Senior Reflection - 7 Unconventional Pieces of Advice for Your Time at Colgate

This was originally published in the 2011 graduation edition of the Colgate Maroon-News. By Harry Raymond.

By way of a senior reflection, here are seven somewhat unconventional pieces of advice that may make your Colgate experience you.

1.      1. Professors and administrators are often wrong.

Critical thinking is the most valuable skill you will learn at Colgate and it should be a mission of the college. Too often we forget that we should practice it. Professors are a professional source of knowledge and wisdom. That’s their job. They deserve our respect but respect is not the same as unqualified reference. As much as anyone, professors carry their personal bias and values into their work but the good professors welcome being challenged.    

Engage in meaningful conversations even with a dean or a campus cop. Do you have a problem with a Campus Safety policy? Invite an officer to sit down and talk about it over lunch. It’s important to ask why a policy is in place and if it’s reaching it’s intended goal. You’d be surprised how receptive the administration is to change but you have to take the first step to change it.

2.    2. Get Involved with Greek Life.

Being a part of the array of entrepreneurial activities that occurs inside a Greek house – from planning a concert to coordinating kitchen jobs - has been my single most valuable experience at Colgate. 75 students with a diverse group of skills, campus connections and access to resources can make creative ideas come to life.

Whether you are a member of Greek Life or not, the Greek community is a major part of the Colgate community. Be a part of it. Greek life has to be initially exclusive but exclusivity does not mean that Greek houses do not welcome collaboration and sharing their experiences and resources. Party for Pink, Brother’s Poker tournament, and Community Bikes are just a few recent events that happen because non-Greek organizations approach a fraternity with ideas for action that welcome the entire community.

3.      3. Don’t do anything for your resume. Follow your passions.

When I tell people that I’m studying Political Science, I often get the response “So you want to work for the government?” This reflects one fundamental problem with higher education. Learning is no longer about intellectual freedom but is, rather, a means to an end – a career. Is that really what Liberal arts education is about?

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville warned of this phenomenon which he called “restless anxiety in prosperity.” This is a tendency of economic cultures in which people become so focused on the “rat race” and economic mobility that they lose their sense of exploration and reflection. College should be more than career prep. 

When else will you have the chance to take a class on the Science of Sports or Mayan Astronomy or Photography? Choose your major based on what interests you. I opted to do a thesis-like independent project on baseball. I pursued one of my sincere interests and it was an exciting academic experience.  

Liberal arts education is not about what you learn but learning how to learn. Yes, we all have to feed ourselves and pay off student loans but just focusing on career prep will not make your education investment less valuable. Exploring new things is a luxury that we don’t want to throw away. Follow your passions and your resume will build itself.

4.     4. Break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend from home.

Holding on to a high school sweetheart can isolate you. Too many of my friends regret trying to make a long distance relationship work in their first or second year.

They spent nights Skyping instead of going to a campus concert or meeting new people. They spent weekends driving to their girlfriend’s college instead of going on a rock climbing trip or organizing a campus event. Some can balance the obligations of a long-distance relationships, but, for too many, it diminishes their college experience.

 There are great people to love on this campus. Don’t isolate yourself and make sure you get the most out of your short time here at Colgate. It won’t last long.

5.    5.  Don’t be afraid to make a fool out of yourself.

Get outside your comfort zone as much as possible. I joined the Rugby team my freshmen year as a pudgy 5’7” kid who didn’t know the rules of the sport and likely was to get squashed by the conventional rugby players. After a month, bloody and bruised, I quit because it was too much of a struggle. I wish I hadn’t quit because even the initial first step spurred an interest in a foreign sport. The more uncomfortable situations you put yourself in, the more confident you’ll become.

6.     6. Meet new people as much as you can.

Some professors have argued that this place is too much of “Camp Colgate” and more focus on academics is needed. My academic experience here has been rewarding, sharpening my communication skills and learning to think critically. However, the academic experience has not defined my Colgate experience. A Colgate degree is a dynamic one which separates us from some of our peer institutions.

Go downtown and learn how to drink a beer but, more importantly, create a network of beer drinkers. When you graduate, what you’ll take with you is the friends you’ve met. I’m thinking of starting my own business after school. The Colgate network provides me with an endless supply of smart people with different skills. I wouldn’t be able to tap that resource if I hadn’t made an effort to go out and meet people.

7.      7. Don’t go abroad

At the Global Leaders Lecture series, President Herbst proudly stated that more than 60 percent of Colgate students study abroad. Is this necessarily a good thing?

I studied in London last year and loved it. I loved the city, I loved travelling, I loved meeting locals in pubs and I loved the Colgate students on my trip. At the same time, going abroad took me away from Colgate at the peak of my development. I was just taking on leadership positions in organizations, and my academic experience was just beginning to focus.

Travel is valuable because it teaches us about other cultures and makes us more globalized citizens but being away made me appreciate Hamilton even more. This is a highly energetic, passionate, and hard-working community that we often take for granted. We shouldn’t have to leave to appreciate it. We all have to leave soon enough.

Travel over the summer. Take an alternative Spring Break trip. I plan on spending the rest of my life travelling the world whenever I can but I will never be able to spend another semester in a vibrant environment where my only obligation is to learn. You only have eight semesters at Colgate. Make them count. 

