Fostering Mathematical Entrepreneurship – Creating New Businesses for Impact and Wealth

The goal of the 2-day workshop is to guide graduate students in the mathematical sciences on how to start a business. There will be presentations by company founders, venture capitalists, and angel investors. This is a hands-on workshop in which students will work in teams. After being given guidelines of what is business plan, each team, working with a mentor venture capitalist, will create one based on a technology or an idea provided by the organizers. The team will make a “pitch” in front of a panel of “investors” who will critique the presentation. The panel will select the most promising business plan for recognition and further discussion.

Keynote Speaker: Jeffrey Hoffstein, Brown University
Jeffrey Hoffstein is Professor of Mathematics at Brown University and co-founder of NTRU Cryptosystems. The company was acquired by Security Innovation in 2009. Professor Hoffstein's research interests are in number theory, automorphic forms, and cryptography.

• What students will do and learn during the two days:
• Meet entrepreneurs and venture capitalists
• Find out what it is like to be part of a start up – what are the issues and challenges
• Intellectual properties, legal matters, how-to's and not-to's in starting a company
• Personal experiences from entrepreneurs
• How to put together a business plan and how to pitch it
• Actually make a business plan and pitch it to a group of investors, and get feedback