Smith School’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship Launches Bootstrapped Podcast
New media is everywhere, and comes in some many new forms — Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Apple News. Nowadays media, news and information is now delivered in every imaginable way across a plethora of internet platforms. Another example of new media on the rise is the podcast — essentially the internet age’s take on terrestrial radio.
Podcast rose to prominence and gained popularity thanks to groundbreaking journalism from “Serial”, storytelling like “This American Life”, and comedy like “The Joe Rogan Experience”.
Podcasts have been breaking into the mainstream at business schools as well. The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business recently launched a podcast of its own called Bootstrapped. This program focuses on startups from the DC and Baltimore Metros, their founders, investors and ideas.
Current Smith School Executive MBA student, Oscar Zeballos, Co-Founder and President at MORE Broadcasting, came up with the idea for the podcast. Zeballos, in a press release on the Smith website, explained how he came up with the idea for Bootstrapped:
“As a serial entrepreneur, I felt it was important to find a vehicle to share what we learned in our Entrepreneurship Action Learning Plan in the EMBA program with as many entrepreneurs as possible. The vehicle I envisioned was a top notch professional business/education podcast. Elana and Joe’s chemistry was evident in our first class, which made the transition from the classroom to the recording studio flawless.”
Bootstrapped is hosted by the Dingman Center’s Managing Director Elana Fine and Smith School Associate Research Professor Joe Bailey. According to a press release on the Smith website, each episode highlights startup trends and features a special guest, such as serial startup operator Mark Walsh, Dingman Center Angel investor Sam Medile, and Kanchan Singh, the UMD-alumna and founder of D.C.’s first cat cafe, Crumbs & Whiskers. Each episode also closes with a fun segment titled, “Kickstarter or Not?”
Fine says that,
“this podcast is a unique opportunity to share the stories and personalities of our dynamic community. By focusing the show on strategies entrepreneurs often use to fund their startups, we hope Bootstrapped will educate our listeners and encourage them to think creatively about financing their business.”
The first three episodes of Bootstrapped are available for download now. Additional episodes will be recorded this month. To listen or download the podcast, visit go.umd.edu/bootstrapped.
About the Author
Max Pulcini
Max Pulcini is a Philadelphia-based writer and reporter. He has an affinity for Philly sports teams, Super Smash Bros. and cured meats and cheeses. Max has written for Philadelphia-based publications such as Spirit News, Philadelphia City Paper, and Billy Penn, as well as national news outlets like The Daily Beast.