Editor's Column: Admin Sends Drinking Underground

This was originally published on the front page of the Maroon-News on March 24, 2011. I had lunch with Dean Charlotte Johnson to discuss the article. She departed for a job at Dartmouth a month later.

Many students do not know that every Broad Street party (al­coholic or non-alcoholic) must be registered with Residential Life. The registration process has some perfectly good goals: to form a working relationship between the administration and students and to create a safer environment in which students can socialize. Yet, in the three years since Res Life started re­quiring registration, there has been a noticeable spike in alcohol-related hospitalizations and deterioration in the relationship between Broad Street and the administration. Somehow, with increased oversight and planning, Colgate has become less safe. How can this be? To an­swer this question, consider a few of the requirements for holding a registered, alcoholic event:

- If a party has more than 99 peo­ple (the six fraternities have an aver­age of 75 members), it must either be catered or be entirely non-alcoholic.

- A registered party requires that each guest bring his or her own alcohol (BYOB event).

There are several unwritten requirements for BYOB events:

- When a guest brings beer or wine (no hard alcohol), the guest must be ID'd and obtain a wrist band at the door, at which point the guest's alcohol is labeled and taken to a central dispensing area.

- A "bar book" must be kept at the dispensing area. If a guest asks for a beer, only that guest's labeled beer can be dispensed and it must be recorded. If a guest asks for a non-alcoholic drink (such as orange juice) that also must be recorded in the bar book.

- The guest must stay with his or her beer or wine in the dispensing area so the party's sponsor can en­sure that the guest does not share his or her alcohol with another per­son, a responsibility that lies solely with that organization.

These requirements are unrealistic and both students and Residential Life know it. The policies force all the participants, students and administrators to engage in a thinly disguised and inherently dishonest game.

Even worse, the registration policies undermine conduct that keeps students safe, such as mandates that designated sober members patrol parties, that food and water be pro­vided to their guests, that a risk management plan be implemented and that social hosts complete an alcohol safety course.

Presumably, the university understands that undergraduates will have parties with alco­hol. If that was not the case, they would just ban drinking and strictly enforce it. But the policies now in place do nothing to promote responsible or moderate behavior.

The administration should look to the lessons of America's disastrous experiment in the prohibition of alcohol.

The eighteenth amendment slightly reduced overall alcohol consumption but the re­duction came largely among those who already drank responsibly. All other drinkers went underground, creating a black market for a banned substance. The result was a dramatic increase in organized crime, violence and alcohol-related hospitalizations.

The price premium that resulted drove consumers to more potent and dangerous liquor. Law enforcement officials and politicians quickly realized that consistent and comprehen­sive enforcement was impossible and looked the other way (many for a price), selectively prosecuting when it was politically necessary.

Worst of all, this led to a pervasive mistrust of authority and skepticism about the rule of law, a problem that persists to this day.

This has far-reaching implications for any society. The administration's policies have already had similar black market effects at Colgate.

When students cannot register on-campus alcoholic events, regulated and realistic social options become limited.

This does not stop students from drinking. Instead, underclassmen choose to drink behind closed doors, "ripping shots" before being spotted. They "pregame" harder because they can't get into a party later.

The administration has made it too risky for fraternities to hold non-exclusive events that the larger campus can attend, but those same fraternities are criticized for being socially exclusive.

When the administration decides to enforce its policies, the first punishment is usually taking away the ability to register events.

This simply drives organizations to drink off-campus with no risk management plan or sober community, bringing social activities into houses and apartments with out-of-date fire codes and limited access. No wonder off-campus housing is in such high demand.

Colgate's solution is to respond with more pervasive prohibition policies. In the past year, the administration has banned outdoor/porch drinking, implemented late night walk-throughs, barred first-years from first semester Greek events and continued its haphazard enforcement of their unrealistic registration policies.

While each of these policies is implemented with good intentions, the administra­tion seems unaware that prohibition policies have not curbed behavior but, rather, have displaced drinking to unregulated and unsafe environments.

The solution to unsafe and underground drinking is obvious: make alcoholic event registration clear, consistent and realistic.

Eliminate the fantasy of large-scale BYOB events and negotiate a way for organizations to safely dispense alcohol to a reasonable and manageable number of guests.

Nobody wants anyone getting hurt, not just because students care about the safety of their friends, but also because they know their organization is on the line if something goes wrong.

Universities like Dartmouth and Cornell do not prohibit alcoholic events but, instead, implement specific risk management plans based on the type and size of the event. There is a high degree of peer-to-peer regulation (i.e. Inter Fraternity Council [IFC] and RA walk­throughs) to help enforce realistic community and university standards. Dartmouth does not pretend drinking games do not exist, but instead occasionally sends campus safety to make sure students are safe, not to "write them up."

This cooperation fosters a more honest and stronger relationship between students and the administration.

To be fair, Colgate's administration has a real liability problem. Like all universities, they constantly have to worry about the threat that someone will come along and sue Colgate for not taking reasonable steps to avoid alcohol problems.

Prioritizing liability often prevents the administration from creating a nurturing com­munity with trust and shared values.

In this case, liability avoidance is creating a less safe environment at the same time as it undermines the sense of community, an irony that is, perhaps, lost on the administration, but which will not necessarily shield them from liability. It is just like Prohibition.

