August 28, 2025 • 41 mins
- Today's guests talk with Andy Hemmings about the Lamar Universtiy Entrepreneur Institute.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
My name is Andy Hemmings and I am the guest
host today with capital title Dana. We appreciate you letting
capital title fill in to host the show today, and
we've got a good one today. We have two fine
gentlemen here that are visiting us from Lamar University, mister
(00:23):
Edstrock and mister Kyle Scott, and they're both in the
field of entrepreneurship. And we have a lot to unpack
because what we're going to talk about today and the
endeavors that they're involved in, it really has a lot
to do with real estate. Lots of ties it ties
in with real estate because obviously business helps drive the
whole local economy, including real estate. So very happy to
(00:45):
have you all here and just happy to have you
in the community doing the work that you are. So Ed,
let's start with you, just tell us a little bit
about yourself and how you got involved in this field.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Thank you, Thank you for having us. By the way,
We're excited to be here. And you know, I'm Ed Sturik.
I'm a local Southeast Texan native. I built one of
the first tech companies out of the area called Amra Commerce.
We turned it into kart dot Com. We grew it
from about fifteen of us in a garage to about
eighteen hundred people all over the country. That's kind of
(01:19):
my claim to fame. Since then, I've kind of been
kind of tinkering with some entrepreneurial endeavors, and now I've
kind of landed as the chief entrepreneur here at Lamar University,
where we are starting something called the Venture Center, and
then we'll talk about that in a second, but we're
really excited about trying to bolster the entrepreneurial ecosystem here
(01:41):
in Southeast Texas. We have an investment fund that also
holds some other tech investments, and we're starting to branch
out into other entrepreneurial investments. So that's what I'm here.
I'm here to champion entrepreneurship for Southeast Texas and try
to grow what the chaotic life of an entrepreneur, try
to it exactly, give them some sense to their world,
(02:03):
you know, and help them with some advice. You know,
We've we've scaled big businesses, you know, like we're here
to help.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So excellent, Thank you. I appreciate that and you are
a right here from Southeast Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Right here from Southeast Texas. I'm kind of known as
the plaid guy. I wear away too much plaid, and
I like zombies. I've got zombies like on my suit
right now. Okay, And so yeah, the plaid zombie guy
that plays too much pickleball. That's the that's the fun side.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
A right, very good. Well, thank you very much for
being here.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yes, and mister Kyle Scott, yeah, likewise, thanks for having
us here. Unlike Ed, I cannot make a claim that
I'm a local boy, but I'm not from too far away, Spring,
Texas born and just up the road, just up the
road a bit now in ninety nine. In there, it's
much easier to get back. Yes, Yeah, So I started
life as an academic, as a teacher and professor, and
(02:51):
then began my entrepreneurial journey. In two thousand and eight,
about the time we had our second kid, we had
to move back home to Texas. Thank goodness we were
able to do so. But if you remember correctly, two
thousand and eight was not a great time to be
looking for a job.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, I think it good for Really, it wasn't good
for anything.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
No, you know, it's a bad closing when your realtor
turns to you and says, don't worry, you're still young.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You can make it back. Oh wow, oh wow.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
So for the next sixteen or so years, I you know,
charted that course and had some successes and like every entrepreneur,
a couple of failures in the mix. But I had
the opportunity to return to academia as a professor of
entrepreneurship at sam Houston State University. Okay, that was in
twenty twenty four, and then this position opened up. It
fit closer to my skill set and my ambition of
(03:41):
