Tapping into SMU’s innovation ecosystem
Tapping business plan tips, a network of mentors and serious seed funding, startup-minded students aiming to transform their bold ideas into businesses get the edge they need to succeed.
Ranked among the nation’s top entrepreneurial cities by Inc., WalletHub and others, Dallas offers a wealth of opportunities and resources for building businesses from the ground up.
Some students arrive on the Hilltop with a plan in mind. Others find that spark in a class, through a research project or even in a casual conversation over coffee.
When they decide to bring their vision to life, students can find step-by-step support. Across the campus, a multitude of experiential, academic and research resources provide a framework for entrepreneurial endeavors, while funding from grants and competitions get them off the ground.
Our network of alumni leaders, founders, innovators and creators stretches from coast to coast and across the globe. They’ve blazed new paths in tech, business and just about every other sector of the economy. As mentors, they provide guidance, share expertise, generate opportunities and cheer on students finding new ways to make an impact on the world.
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Turning a brainstorm into a real business
Through Engaged Learning’s Big iDeas and the Incubator@SMU, students have access to mentors, programming and funding. Check out this video to hear from Jennifer Ebinger, director, and Camille McCallum, assistant director, about the ways students are already changing the world with their businesses.
Seun Suberu ’23
Seun Suberu ’23 co-founded the CollegePlus app to help students take control of their future. Now it’s setting his direction, too. Over the past three years, Suberu has earned more than $85,000 in funding through multiple SMU competitions to fuel his startup.
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Raleigh Dewan ’23
Raleigh Dewan ’23 took two things he was passionate about and put them together: Fighting human trafficking and brewing tea.
His company, Sister Shaq's Tea Company, is a packaged beverage company with teas that taste good and does good by supporting a mission to end human trafficking. Through the support and funds he received through SMU's Big iDeas competition and the Incubator, he is able to operate his business while still attending school full time.
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Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club
Collaboration, connection and community are the calling cards of this campus organization focused on accelerating the success of entrepreneurial students.
Learning to build successful arts organizations
Through undergraduate minors and two graduate programs, the Division of Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts prepares future managers, entrepreneurs and innovators for long-term careers in arts organizations and the creative economy.
Launching a passion project
The Office of Engaged Learning provides undergraduates with the tools and resources they need to connect a personal passion with academic learning in a signature work. Among recent student projects are a podcast for international students and a gourmet mushroom farm.
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SMU alum connects tech and beauty
SMU alum Courtney Caldwell ’00, a former international marketing executive, and her husband Tye, an award-winning salon owner, are shaking up the salon industry with ShearShare, a B2B platform shaped for the gig economy. They recently closed a $2.3 million round of new funding. Hear how they transformed an analog solution to an age-old problem into the ShearShare app, matching independent beauty industry professionals with empty chairs in existing salons.
Bold move
Whitney Wolfe Herd ’11, founder and CEO of Bumble Inc., became the youngest woman in the U.S. to take a company public in February 2021. In this article from the SMU Magazine archives, she talks about her evolution as a tech powerhouse.
Entrepreneurial brothers go ‘all in’
Brothers and SMU alumni Stuart Edenfield ’07 and Curtis Edenfield ’09 envisioned a life of entrepreneurship after the Hilltop. After a decade of working for others in the world of aviation, they founded private jet charter company Thrive Aviation in 2018.
Breaking out on her own
From learning how to run a small business in a lumberyard at the age of 4 to managing more than a billion dollars before turning 40, Lacey Horn ’04, ’05 shares her Mustang journey and expert financial perspective.