Princeton University is continuing its outreach to New Jersey’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and Dr. Mung Chiang is leading the way though his ongoing engagement with local entrepreneurial organizations. On September 15, he literally crossed the street in downtown Princeton to visit Tigerlabs, a local business accelerator. As guest speaker, Chiang shared his personal entrepreneurial story and highlighted the strides the university has recently made to further its commitment to entrepreneurship.
Most noteworthy, the university founded the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council (PEC) last year after Chiang, who serves as Director of the Keller Center and chair of the entrepreneurship advisory committee, wrote a report recommending a greater emphasis on entrepreneurship. In response to the report, the university initiated a series of hires to broaden and deepen its engagement in a number of areas. Included was the hiring of Anne-Marie Maman, Princeton alumna, as Executive Director of the PEC to work with Chiang, Chair of PEC, and many other colleagues to execute the university’s vision moving forward.
Chiang has extensive entrepreneurial experience, which in part prompted him to undertake the internal review at the university that resulted in the report’s recommendations for change last year. He’s co-founded multiple startups in the mobile and big data field, and also co-founded a global nonprofit OpenFog Consortium. In addition, his research on networking received the 2013 Alan T. Waterman Award, the highest award to US young scientists and engineers.
At his Tigerlabs talk, moderated by Tigerlabs co-director David Stengle, Chiang explained the factors he took into consideration in proposing a major shift in how the university embraced entrepreneurship. He considered student interest, alumni recommendations, and also looked at what other top institutions are doing: Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, etc. Most importantly, however, they decided to a Princeton vision and definition of entrepreneurship.
“At the time, Wikipedia defined entrepreneurship as something like making a lot of money with a high-tech product,” said Chiang. “We didn’t like that definition, and we gave an alternative definition to entrepreneurship: Any time you initiate transformation with risk-taking actions and value-creating organizations.”
PEC wanted to avoid the usual process of students simply going on the Internet, creating another mobile app and often dropping out of college. Instead, they asked themselves how they could effectively open up mindset and support Princeton entrepreneurs’ long term potential as broadly defined entrepreneurs.
The challenge was that successful entrepreneurship takes a whole village. It requires market capital that’s friendly to risks, a labor market of people willing to leave big corporations to join startups, and a typically urban setting surrounded by great universities. Princeton has some of those factors, but not all, said Chiang.
The good news, however, is that they sensed an entrepreneurial awakening happening in the community around them. In addition to that, Princeton is only a train ride away from New York, so they strategically broadened their plans to include New York. Chiang said their goal is to tap into the talent all around them, from Manhattan all the way down to Philadelphia.
Once their plan was outlined, they spent the next 18 months fulfilling their vision, which has emerged in different ways. First, the PEC now has a university incubator in downtown Princeton, which includes space for student, faculty and alumni startups. They hold events, many of which are open to the community, and advertise them on their website.
The program also started a seed fund to start alumni startups: the Alumni Entrepreneurs Fund (AEF). In the last two years alone, the fund has supported 18 different projects, including everything from educational toys to solar panels in communities. One example is the Piper Computer Kit, an educational toy that allows kids to build their own computers. The product was designed by Princeton students and is currently available on Amazon.
In addition, this month Princeton launched a certification in entrepreneurship, which is essentially a minor at the university. The certificate allows students to diversify their education, and Chiang refers to the program as a “learning by doing” process. PEC is also coming through on their plan to engage with the New York entrepreneurial ecosystem by hosting research panels and talks in the city, two of which are happening before the end of the year on October 6 and December 1.
The program benefits a great deal from local mentors and advisors, and at the Tigerlabs event, Chiang urged the community members to visit their website and see what PEC events might interest them. That emphasis on community involvement has helped the program’s success so far, as Princeton has embraced entrepreneurship in new and exciting ways. As Chiang puts it, “We work with the whole village.”
