The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce that noted entrepreneur and speaker Jeff Hoffman will be speaking at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business on April 20, 2017, as part of its Dingman Center Speaker Series. The series aims to inspire students by featuring successful business figures who have used an entrepreneurial mindset to advance their careers.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, Managing Director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, Associate Research Professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.

Curu, a website and mobile application that assesses spending habits and offers ways to optimize the user’s credit score, won the Pitch Dingman Competition on March 8, 2017, at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. The award came with a $15,000 prize that the startup plans to use to develop its initial web platform. The audience agreed with the judges’ pick, giving Curu the text-to-vote Audience Choice Award of $1,500.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Millennials aren’t special when it comes to their need for higher purpose at work. “Everybody wants purpose in their role,” says Shannon Schuyler, keynote speaker at the ninth annual Social Enterprise Symposium presented March 3, 2017, at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, Managing Director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, Associate Research Professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, Managing Director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, Associate Research Professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.

Each year, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship hosts Pitch Dingman Competition, an opportunity for University of Maryland student entrepreneurs to pitch their businesses shark tank style to an expert panel of judges to compete for a total of $30,000 in seed funding. Pitch Dingman applications open at the beginning of the academic year, with a short quarterfinals phase in late September. A vetting process from alumni entrepreneur judges leads to a selection of 10 semifinalists. The Pitch Dingman Semifinals on Nov.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, Managing Director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, Associate Research Professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.

Rising to a Pop-Up Challenge: Smith Online MBA Students ‘Experience Entrepreneurship in a Tangible Way’

Serial entrepreneur Jason Cohen ’96 is an aspirational figure to student entrepreneurs at University of Maryland. The journey Cohen took after graduating in marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business led him to a brief stint in selling life insurance until he realized his knack for locating opportunities in the snack food industry. Now as the co-founder and CEO of Halen Brands, with partner Leigh Feuerstein, he has made multimillion-dollar deals and controls a $300 million investment fund, backed by Clearlake Capital.