Passion for Business Leads to Entrepreneurial Success

Scott Falconer and J.R. Pelkola shared the vision of blending passion and business into entrepreneur opportunities. Newly minted graduates of the University of Idaho, their mutual dream has been realized after getting a jump-start from the university’s entrepreneurship program, Vandal Innovation and Enterprise Works (VIEW).

Falconer, who received a degree in psychology, and Pelkola, who earned a sociology degree, joined a team of innovators last year that started an online business directed to young travelers. The team won the 2007 VIEW annual business competition, earning a $5,000 first-place award, as well as additional funding from a venture capitalist. Now they are operating their e-commerce business, GoSleepGo.com, in Seattle. The travel Web site caters to voyagers searching for moment-to-moment activities around the world.

"The VIEW program was a great opportunity for us, since it put us in contact with the people and organizations that allowed us to take GoSleepGo to a full scale enterprise,” said Falconer. “As a result of the integration between the VIEW program and my own department – psychology – we received a tremendous amount of support that enabled us to solidify our business plan and strengthen the company as a whole.”

VIEW is a university-wide program that focuses on entrepreneurial learning, performance and commercialization. Its capstone project is an annual business plan competition, which combines multidisciplinary effort with entrepreneurial vision to create viable business plans and teach students how to promote a potentially successful business in the real world. Interdisciplinary teams, consisting of students from at least two colleges, begin planning innovative ventures each fall. By the time the competition rolls around in April, plans have solidified. While the competition features some innovative projects, the top business plan is selected for its potential to be realistically implemented. The teams are judged by many of Idaho’s successful entrepreneurs.

“The VIEW program is not limited to the College of Business and Economics,” said Linda Morris, professor of business and new director of the VIEW program. “We encourage nonbusiness students to participate. For additional guidance on their business plans, we have a Business Venture Creation course, which is offered each spring. We want to provide students from all majors with opportunities to make a difference through entrepreneurial talents and skills.”

“Our involvement in the VIEW Business Plan Competition led us to our initial investors and enabled the formation of a Board of Advisers that holds many years of experience relating to the technology field and start-ups,” said Falconer. “The VIEW program is directly responsible for where GoSleepGo is today, and I would recommend the program to anyone who has aspirations of someday owning or managing their own company."

For the new academic year, VIEW will offer two entrepreneurial tracks – an innovative venture track and a social entrepreneurship track. “We added the social approach because of the high volume of University of Idaho students that are interested in, and active with, social causes,” said Morris, who recently rejoined the College of Business and Economics after serving five years as a university administrator.

“Social entrepreneurship is all about applying practical, innovative and sustainable approaches to benefit society in general, with particular emphasis on helping those who are marginalized and poor,” she said. “For example, last year’s mechanical engineering team designed a water filtration system for the Maasai Tribe in Kenya Africa; they had a global vision for social action.”

University of Idaho students with similar inspirations also may join the university’s newest organization, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), a global nonprofit student organization that promotes social entrepreneurship.

Active in more than 40 countries, SIFE works with businesses and universities to engage student teams on collaborative community outreach projects, with educational components in market economics, success skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and business ethics. Funding for such activities is provided by corporations, entrepreneurs, foundations, government agencies and individuals.

“SIFE is a new student organization, open to all campus students, that addresses the social entrepreneurship focus,” said Morris. “This is another avenue open to our students to be engaged.”