building an entrepreneur ecosystem. Yes, helping people realize their dreams
to build the life where they want exactly where they
are right. We don't want people to have to feel
like they need to relocate to Houston or Dallas or
New Orleans or something like that. We want them to
live out their dreams where they are right.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And how long have you been a part of, uh
this endeavor at Lamar.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
So I'm the executive director of Entrepreneurship and you have
caught me in the middle of week number.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Four, Okay, because I thought when when I was reading
a little bit about this, it seems like you're fairly
new to the staff. I even saw when you had
posted an ad not long ago. We need somebody. So yeah, yeah,
it looks like you landed on a on a good one.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Here we canvas, honestly, we canvassed the whole country. We
had almost one hundred applicants, right, and so I had
I had a really good pick of some really good talent,
you know, and Kyle rose to the top and just
so happened he was like right up the road, which
is great, you know, great for.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Us, excellent, well, fantastic. So let's let's start to unpack
what this looks like at Lamar. Okay, So it's called
the Venture Center, right, and it was formerly known by
another name. But if you would just kind of go
over again, what the overarching vision is for the for
(04:56):
the Venture Center.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The you know, the Venture Center itself is responsible for
taking any entrepreneur, and I say any meaning not just
a student or a faculty member, which is really unique
in the university system. Right, the university is here to
actually support general public entrepreneurs. Also, so the Venture Center
(05:20):
actually houses two entities, one is one is our innovation
Lab that we are creating and that has an incubator,
pitch competitions, new ideas, new innovation, new technology. That's all
about that. That's one side of the Venture Center. The
other side of the Venture Center is an institution we
(05:41):
have a lot of us entrepreneurs have learned about and utilized.
Is the Small Business Development Center the SBDC. John Lee
great staple of the community. He's everywhere all the time
and he's been supporting on So is.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
This part of the Small Business Development Center or y'all
just work in tandem with your work intent them Okay, gotcha?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Okay exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And so with those two kind of like high level
entities in the in the Venture Center, we we tackle
general entrepreneurship through the SBDC with John Lee, and we
tackle new ideas, new ventures, new pitches, new investment, new
opportunities through the Innovation Center, which is part of which
(06:22):
is exactly what Kyle is here to run. And Kyle
has come into to help build that ecosystem out Engage
with the community, Engage with the students, the faculty, get
those ideas out of them, give them the advice, the mentorship,
the access to capital, which is what a lot of
(06:43):
people actually need, right, and hone those ideas and get
them out to market at the end of the day,
validate those ideas, get them out to market, and then
start to accelerate or scale those ideas into something that
turns into a pretty large business at the end of
the day.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Fantastic. So, Kyle, I'm picturing a shark tank kind of atmosphere.
Is that what it looks like? Or when when somebody
comes in to this to do a pitch or they
start this process, what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (07:09):
So the initial intake, right, you're going to reach out
to me, We're going to meet. I'm just gonna try
to understand where you're at in your professional life, your
personal life, find out what your real ambitions are. And
then you don't even have to come to us with
an idea, but maybe just an idea of becoming an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So, there's a number of associated programs. I would say
that we have three pillar programs. One of those is
just general workshops where we're going to give you a takeaway.
