affordable price. Launched in 2012 by two friends, HeSpoke explores style as an extension of self. Designers, creators, and innovators weave stories about how clothing is integrated into daily life.
• MandaSeguro (Matias Sevi - Babson '12) - MandaSeguro is an online portal that will allow for the transfer of money from individuals living in the US to pre-designated businesses in LATAM so that the money sent is safely and efficiently spent within stores.
• Partycal (Andy Huang-Babson '13) - An event search and recommendation engine for college students in the Boston area.
• PhotoOil (Lei Wang-Babson M'13) - Customized oil painting to capture your cherished memory forever.
  http://www.photooil.com/
  @PhotoOil1
  http://www.facebook.com/PhotoAndOil
• Qonfide.com (Colby Sato-Olin Engineering '14) - Change the coming out experience by meaningfully connecting closeted and questioning students with openly queer peers and teachers in the local community.
• SidewalkAd (Cliff Lee-Babson M'12 & Walter Dobberpuhl) - SidewalkAd is a do-it-yourself advertising solution for local businesses to reach consumers on their smartphones.
  http://www.sidewalkad.com/
• SWRV LLC (Ronald Diep-Babson '15) - SWRV's mission is to spread Hawaii's national and global presence through Hawaiian products.
  http://www.swrvhawaiianshirts.com/
  @SwrvingHawaii
  http://www.facebook.com/SWRVHawaii
• TaxiRideNow (Sam Garzon-Babson M'13) - TaxiRideNow is a real-time taxi reservation mobile app, which allows the user to reserve the closest taxi available with the push of a button.

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society -- while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

SOURCE Babson College