Entrepreneurship & Technology News 

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.

Moving to an unfamiliar place for a new job can be a stressful, intimidating, and lonely experience. Feeling inspired to help others cope with these feelings, Carly MacLennan, a BYU Marriott School of Business 2020 MBA graduate from Lethbridge, Alberta, started her own business, SocialHire, which helps newly relocated employees have an easier social transition.

Socks that monitor a baby’s heart rate, home security cameras that alert homeowners via text messages, and doors that use an app to open for those who need assistance have more in common than one might think. They’re all projects that BYU students have tackled in the Crocker Innovation Fellowship program. The program, a joint effort between the BYU Marriott School of Business and other colleges across BYU campus, combines the strengths of students in business, engineering, computer science, and other programs to identify problems and to innovate solutions.

The BYU student-founded company PhyR walked away with the first-place price and $15,000 at the 2020 New Venture Challenge hosted by the Rollins Center.

BYU Marriott School of Business dean Brigitte C. Madrian has announced the appointment of Bonnie Anderson as the school’s newest associate dean. Anderson takes over for previous associate dean Keith Vorkink on 18 May.

The Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business recently recognized Daniel Quarnberg of Pyxis Manufacturing as its 2020 Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

As the use of smartphone apps have become second-nature in today’s world, the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology challenges BYU’s budding student developers to create the next top app by competing in its annual App Competition. The App Competition kickoff began on 31 October 2019 and ended on 2 March 2020, giving students four months to create a new, unique app. Despite tough competition from other teams, two students who created Stockmotion, an app that teaches users how to invest, walked away with the top prize and $3,200. 

Trying to juggle school and a social life while simultaneously learning how to get a commercial loan, earn a dealership license, and develop relationships with business professionals is not easy, but somehow Maryorie Delgado manages to do it. As a junior in the BYU Marriott entrepreneurial management program, Delgado has developed skills from her classes that she has directly applied to growing her family’s business.  

The Ballard and Rollins Centers aren't the only groups to recognize Neptune Plastics. MIT recently honored the BYU student-led company as 2020 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize winners with a $10,000 award.

Every year successful student-run companies come out of BYU Marriott’s Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology through various competitions. This year’s Business Model Competition proved to be no different.