Spring Break
Entrepreneur Profiles--Allison Floam and Lindsay Jurist-Rosner
Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: Features
|
TouchableAds
What industry/sector would you classify it in?
Digital media
How long has it been running? How many people are involved?
7 super fun months. As of now, just the two of us. Although we've roped in tons of HBS professors, all of our friends, and anyone else who will talk with us!
What is the business idea? How will this have an impact on the world?
Business idea is to monetize the hot, emerging touchscreen space, focusing on out-of-home. We'll have impact on the world by helping drive next generation technology adoption through monetization. Saving the world one touchable ad at a time...
How did you arrive at this idea/ insight?
Lots of brainstorming with our friends, mentors, professors, and of course, eachother.
What challenges did you face balancing your HBS course load and starting/ running your business? How did you manage this?
Balancing courses and our business can be challenging; we do classes, meetings, cases…repeat. We manage it by making sure we're always having fun and never taking ourselves too seriously. Also, an all X schedule doesn't hurt!
How did you leverage the resources available to you in HBS for your business?
We've seriously leveraged the HBS professor and alumni network...with surprisingly little begging. Plus we play the "student card" all the time when reaching out for one-on-one meetings with, for instance, Gary Loveman.
What HBS class/case/ protagonist/ professor was most helpful in starting/running your business? How?
The Silicon Valley IXP was enormously helpful. Big shout-outs to Profs. Ofek, Deighton, Roberts, Eisenmann, Lasiter, Sahlman, Naryandas, Edelman, Lerner…
What's the best part of being an entrepreneur? Worst part?
The best part is working on your own thing, something you're really passionate about and fully invested in. Worst part… hmm, ask us in three months.
What is the most important piece of advice you've been given regarding starting a business?
The best advice we've gotten as co-founders (and best friends) is to never go to bed angry at one another.
Be the first to comment on this story