I never wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs always seem to be portrayed as brilliant individuals who take big gambles that pay off. No thanks, I thought. I have a natural aversion to risk (as evidenced by my propensity to choose tried and tested items from the menu when I eat out), and quite frankly, I’m just not bright enough to come up with a commercially viable idea and then make it a winner. So there you have it—I’ll take my skills to some established organization, if you please.

Then I met Paul, a fellow student in the UO MBA program. He intrigued me with discussions about a product he was working to develop with a small company based in Eugene. He needed some marketing help. I knew something about that, so we began working together. After conducting some marketing research with prospective customers, we presented our ideas that (we thought) made a rudimentary business plan to faculty at the Lundquist Entrepreneurship Center (LCE). After politely being told we had a long way to go, we were told we could receive more substantial guidance through the Venture Pathway—keystone courses of the LCE program. We found other students to join our team, and soon we were analyzing markets, determining distribution channels, and pitching a solid business plan to wonderful and insightful mentors and serial entrepreneurs.

I was part of an entrepreneurial team, and I loved it.

I recalled how much I enjoyed working as part of team as I traveled today with Paul and Professor Ihab Elzeyadi from the UO Department of Architecture to San Jose from Eugene. Team building for us today consisted of conversations on the freeway (Paul’s life story and Ihab’s take on the Egyptian Revolution) and my first ever stop at In-N-Out Burger in Redding. It’s in those moments that I remember true entrepreneurship is more than the genius of one individual—it’s a team endeavor at its core.

And just beyond that core, entrepreneurship is often laden with mentors, collaborators, champions, and family members who believe you can do it. Today, I’m reminded of UO faculty who encouraged us and students from the J-school who helped give us a jump start on branding. It truly takes a village to raise a business.

–Doug Anderson, MBA ’11

You can follow Doug, Paul, and Innovative Invironments team in their Cleantech Open experience on Twitter @douglassander.

Editor’s Note: This is the first in the series of blog posts following two Oregon MBA graduates from the Center for Sustainable Business Practices track as they participate in the semi-final round of the Cleantech Open 2011 to commercialize the SolarStream™ Awning System.

Written by UO Business

The UO Lundquist College of Business empowers an engaged community of students, faculty, staff, and stakeholders who create, apply, and disseminate knowledge that contributes significantly to their professions, communities, and society. The college delivers a dynamic learning environment where world-class professors engage and get to know students, where students work on real projects for real companies, and where alumni go on to high-powered jobs worldwide.