This is the creature of a society that is driven by lawsuits that are determined to make someone responsible for whatever happens to anyone.

But, that said, Colgate should realize that the steps it is taking to limit its liability are also driving students to drink unsafely, both undermining the sense of community and creating skepticism of authority.

After his first visit to America in 1921, Albert Einstein wrote about the destructive alcohol laws he observed: "The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered con­siderably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the govern­ment and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced." Underground, Colgate students are saying just the same thing.

Goodbye for now

After graduating this past May, I have been planning a cross-country road trip and I finally leave with two fellow Colgate grads tomorrow. New Jersey to California and back. No hotels.  

There is so much pressure to get a job right after graduating. I think it's short-sighted and a negative consequence of the rat race mentality.

Colgate grads are all smart and talented people and we should be confident that we can get a job when we're ready and, if not, we'll create our own. If you want to follow our road trip shenanigans visit our blog at road-scholars.tumblr.com or follow us on twitter @roadscholars11

I've had a lot of fun writing this blog and talking to Colgate alumni and students who are passionate about entrepreneurship. Thank you to everyone who helped make this blog happen especially Andy Greenfield and Nick Kokonas. In my final year at Colgate, I noticed a new level of interest in entrepreneurship on campus which makes me excited about Colgate's future.

I'll leave you with the two op-ed pieces I wrote in my final month with the Maroon-News. While they don't directly relate to entrepreneurship, I thought you might enjoy them.

Cheers, Harry

Colgate Entrepreneurs: Sophomore Makes a Difference for Underprivileged Native American Children

My article below was orginally published in the April 7, 2011 edition of The Colgate Maroon-News. Photo credit: colgateconnect.org

Sophomore Maggie Dunne first visited the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation on a church service trip to South Dakota during her sophomore year of high school. The Oglala Sioux Native Ameri­can reservation lies within two of the poorest counties in the U.S.

"I had never been exposed to that type of poverty and, it was shocking that it was in our own country," Dunne said. "I felt like I had to do something more."

Dunne made a pledge to re­turn to the Pine Ridge Reserva­tion once a year and try to give back to the community. Five years later, Dunne has far exceeded that ambitious pledge, starting a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to providing resources to Lakota children.

Three weeks before her sec­ond trip back to Lakota, Dunne decided to write articles in local newspapers and magazines asking people to donate children's books and coats. "It was just a last-min­ute thing," Dunne said. Dunne's articles prompted donations of over 2,000 books and 500 coats in only three weeks. "Seeing that result changed everything for me," Dunne said. "It didn't take that much effort. Just a little outside-the-box thinking and putting yourself out there."

Dunne and some recruited friends distributed the donated items to schools in Lakota. Dunne went to one school that had only three books in their library. When she left, their library had more than 500 and every student went home with a new coat. Dunne said, "Just seeing that made me realize that I can do something and I don't have to wait until I graduate to do it."

Dunne continued to write about the cause in local newspa­pers. One of her articles caught the attention of a local corporate lawyer who specializes in not-for-profits. Dunne recalls that the lawyers said to her, "‘I usually charge an absurd amount of money for my services, but I can see you're really passionate about this.'"

Despite the large time com­mitment needed to start a non-profit, Dunne was eager to le­gitimize the cause. Lakota Pine Ridge Children's Enrichment Project Limited (LPRCEP) has helped her gather resources and attention for the cause. In 2010, LPRCEP shipped over 3,300 pounds of donations (books, clothing, school supplies, etc.) to the Reservation, an illustration of their tremendous growth since 2009 when they shipped 1,300 pounds of donations.

Dunne credits her Thought into Action Entrepreneurship Seminar for helping her set goals and figuring out ways to meet them. At the start of the school year, Dunne set the goal of start­ing a summer camp for kids on the reservation.

She says, "Thought into Action has allowed me to create a clearer vision of what I want to do and the input of everyone in the class has been really valuable." This May, in cooperation with two other non-for-profit organizations, Dunne will be holding a one-week pilot camp that will focus on leadership and team-building.

Dissecting the Business Card

Certainly biased (source:businesscardsonline.com) but a cool graphic nonetheless. Click on the image for a closer look.

Ask President Jeffrey Herbst a question on entrepreneurship here at 9pm tonight

Want to ask President Herbst a question about Entrepreneurship, Campus Safety, Greek Life or anything else Colgate?

Want to ask the question anonymously?

Thanks to the Colgate Maroon-News, you can get an answer from President Herbst in minutes. Tonight, 9 - 10 pm.

Once the event gets underway, simply submit your question above and President Herbst will try to answer as many questions as possible.  

Here are a few questions about entrepreneurship that I think should be asked (feel free to steal them):

- What is your take on the controversial school policy that does not allow students to run their own businesses?
- How do you plan to promote entrepreneurship on campus in the future?
- Tell us about the new Colgate-centric venture capital fund? Do you plan to promote it?

Undergraduate business pitch competition at Princeton

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2011/03/01/27775/

This would be a good idea to do at Colgate. Alumni, I'm looking at you for seed money. 

Student Tea Company Combats World Poverty

Colgate Students collaborated with the Shapna Co.

Another good article in this week's Maroon-News by Colin Sheridan about students working with the Shapna Tea Company.