So I want to start a business, what do I
need to do? Okay, let's file for an EI in
Let's get your legal structure set up of just basic,
just basic stuff. And it's not a workshop where you
just listen to take notes. They're real takeaways that you
(07:48):
can have. So if you need some financial planning, let's
put together your spreadsheets so that you can go back
and plug in the numbers and it's just plug and play.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
The other one is what we call an inc You
may or may not be familiar with an incubator.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I'm not, but I wrote it down here. Yeah, I
want to hear about that.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So an incubator much like a chicken incubator, right, it's
where instead of chickens go to hatch, it's where ideas
go to hatch.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So we take you from exploring what's a good idea
or taking your idea and refining it, and we just
take you through a series of courses. And when I
say courses, let's think of that in a very loose term,
not in an academic term, right.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, because that may be daunting to someone to think
about that, or and it's really not. So you know,
you come in on a Monday for an hour. We say, okay,
this week we're going to work on your minimum viable
product or we're going to work on your marketing, we'll
work on talking to customers, and then we'll see you
back at the end of the week. After we've done this,
we'll all come together as a cohort and we'll share
our experiences and ideas, make any necessary changes, and then
(08:50):
at the end of this program, you're going to be
put in front of investors who will possibly be able
to provide you with that seed funding. So, because you
had mentioned access to capital, and I thought, okay, where's
this capital coming from?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
So a lot.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So you know, there's the general donations that come in
through university systems. That's great for funding student grants, faculty grants,
or just providing a general level of support, but we
really want to have that investment arm right. Altruism only
takes you so far. So if we're relying on people's
goodwill and faith to support these businesses, it's not going
(09:27):
to be sustainable. We need people to see returns on
their investment.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, and I would imagine that these individuals that are
these potential investors, they're part of the vetting process, so
they help to kind of fletch a deal out as well.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, that's where the rubber meets down right. We can
do all this, but why it's so important to connect
these people with investment at the end is that's the
only way that an entrepreneurial endeavor will thrive. If all
we do is provide the toolkit, provide the training, it's
just an academic enterprise and that's not what we're here
to do. We're here to make a sustainable econom impact
(10:00):
in the region.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, fantastic, And I think out of the area, you
know that there hasn't been an investment vehicle. I keep
sounding calling a vehicle, but it's you know, we don't
have a Beaumont or Southeast Texas Angel Fund or an
investment fund, and we aspire to start the first one
of those to invest in these businesses, to have investors
come in and ultimately have these entrepreneurs convince an investor
(10:21):
that their idea is worth it. Investor puts money in,
and then the investor actually expects and gets a return
over time, right, just like any other venture fund that's
out there in larger markets.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
We are going to take a quick break here, and
we have so much to unpack. I've got so many
more questions. You're listening to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
This is Andy Hemmings with capital title. Thank you so
much for tuning in and we'll be right back. Welcome
back to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show. This is
Andy Hemmings with capital title, and so glad you could
(10:56):
join us today. We were talking with mister ed Starrock
and mister Kyle Scott from Lamar University with the Venture Center,
which focuses on entrepreneurship and helping nurture entrepreneurs in our
area and helping build our business community. Got some lot,
got a lot of great things to cover and Ed
(11:17):
you were talking about. There's a particular arm of what
y'all are doing. It's called the Forge. Okay, So tell
us a little bit about the purpose of the Forge
and how it matches with the Venture Center.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, the Forge is a venture studio in a coworking
space and this goes hand in hand with an entrepreneur
that's trying to get started. An entrepreneur needs space, they
need desk, they need conference rooms, they need the ability
to meet. The Forge is the entity right here in
downtown Beaumont to sixty eight Pearl. It has all of
(11:49):
that it's a it's a tech office, vibe, ping pong tables,
there's there's there's video games, there's all that fun stuff.
But then upstairs there's all of the dedicated space to
conduct your business. It's also a venture studio in the
sense that this is our investment vehicle into the entrepreneurs
of the area. We will put in investment funds through
(12:12):
the Forge or through what's called an Angel network, which
is a group of individual investors that put money into
individual companies as they decide, and the Forge will help
kind of like collaborate and build that investment ecosystem out
for the entrepreneurs. We need to keep that very separate
from a state institution that that has a responsibility to
(12:33):
a different kind of mandate than a private investment vehicle.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So this is the private wing of your mission exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
And you know, the co working space is the brand
that if I need a desk, you know we have
we have also desks at the Lamar at our building
at Colin I's building at Lamar have this great beautiful
building with desk and with offices and with stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
And we want to create that ecosystem that vibe of
