Entrepreneurship & Technology News 

The first time Matthew Alexander seriously pitched one of his products, he swam with the sharks. The time he spent preparing to pitch his invention, Illumibowl, on the ABC show Shark Tank, among other learning experiences, taught him important lessons about entrepreneurship. Now, as a mentor for the Rollins Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Alexander strives to share his wisdom with aspiring student entrepreneurs.

In the process of tie-dying a shirt, all the colors start out separately but eventually blend together, forming interesting patterns and connections. In a similar way, Mikayla Cheng hopes to encourage genuine relationships among students at BYU through her social media app, Tiedye. Although building the app has been challenging, Cheng has received help from several resources, including the Rollins Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business.

Not long after Kim Scoville began teaching at the BYU Marriott School of Business, she noticed a need for legal knowledge in the school’s entrepreneurship program. As a graduate of BYU’s J. Rueben Clark Law School, Scoville has spent her career providing legal advice to startup companies. Her work experience prompted her to create an entrepreneurship class that focused on legal issues for BYU Marriott’s entrepreneurship students, many of whom own or plan to own businesses.

While growing up on a farm in Leeton, Missouri, Amy Caldwell woke up each morning and bounded off to play with the horses, milk the cows, and retrieve eggs from the chickens. Her upbringing taught her the value of hard work. Now as a mentor for the Rollins Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Caldwell focuses on establishing connections with student entrepreneurs and teaching them the value hard work.

After drinking a soda on his way home from campus, BYU Marriott School of Business alum Ryan Smith was surprised to find his student apartment did not have any way to recycle his empty can. After reading a BYU survey that showed the majority of students also wanted to recycle, the 2016 strategy alum started thinking of the idea for Recyclops, a gig economy recycling company. Running his own business while taking classes allowed Smith to learn much more from the strategy program. Although Recyclops almost failed, applying the principles he learned in the classroom to his work helped Smith produce a multimillion-dollar company.

When he worked at an Italian restaurant while still in high school, Bryan Welton loved discovering ways to improve the flow of the company in every aspect, from the salad bar to the pizza-cooking process. Years later as a successful business owner and mentor for the Rollins Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Welton continues to enjoy the process of improving—primarily through helping students improve their companies.

Helping students start businesses is a goal that the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology focuses on during the entire year, primarily through the Miller Competition Series. By the time the series’ final competition, the Miller New Venture Challenge (NVC), happened near the end of the winter semester, students were prepared to share the traction they had achieved and take their businesses to the next level.

In 2001, sitting in a tiny three-hundred-square-foot office south of BYU campus, Jason Christensen worked unceasingly to build his company, NorthStar Alarm. Eighteen years later, right before he retired as CEO, Christensen's small company had grown to hundreds of employees and tens of thousands of customers in thirty different states. Now as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Christensen strives to instill the same ambition within his students that propelled his own success.

BYU junior Isaac Dushku was recently announced as the 2021 Student Entrepreneur of the Year by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

While growing up in Hazen, Arkansas, entrepreneurial management senior Alex Thompson watched his dad struggle with the water chemistry of their above-ground pool. This experience gave Thompson the idea for Armano, a device that monitors chemical levels in pools. Thompson’s product idea was one of hundreds submitted to the Business Model Competition (BMC), hosted by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business. Thompson and his team received first place in the competition and took home the $4,000 cash prize. 

As a nine-year-old boy, Bryan Stringham started a yard work and lawn mowing business with one of his friends, charging $2.50 an hour. During seventh grade, he sold 1,700 gumballs to his peers at school, wanting a little extra pocket change. Years later, thanks to his experiences at the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Stringham’s passion for business has only grown, expanding far beyond lawns and gumballs.

BYU Marriott fared well in the recently released U.S. News & World Report 2022 rankings for graduate programs. Both the MBA and MPA programs were ranked, as were four graduate program emphases.

With a nationally ranked entrepreneurship program, the BYU Marriott School of Business is full of student entrepreneurs and innovators. However, many students outside of the entrepreneurship program remain unaware of one of BYU’s most valuable resources for aspiring entrepreneurs: the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. In September 2020, New York City native Eddy Columna had an idea to start a podcast that could inform students about the resources of the Rollins Center. 

Whether students major in finance, English, or geology, they eventually need to find answers to problems they face throughout their careers. The entrepreneurship lecture series at the BYU Marriott School of Business helps students learn essential skills to innovate solutions that address the challenges that they will face at work, in their communities, and within their homes.

As a mom of six, the CEO of her own company, an entrepreneur, and a business coach, BYU Marriott School of Business 2018 MBA alumna Stacy Paulsen knows all too well that women are capable of wearing many hats. One of her driving passions is empowering other women and moms to pursue their business-related dreams.

The BYU Marriott School of Business recently announced Chris Crittenden as the new director of the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. The Rollins Center is an on-campus resource dedicated to helping BYU students start or grow their own businesses.

A self-proclaimed "learntrepreneur," Taylor Halverson values two things in his career more than anything else: learning and entrepreneurship. As a professor of entrepreneurship at the BYU Marriott School of Business and the mentoring coordinator for BYU Marriott's Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, Halverson encourages students to also become learntrepreneurs.

Brilliant inventions often emerge from a flash of inspiration—or even a bolt of lightning, as in the well-known story of Benjamin Franklin. While the ideas submitted to the 2020 Big Idea Pitch competition didn't come from a student flying a kite in a lightning storm, BYU student entrepreneurs expressed similar dedication to turning their ideas into real innovations.

At fifteen years old, BYU Marriott strategy junior Marissa Barlow once failed to find the perfect swimsuit to take on a family vacation, an experience that would help define her young career.

Small weather satellites. A social platform for workplaces. A stock purchasing service for employees. Although the businesses of student entrepreneurs at the BYU Marriott School of Business are each unique and diverse, they can all turn to one place for help: BYU Marriott's Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. This year's Founders Launchpad, a summer-long experience offered by the Rollins Center, helped student companies continue to develop their businesses and sharpen their tools for success.