Since its inception three years ago, "Making dreams come true" has been the motto of the Shapna Project, a tea and coffee company whose mission is to eradicate pov­erty through the sale of sustainably grown products.

The Project began as a student-led initiative at Howard University School of Business and School of Law in Washington, D.C. to cre­ate a business model that used a 40 percent reinvestment strategy to initiate social and economic change. Among these students was Shapna's President, CEO and co-founder Johny Chaklader '03. Chaklader, whose family origi­nates from Bangladesh, was fa­miliar with the plight of indepen­dent small-scale tea farmers in the country who are forced to work under a form of indentured servi­tude on large corporate tea estates. Shapna works with these kinds of tea farmers in Bangladesh as well as coffee bean farmers in Uganda in a similar situation.

"When Johny and members of our team traveled to Bangla­desh in 2009 to approach the independent farmers with this idea, the word they used most frequently was ‘shapna', which is a Bengali word for ‘dream,' to de­scribe what they wanted for their families and future generations, and so it seemed appropriate that "Shapna" become the name of the project," Sales Coordinator Michael Tringali '04 said.

Shapna reinvests 40 percent of their net profits to community de­velopment projects, 20 percent to the originating farming communi­ties and 20 percent to communities in the U.S. where Shapna tea and coffee is consumed.

Despite its large commitment to humanitarian aid in Bangladesh and Uganda, Shapna is also giving back to the Colgate community.

"As Colgate alumni," Tringali said, "we're seeking ways to give back to our alma mater, as it has given us so much."

Thanks to their partnership with Sodexo, Shapna tea and coffee is offered at the Barge Canal Cof­fee Company as well as Frank Din­ing Hall. These revenues have al­lowed Shapna to support the work of the Upstate Institute, Center for Outreach, Volunteerism and Education (COVE), the Office of Sustainability, as well as local com­munity initiatives including the Hamilton Film Festival and the Hamilton Food Cupboard.

Shapna has also supported several Colgate student's research on envi­ronmental and sustainability issues in the Central New York area. This summer, Shapna plans to support junior and President of the Shapna Project at Colgate Caroline Ander­son's field research in Mbale, Uganda on the humanitarian and sustainable development issues facing Shapna-affiliated coffee growers.

"I want to understand the needs of the coffee-growing villages and in turn help the villagers improve their livelihoods by making the best use of the 20 percent of net profits which Shapna gives back to them," Anderson said.

Supporting Shapna's mission, the Colgate chapter seeks to raise awareness about issues that coffee and tea farmers in these countries face daily.

"We want to inform and empow­er students to choose to purchase socially conscious products which support small-scale independent farmers who use sustainable agricul­tural practices," Anderson said. "I'm excited to be part of a project that gives these farmers a voice in the way their villages develop."

Profile of Colgate Entrepreneurs' Club

Good story by Kate Hicks '11 on the Colgate website about the new Entrepreneurs' Club. I've copied it below for your convenience.

On the morning of Feb. 9, 42 students in Curtis Hall received a sweet wake-up call: Dunkin' Donuts food and coffee delivered to their dorm rooms. The Entrepreneurship Club was testing its latest venture, a service that has students select what they want for breakfast and a delivery time, then pay with their 'Gate Card when it arrives.

One of many business ideas the club has, the test went well, and yielded a substantial profit that will go toward future ventures. The club is always coming up with ways to meet demands they see in the Colgate and Hamilton communities, all while learning about what it takes to start a business.
"We view the club as a learning experience," said Harrison Gillis '13. "We want to get our minds around the practical ideas of starting and running a business, so that if we do have plans to start one, it's not the first time we've dealt with these concepts."

In addition to executing ventures, club members meet with local entrepreneurs, hold classes and seminars on different aspects of entrepreneurship, and speak with alumni who have successfully launched their own businesses.

Those alumni contacts have begun to play a major role in the club's programs. One has them following the endeavors of Nick Kokonas '90, whose restaurant Alinea in Chicago was recently ranked best in the nation by S.Pellegrino. Kokonas also is working on a book about the restaurant business, so he has experience in the publishing world, too.

The club members will follow his efforts, pose questions to him about what he's doing, and then Kokonas responds in unique ways.

Bharadwaj Reddy '12 explains, "Nick gets back to us in a high-tech fashion -- e-mail, Twitter, blogs, because he can't get here, so we're maximizing the time for this opportunity. He's going to be Skyping with us whenever possible, e-mailing us, teleconferencing, etc."

In addition to following Kokonas, some club members are participating in a seminar called "Thought Into Action," a class taught by alumni and offered to about eight students on campus.
One alumnus participating is Wills Hapworth '07, an entrepreneur himself and the founder of DarkHorse Investors, a company that invests in college students' start-up businesses.
"There is a serious interest in entrepreneurship at Colgate that needs to be answered and nurtured," said Hapworth. "Creating a great culture for start-ups and turning thought into action is difficult but essential, and the students, school, and alums all seem to be making steps in the right direction."
The number of ventures the club has in the works is indicative of how the entrepreneurial spirit is starting to thrive at Colgate.

Whether selling Indian and Chinese food at the Coop or hosting an "idea raffle" at Winterfest, the club's members are always thinking of creative ways to meet the demands of the Colgate community while putting their business knowledge into action.

