Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
March 19, 2024

TCO Labs hosts innovation showcase

By MEENA REDDY | September 22, 2016

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COURTESY OF KUNAL MAITI Potential entrepreneurs attended TCO’s event in the Arellano Theater.

Student-run nonprofit TCO Labs hosted the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Showcase on Tuesday to teach students  about the start-up resources available at the University.

Sophomore Anthony Garay, founder of TCO Labs, described how he hopes the organization will function as a resource hub for budding entrepreneurs on campus.

“We hope you can see [TCO Labs] as the central organization that provides you with the resources and connects you with the people that you need to make your idea a reality,” Garay said. “Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, even if you don’t have an idea, maybe it’ll inspire you to go out there and come up with something. Even just going and seeing the speakers and meeting really cool people and networking and being part of a student group – that’s really something that we want the community to get into.”

Garay explained that in addition to the showcase, TCO Labs will also host a number of workshops, networking events and symposiums designed to promote entrepreneurship at the University.

“We focus on three key areas: programming, community building, and connecting,” Garay said. “Programming hosts three events a year--the fall kickoff, and a light-hearted fall symposium where we have student speakers. The big conference is in the spring, and that’s just bringing in people from all over the place, even New York City, Philadelphia, just trying to get startups, students, entrepreneurs, alumni, everybody together in one room at one conference.”

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV) sponsored the Showcase. Venture Coordinator for Student Projects Kasim Ahmad explained the overall mission of JHTV and its role in the Baltimore community.

“TechVentures works to commercialize research and technology that’s coming from students and faculty as well as support economic development and job creation in the greater Baltimore area,” Ahmad said. “We provide a front door to the Baltimore innovation ecosystem, and a way to find out about opportunities that are available based on each individual student’s goals and interests as it pertains to entrepreneurship or technology.”

 

Garay advised students interested in entrepreneurship to take full advantage of the resources available to them, and to push forward with their ideas, despite how daunting it may seem initially.

“Come to our events, get connected with us through our website. Most of all, don’t be afraid,” Garay said. “Entrepreneurship is a scary term — it’s a long word. A big misconception is that to be an entrepreneur, you have to have a really good idea. The reality is the idea is only a small part of it. If you ask any venture capitalist, they’ll tell you this: You can have a pretty bad idea, but if you have a great team, people will still invest in you... Just build things and see what happens because that’s how startups are born.”

At the showcase, students had the opportunity to network with representatives from the participating organizations. For freshman Nancy Zhang, the showcase served as an introduction to entrepreneurial resources on campus that she was previously unaware of.

“I was very impressed with the opportunities the school had to offer when [Hopkins] doesn’t seem to have an emphasis on business or entrepreneurship,” Zhang said.

Sophomores Benjamin Pikus and Parth Singh attended the event, hoping to learn more about the resources available on campus for their own startup, Motrack Therapy, which uses motion sensors to aid in hand-wrist rehabilitation therapy.

“There were a lot of resources on campus that I didn’t know about [before this event], particularly the ones that are in Carey [Business School],” Pikus said. “I learned a lot about the PEVC [Private Equity and Venture Capital]. That’s something I’m interested in checking out more. I think entrepreneurship is a good avenue to, clichéd as it is, change the world. I think entrepreneurship is the best avenue to do that. Research is very much in the lab, so I think entrepreneurship lets you do research in a way that helps people.”

Singh added that networking was a key component of promoting their startup, and that the Showcase provided the necessary platform for such networking.

“It’s always good to meet people who are involved in all of these different activities on campus,” Singh said. “We’re very passionate about our project, but passion itself isn’t going to make it happen. We have to go out, we have to meet people who are going to help us do this.”

The showcase began with each group describing their organization and the entrepreneurial opportunities they offered for students.

Hopkins Student Enterprises is the umbrella group for nine student-run businesses on campus, such as Hop and Shake. During the group’s presentation, CEO Noah Presler encouraged interested students to join even if they had no prior experience in entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurship can be very intimidating. The word itself has such a weight that it intimidates people and pushes them away,” Presler said. “There are ten thousand reasons why not to start a business, especially as a student...Hopkins Student Enterprises, however, wants to make entrepreneurship accessible to everyone by taking these ten thousand reasons and incentivizing you so that they don’t exist, so that there are more reasons to get involved with entrepreneurship than not to.”


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