Secrets of a Serial Entrepreneur Entrepreneurs beat long odds when they launch a company, scale it up and sell it to investors. Jason Cohen ’96 has done it five times in 15 years. “A lot of people will tell you that the way I worked, I basically worked to 100 years old. But I did it in 15 years,” says Cohen, who recently gave back to the Smith School in the form of a lead trust that benefits the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.

Meeting current customer demands won’t be enough in 2025, keynote speaker Calvin G. Butler Jr. said on Nov. 13, 2015, at the fourth annual Smith School Business Summit in Baltimore. “Meeting the current demands of customers is only part of it,” said Butler, CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. “You need to think about where your customers are going, and you need to meet them there.”

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Contributions to Venture Acceleration. The award was presented at the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) Annual Conference, hosted by the University of Florida, Oct. 29-31.

On Nov. 16, 2015, students at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will host the 2015 Entrée’preneurship Conference at the Universities at Shady Grove. Building on last year’s successful inaugural conference that drew 250 participants to the event, students in Smith's Entrepreneurship Fellows program will again organize a colorful event around upcoming food and beverage businesses.

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.

The Dingman Center Angels (DCA) is making a push to bring in more investors and hear more pitches from the University of Maryland alumni community. Run out of the Smith School’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, this group of investors — made up of top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business leaders — has invested more than $12 million in early stage companies since 2005. With more than 55 portfolio companies, DCA has been a great funding resource for early stage Mid-Atlantic region entrepreneurs.

Scholly, a startup app out of Drexel University that make it easy for students to find college scholarships, won the $75,000 top prize at the 10th annual Cupid’s Cup, chaired by Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank ’96 and hosted by the Smith School’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. A crowd of nearly 1,000 packed the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for the competition on April 22, 2015.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Is the influential theory of "disruptive innovation" bunk? Or to put it in a less specific and blunt way: Are businesses — and business professors — too quick to accept as fact theories that aren't supported by rigorous data?

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2015, 2 p.m. Location: 2333 Van Munching Hall Attend the showcase to meet the Terp Startups, learn more about the companies and offer customer feedback. Light snacks will be provided.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Fitbit is ridin