Colgate Entrepreneurs: Nick Kokonas '90 on how he plans to reinvent the way we eat again

Long before Alinea, Kokonas was a philosophy major at Col­gate. After graduating, he became a very successful derivatives trad­er which he enjoyed for several years, but, as he said in a recent Fast Company interview, his wife told him "'You're in danger of becoming an asshole.'”


In March, Kokonas and Achantz will open their new Chica­go-based restaurant called "Next." A movie-like trailer announced that Next will have four different menus per year, each evoking the food of a particular place and year in history: 1912 Paris, Sicily 1949, or even Hong Kong 2036. Even more radical, Next will sell tick­ets, not reservations, for each table time slot. The price of tickets will be set depending on the supply and demand of a particular time slot. If you want to eat at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday your meal ticket will cost considerably more than 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday. It is a pricing model that is used by airlines, Broadway shows and sporting events but has never been attempted in the fine-dining world. Kokonas says "Buy tickets to the Cubs, Bruce Spring­steen or a theater and no-show and what happens? You miss the show." It is just another way Koko­nas is re-imagining the fine dining experience as entertainment.

When the Maroon-News first reached out to Kokonas for an in­terview, he was busy sampling 32 classic cocktails with 20 bar-chefs and staff for his third venture, a cocktail bar that he promises will "redefine the cocktail." Kokonas got back to us to discuss his path to cre­ating America's Best Restaurant and how he plans to transform the way we eat.

Raymond: How did you decide to make the transition from deriva­tives trader to restaurateur? What factors were behind this drastic ca­reer change? Did your skills translate or did you have to start over?
Kokonas: I didn't decide really. I had left trading with no intention of doing anything too different. I had invested in Funbrain.com and a few other web start-ups in the late '90s and did a bit of angel investing and thought I would stick with that. However, I met a very amazing chef and person in Grant Achatz and felt compelled to go in that direction.

Chef Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas

I left trading simply because I was 1) fairly burned out and 2) had a very rough year in 2001. My dad died in February and 9/11 hap­pened later in the year, which pro­duced a serious situation for many of our employees and for the coun­try. I just felt that what I was doing was no longer that important to me. So I quit. In all seriousness, I am not quite sure exactly what my skill set is beyond being very curious and driven. I am a huge proponent of a liberal arts education for just that reason. I can dive in to a variety of businesses and think of them clearly and anew.

R: What courses or professors at Colgate influenced the course of your life or career?
K: Without a doubt Professor Balmuth was a key figure for me while I was at Colgate, though I had several other key professors in the Philosophy department, in­cluding Professors Jacobson and Clark. I loved Astronomy with Professor Aveni.

Really, the overall liberal educa­tion provided so much that I have drawn on – from writing to a knowl­edge of psychology, theater and eco­nomics. I am a strong proponent of a liberal education and believe that ‘business' schools are fine to teach people how to work in a very large company in middle management but do little to produce entrepre­neurs and well rounded, educated people. I would never encourage anyone to study business.

R: How does a business guy strike a balance between what is creative and innovative and what is practical? Is that an issue in the restaurant business?
K: Intuition followed by rigor­ous analysis and detail work. I hate focus groups – I think they breed mediocrity. We have a team of 3 or 4 people at most on almost all of our creative endeavors. The best art, the best businesses create some­thing that people didn't even know they wanted.

I never worried about filling Alinea because I knew that chef Achatz would produce amazing food. I only concerned myself with the marketing... and we did that ourselves as well. Authenticity in marketing is sorely lacking and yet the tools are there for everyone. The ‘trailer' for Next restaurant was made by our designer and me in about 10 days, start to finish...no prior experience. That has itself generated a great deal of press and even a few ad agencies that have called asking who did the video work so that they could hire them. Oddly, I don't consider myself to be ‘in the restaurant business' because what we do is so different than a normal restaurant.

R: How did you decide on the unique pricing for Next? What is the difference between Wednesday at 5PM and Saturday at 7PM?
K: That stemmed from me watching firsthand the fact that we could sell out Saturday night at 7:30 five times over every week but Wednesday not nearly as much. Leveling that demand curve is pret­ty basic but for some reason – other than the early bird specials at din­ers – no one had ever tried to ac­count for that. The pricing model is at this point a guess. Saturday is the high point of the bell curve but the slope of the pricing will vary. My guess is for the first menu that we want to average $85 per person for food so Saturday will be about $110 and Wednesday at 9:30 PM will be about $60. It will not, at first, be algorithmic or real-time, more for psychological reasons of the customers and marketing than our ability to do that.

R: How difficult is it to change conventional wisdom? Are you concerned about alienating your customers?
K: It's really hard and really easy at the same time. I think we have skeptics and frankly that fuels both love and hate and the press as well. It's a good story. Some people will be alienated but I really think that those are precisely the people you don't want as customers. 5 percent of the customers cause 95 percent of the problems... this is our way of fir­ing those customers and rewarding the good ones. How many business­es offer coupons to new customers but treat their regulars like crap? It should be the other way around.

R: There has been very little written about your other venture, Aviary, "a cocktail bar redefined." Can you tell us anything? How do you plan to reinvent the cocktail?
K: Think – a lounge with no bar or bartenders... a restaurant for drinks. But lots to talk about there so get back to me.

