Georgetown students enroll in the start-up version of summer school

Attendees gather at the Georgetown Summer Startup Showcase on Wednesday night at 1776. The event featured presentations from ventures s started by students. (Photo courtesy of Georgetown University)

 

When Enrique Novella travels to his native Guatemala once a year, the requests from friends and family for American products come in waves. A cousin needs a new MacBook Pro. A friend wants the latest J. Crew apparel. For others, perhaps it’s a designer handbag, video game system or specific brand of chocolate.

Those items tend to be more expensive in the Central American country, if they’re available at all,  Novella said. As a result, travelers heading overseas find their luggage weighed down with merchandise for other people. This summer, the Georgetown MBA student created a Web site called Pax Seeker to connect travelers with those seeking items.

The young venture was one of seven to present Wednesday night at Georgetown University’s Summer Startup Showcase. The event marked the end of a two-month program in which undergraduate and graduate students from schools across campus develop business ideas and learn the basics of being an entrepreneur.

Enrique Novella, center, is an MBA student at Georgetown University. He created a company called Pax Seeker that allows international travelers to transport merchandise to those in another country. (Photo by Steven Overly/The Washington Post)

 

A total of 18 companies took part in the Startup Hoyas Summer Launch Program, the highest number since it formally launched three years ago, said Jeff Reid, founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative. Students attend weekly sessions on how to raise money or land their first customer, then hit the street to talk with prospective buyers and hone their idea.

Participants also visited entrepreneurship hubs around the region, including 1776 in the District and the Crystal Tech Fund in Virginia, and met regularly with a list of local mentors that includes university faculty, serial entrepreneurs, and early stage investors.

“It’s not a textbook program. It’s not a classroom format,” Reid said. “It’s interacting with real business people.”

Jeff Reid, center, chats with attendees at the Georgetown Summer Startup Showcase. Reid is the founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative. (Photo courtesy of Georgetown University)

 

Luisa Santos may have had the most heavily trafficked booth of the night. The recent graduate with a degree in political economy started a business six months ago making ice cream using liquid nitrogen. Attendees last night were lined up to taste scoops of the sweet treat flavored with Nutella, coffee, banana-peanut butter and Bellini.

“We use liquid nitrogen to freeze our bases, which makes the smallest ice particles possible. The texture of our ice cream is much smoother than regular ice cream,” Santos said. “More importantly, actually, our ingredients are locally and seasonally sourced as much as possible.”

Santos has taken Lulu’s ice cream — which is made without preservatives and has a texture similar to gelato – to farmer’s markets and festivals in recent months, as well as children’s birthday parties, reunions, and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. To date, she’s pulled in $20,000 in revenue.

“The idea developed a lot during the program and there were a few pivots throughout the program,” Santos said. “You’re never going to have all the right answers and you’re not actually going to know, a lot of the time, what you don’t know, so that’s where my mentors have been able to guide me.”

Luisa Santos, right, the founder of Lulu’s Nitrogen Ice Cream, chats with an attendee at the showcase. Her company uses liquid nitrogen to make ice cream in such flavors as coffee, Nutella and Bellini. (Photo courtesy of Georgetown University)