R: What advice do you have for students interested in entrepreneurship?
K: Start businesses. My first busi­ness of my own out of Colgate was selling posters to college students in the Midwest at semester changes. I bet there are still the same post­ers in many dorm rooms. I made a reasonable amount of money with minimal work – but more impor­tantly I learned the small things of setting up a business that were a bit murkier back then, pre-Google and pre- Internet. Now, there is just no excuse for not being able to start something quick and lean.

I don't think you can teach entrepreneurship and it isn't easy. Back when I was a derivatives trad­er a friend told me the rule for risk: if you wake up every morning and feel fine you are not taking enough risk. If you wake up every morning and puke you are taking too much risk. If you have a nice, even queasy feeling throughout the day that is just about right. But you have to start something to know how it works...talking about it, planning it out endlessly in business plans and spreadsheets is a nice exercise, but, ultimately, pretty worthless. Find something you really, really want to do and go do it.

R: The recent New York Times piece referred to you as the Medici to Achatz's Michelangelo. What do you make of that comparison?
K: I thought it was absurd! First, it's kind of funny but I think they meant it seriously. I work too hard to be a Medici and, unlike a patron of the arts, I hope and try to create a little of my own.

Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore visits campus on March 2

Stephen Moore

Check out this business-related event. Here is the event description:

Lecture by Stephen Moore
"The End of Prosperity? Understanding the American Economic and Financial Crisis."
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
4:30 p.m. in Persson Hall Auditorium

The College Republicans Club is pleased to announce that we will be bringing Mr. Stephen Moore to campus to give a lecture on the American economic and financial crisis. Mr. Moore is a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board and a senior economics writer, as well as a Fox News contributor. He has served as a budget expert for the Heritage Foundation and a senior economics fellow at the Cato Institute.

Andy Greenfield '74 talks about his "Thought into Action" Entrepreneurship Seminar

Can entrepreneurship be taught?

This week's Maroon-News has a great article by Sam Worth '11 (text copied below) on the new "Thought into Action" Seminar at Colgate. The brain-child of Andy Greenfield '74, the seminar is one of the ways Colgate is finally promoting entrepreneurship on campus though there is still an asinine policy against students starting their own businesses. We plan on covering some of the ventures students start in this seminar.  In fact, Ryan Smith '13 and Brandan Karson '13 will soon be contributing to this blog by posting their ongoing experience of starting their own paper business through the seminar. 

Last week's profile of Andy Greenfield '74 told the story of a man who knows what it is to try and fail. When Greenfield's first major business venture, Essex Limousine Company, landed him in $250,000 of debt in 1981, he quickly recaptured his passion, re­built his confidence and founded Greenfield Consulting Group the very same year. It was not the first time Greenfield implemented that strategy. While at Colgate, poor academic performance during his first two years sent him on a leave of absence. But after discovering a passion for philosophy, he re­turned the next year and received straight As. Greenfield Consulting became just as successful as Green­field's second crack at college; it was sold to Microsoft for $486 million in 2008 Greenfield went on to start several other successful business ventures, but the personal philosophy he developed in the face of those initial setbacks hasn't changed: don't be afraid to fail. If you fall, get up, dust yourself off, and try again. Never let fear stop one from realizing a great idea through action.

Greenfield is well known for his success in business, but his name is being recognized more and more around Colgate for his lat­est investment. A couple of years ago, Greenfield and a friend were discussing how innovators end up turning an idea into something real. Believing that ordinary people all over the world have great ideas every day – Greenfield sought to identify what was holding these ideas back. He found that it was often fear and apprehension that stopped would-be entrepreneurs from realizing their goals: "Maybe I'm too young," "Maybe I don't have the resources," "Maybe my idea isn't good enough, or too in­complete." With his experience, Greenfield decided he could de­sign a course to provide students with the entrepreneurial acumen and skills to overcome apprehen­sion, and follow through with their ideas. Hence, the Thought Into Action (TIA) seminar was born.

Thought Into Action is a new seminar at Colgate, but it can't be found in the course book­let. After deciding to bring an entrepreneurship program to his alma mater, Greenfield ap­proached former President Re­becca Chopp, Vice President and Dean of College Charlotte Johnson, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lyle Roelofs and sev­eral other administrators who all agreed that entrepreneurship skills epitomized the foundation of the liberal arts: critical and original thinking. They directed Greenfield to Associate Direc­tor of The Center for Leadership & Student Involvement (CLSI) Tennille Haynes. CLSI became host to the seminar, and before long, Thought Into Action was structurally planned as a year-long course.

Now in its second year, Thought Into Action demands an unusual commitment from its students. The seminar meets once a month for five hours on Saturdays. Green­field is present for each meeting, along with two other alumni en­trepreneurs, CEO of Ridgewood Capital Bob Gold and creator of Darkhorse Investors Wills Hap­worth. Seminar students focus on one idea and work throughout the year to make it happen. Each ses­sion is divided into two halves. The first half is a lesson in which the three instructors impart entrepre­neurial skills that can't be learned in a traditional classroom.

"We develop communication and critical thinking skills," junior Bharadwaj Obula Reddy a current TIA student said. "We don't learn the business skills you would expect – like accounting. We work on things like focusing our ideas, interview­ing, being interviewed and creating plans to turn our ideas into actions. The first lesson we learned was how to compact our idea into a focused, 30-second description. The skills are applicable to all parts of my life."

Timeline of Andy Greenfield's Greenfield Online

The second half of each session is a group discussion that allows both students and instructors to discuss and critique each student's progress. When class is not in ses­sion, the entrepreneur advisers are available for video conferences, and the students work independently to bring their plans to life. There is no grade in the course, and students receive no credit on their academ­ic transcripts. But students must come with passion for an idea and the drive to follow it through.

Reddy arrived with the idea of creating an entrepreneurship club on campus. So far it has 15 active members and is growing. Sopho­more Ryan Smith is working to cre­ate a paper distributorship that will bring the only carbon-neutral paper in North America to Colgate. While entrepreneurship is most often as­sociated with the for-profit sector, about half the projects in the current TIA class are non-profit projects.

Both President Herbst and Greenfield are seeking to "scale-up" the seminar. While he wants to emphasize that TIA is always in a state of development, Greenfield is working on expanding TIA into the Thought Into Action Institute, with five sections of about eight students each, more alumni in­structors and the possibility of an internship extension program for select students.

For someone who loves teach­ing, and mentoring young entre­preneurs, seeing Thought Into Ac­tion grow and succeed at Colgate has been a dream come true for Greenfield. In no time at all, an idea born out of a friendly conver­sation became a successful reality. If you were to completely disregard their past business success, the cre­ation process of the seminar itself should prove that Andy Greenfield and his fellow entrepreneurs have very valuable knowledge to impart on Colgate students.

"99 percent of people I've met on Earth have had great ideas. A tiny fraction of these people make those ideas happen," Greenfield said. "If the role of the University is to produce people who will go on to make a difference in the world, the only way to make a difference is by doing. And that's what Thought into Action is all about."

Nick Kokonas '90 set to open more innovative restaurants

Alinea's pheasant which is served with
burning oak leaves to give the aroma of
autumn, just one part of their $225
28-course food "tour." 

Nick Kokonas '90 is the co-founder of Alinea, a Chicago restaurant that is widely considered one of the 10 best restaurants in the world. We're working on getting an interview with Kokonas for next week.  When we first tried to reach him, Kokonas was busy sampling 32 classic cocktails for Avairy, his new cocktail bar which promises to "redefine the cocktail."  At the same time, he's working on Next, a restaurant that will have four menus a year, each one trying to re-create the cuisine from a particular time and place in history. The movie-like trailer for Next (see below) announces that the first three menus will be Paris 1912, Sicily 1949 and Hong Kong 2036.

Kokonas and chef Grant Achatz got a lot of press today.  Today's New York Times article says the duo “evoke a modern Michelangelo and Medici, bonded by mutual trust and now locked into a very public artistic endeavor.” The Chicago Tribune, who has credited the pair for reviving Chicago's restaurant industry, has a lengthy but interesting piece today about Alinea and chef Achatz's battle with tongue cancer. Stay tuned for more from this Colgate entrepreneur

Have questions you want us to ask Kokonas? Post them in the comment section.

Should you get an MBA? Andy Greenfield '74 says no

Our two-hour interview with Andy Greenfield '74 produced two features in the Colgate Maroon-News (part 1 and part 2). Nonetheless, two articles was not enough space to include all his words of wisdom. That's why over the next couple weeks we'll continue to bring you more from a Colgate grad who has started three successful companies including Greenfield Online which was recently sold to Microsoft for $486 million.  

Should students interested in entrepreneurship consider an MBA?
Greenfield: “This answer might be controversial but I truly follow the Nike philosophy: Just do it. You will learn more in the first six months of doing it than you ever will in business school. Business school provides two things: (1) a credential and (2) it provides some people with confidence. You don’t need a credential as an entrepreneur. If you want to build something or start a business, you don’t need to go to business school.”

Entrepreneurship Event on Campus: Nick Kokonas '90

Join the Entrepreneurs' Club as they meet to follow Nick Kokonas '90, Philosophy major, co-founder of Alinea' (#1 restaurant in America, Top 50 Restaurants in the World) and serial entrepreneur.  Using all forms of digital media, we will "accompany" Nick as he courses through the opening of three new Chicago restaurants and takes on the publishing industry with the launch of his new book Life, On the Line.   

When: Introductory Class this Tuesday (2/15), 9.30 PM - 10.30 PM

Where:  Batza meeting room, Case Library 

Mediated/taught by Anne Clauss, Director, Investment Studies Program 

10 Questions Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors Are Going To Ask

10 Questions Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors Are Going To Ask

Great post over at Instigator Blog. Even if you are not raising capital, these are some good questions to ask yourself about a potential business:

1. So what's your business all about?

2. What's the barrier to entry for competition.

3. What's going to stop big monster company in your space from copying you?

4. Why are you raising the money want to raise?

5. How far does that money get you?

6. Do you have any customers? Have you spoken to potential customers?

7. What's your marketing strategy?

8. What are you coding in?

9. How are you handling the technological infrastructure for scaling?

10. What's the team look like? What are your backgrounds?

Colgate Entrepreneurs: Andy Greenfield ’74 (part 2 of our interview) explains how a janitor and dishwasher saved his $500 million company

Serial entrepreneur Andy Greenfield '74 has started several uber-successful companies including Greenfield On­line, a market research company that was sold to Microsoft for $486 million in 2008. Greenfield sat down with the Maroon-News for two hours to talk about his tendency to party in college, his rocky road to business success and his new goal to foster entrepreneurship on the Colgate campus. This is part two of the interview. To read part one, see our post here or visit maroon-news.com. 

In 1983, Andy Greenfield woke up from a business night­mare. Two years earlier, he had started Essex Limousine Com­pany, but a New York City crime family had taken notice of his ini­tial success and started smashing his cars. Greenfield was forced to sell the company to Patty Testa, the leading enforcer for the Lu­chese crime family. Testa would later be assassinated in a mafia loyalty struggle.

Greenfield's first major busi­ness venture had failed and he was $250,000 in debt.

"The limousine company was my business school with a very expensive tuition," Greenfield said. "I had no cash reserves and a big hole with no prospects of paying it off."

He escaped to Vermont for a two month break.

"I rebuilt myself emotionally and re-captured my drive and passion," Greenfield said. "Passion is the fuel for action. That's all you need."

The same year he was forced to close Essex Limousines, Greenfield emerged from his Vermont hiatus to start Greenfield Consulting Group, a qualitative marketing research firm.

"I liked the [consulting] indus­try because it remained cottage-like, dominated by mom-and-pop type operations." Greenfield said. "No one had started anything of size yet and I was determined to crack the code." Over the next 25 years, Greenfield built Greenfield Consulting into the largest and most profitable qualitative research company on the planet with 25 years of back-to-back growth.

Greenfield attributes his suc­cess in the marketing business to his success in compensating his researchers.

"I never lost sight that my revenue was attached to people, not plant and equipment." Greenfield said. "In the qualitative world, if you lose people, you lose revenue."

Greenfield adopted a unique compensation strategy that en­abled him to steal high-end talent from the advertising industry. He paid his researchers two or three times the amount they would make elsewhere by implementing an incentive compensation pro­gram in which his researchers were paid a percentage of the revenue they generated. This type of incen­tive-compensation is common in sales but had never been done in market research.

"The lesson here is critical: the biggest breakthroughs in any cat­egory are made not by stealing from within the category but by stealing from other industries. If you want to innovate, don't look within your own industry," Greenfield said.

In the spring of 1993, a dish­washer who worked at one of Greenfield Consulting's focus group facilities approached Green­field with an idea. Nineteen-year old Hugh Davis told Greenfield that he could use something called the "Internet" to conduct mar­ket research without ever talking to the market in person. While Greenfield knew nothing about the fledgling World Wide Web, Davis convinced him it was something to investigate. Greenfield quickly realized that Davis was right. If he was able to build a large enough panel of online consumers, market research would be more efficient and cost effective online than by the conventional methods of mail, phone or in-person.

Despite having no tech ex­perience, Greenfield spent the next three years building the first software for conducting on­line surveys. By 1996, the revo­lutionary Greenfield Online was ready for market but he had one problem: no one wanted to buy it. None of Greenfield's clients thought the Web would ever be a mass medium.

"Regardless of how great I thought this idea was and how much I believed in it, I could only swim up stream against nay-saying clients for so long," Greenfield said.

After another failed sales trip in April 1996, Greenfield returned to his office at 8 p.m. to prune his bon­sai tree, a form of therapy. He had decided to cut his losses, shutdown Greenfield Online and return to his safer qualitative research firm. Green­field continued to prune when Tom Kruger, the building's 35-year old janitor walked into Greenfield's of­fice. The friendly Kruger gave Green­field some tips on raising bonsai tell­ing him that his 11-year old daughter picked up the hobby from German, Korean and Japanese friends she had met online.

"The light bulb went off," Green­field said. "The nay-saying clients were wrong and I was going to stay the course with Greenfield Online."

In May 1999, Greenfield called Kruger into his office and gave him a check for the equivalent of a year's sal­ary. It was Greenfield's way of saying "thank you" and he had a lot to be thankful for. That month he had sold Greenfield Online to a group of inves­tors that included Michael Dell and the United Bank of Switzerland. The com­pany was subsequently taken public and then, in 2008, Greenfield Online (which also included Ciao, Europe's leading price comparison site) was sold to Microsoft for $486 million.

In 2002, Greenfield sold his con­sulting group to Millward Brown, one of the world's largest market research firms.

"It was ultimately about identify­ing an unmet client need which was for true marketing brain power and experience brought to the research table," Greenfield said.

He continues to advise the consulting group's management.

Since then, Greenfield has started a year-long entrepreneurship seminar at Colgate called "Thought into Ac­tion." In it's second year, the seminar teaches practical entrepreneurship.

"It's not about required reading, papers or exams. It's about making something happen." He said, "If you believe the role of a liberal arts col­lege is to produce people that make a difference in the world, the only way you make a difference is by making something happen and, historically, that is a skill set that colleges and universities have not been focused on." That's why Greenfield is focused on expanding the opportunities for entrepreneurship at Colgate.

Then, Greenfield leans in and takes a softer tone as if he is revealing a secret.

"Listen, 99 percent of the people I've met on earth have good ideas but only a tiny fraction of them make those ideas happen." He leans back and returns to his louder and confident voice, "Just get out of your chair and go for it."