of of.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Of entrepreneurship here in south east Texas. So we have
all that stuff to be able to rent out. It's
super cheap. You come in and you just kind of
snag a desk, you work, and then you go home
and then you just have no idea this was going on.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, you know, And the nice thing about the Forge
is it really represents it's that physical representation of our
ambition to reach into the community. Right. You don't have
to come on campus. Now, our building on campus is
really accessible because it's on the outer skirts, free parking,
So we want the community to come in, but we
also recognize the reality that we have to go into
(13:30):
the community. Right, So we have the Forge that's in
downtown Beaumont where entrepreneurs of all stripes can come in
and out. There are few restrictions. But it also allows
us the flexibility to move at the speed of business
because universities don't necessarily do that. It's not really in
their DNA. So we're infusing some of that entrepreneurial DNA
(13:52):
into the Lamar system through this collaboration.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, and so the prior to the ventures Or, it
had it and it had an acronym and I won't
remember what it stands for. But how is what you're
doing now different from the way Lamar used to do things.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yeah, so there have been a you know, we like
to say third times is charm. There have been a
couple false starts. Now I think the overall ambition is
very similar. I would say that we're emphasizing the reaching
out into community far more and the incubator itself, the
partnerships and the funding that's going to be available is
(14:30):
a different take on this as well as well as
the private public private partnership that we have.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
With the Forge.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, and how long has the Forge been up and
running now? We're a little over a year now, so
it's still very it's still very.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Very new as well. Exactly, it used to be our
tech office.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
You know, whenever I mentioned Kart dot com and the
crazy explosive growth that we had, we kind of started
a lot of that right there in that office. And
so as we outgrew and went national and it was
a fully remote company, great experience. We didn't really need
the office anymore, like, and I didn't want to sell
it and just have you know, I mean, I love
my lawyer friends, but like, like ultimately, like it's downtown,
(15:07):
you know, like a lawyer would probably buy it and
make it their office. And we're like, well, let's what
can we do a little bit different in the area.
Let's do something, Let's do something.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Crazy like this.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, And I did.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Want to mention that the co working space is one
one part of the Forge, but the Forge also is
that that venture studio. Some of the members in the
Forge are marketing professionals, they are branding professionals. We've got
a video guy in there, right, We've got a podcaster
in there, We've got a we've got a guitar guy
in there.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You know, it's it's ultimately, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Pretty Yeah, there's a guitar guy you needed you need
a soundtrack for your for your video. He's there, he's waiting,
you know. He gives lessons too, by the way. But uh,
but you have all these like really cool businesses kind
of coming into the Forge, and there's a lot of
cross collaboration and cross pollination of entrepreneurs happening there.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And so we want to create that as the studio.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So when a brand come in, maybe they're not the
best marketing pros, they're entrepreneurs, right, they got a crazy idea,
they don't sleep at night.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You know, they need marketing help.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You know there's people there that are able to do
that and facilitate that for them.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's probably more common that
somebody has a they're a good idea person, they just
and it's probably and there's a lot of good ideas.
But executing that idea that's what i'll that's what y'all
are helping them with because there's so many different elements
to bringing that idea to fruition.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Absolutely right, when you come with an idea, it's not
just about having the ideas, right, it's about being able
to fulfill that in a way that makes sense from
a business perspective. Right, all of us just sat back
and said, well, why doesn't somebody do something about this
or I wish this would happen. Well, that's not a
viable business if you're the only one with that thought, right, Right,
(16:51):
So we need to go out and first find out
if other people share your problem or those sorts of things,
and then what's a way that we can create a
business model around this. Because because even if you're looking
to be a nonprofit or some social enterprise, that's it
still meets financial reality. So we need to figure out
how this is going to attract funding and attract customers
(17:11):
so that this can be a viable business.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, as you're talking, I'm actually thinking of several people.
I know that they need to connect with you guys,
and I don't know if they are aware of it,
and maybe they have already. But I love hearing this
and I really love when you describe the atmosphere. And
what popped into my mind was like Google, you know
how they the bean bag chairs and ping pong tables
(17:35):
and whatever, So how like what went into that design
and what's the philosophy behind the design and that environment
and how does it help towards your goals?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, great question. You know, like ultimately, the bottom is
a multi floor building. The bottom floor is a social center, right,
It's designed to have It has the ping pong table,
it has foosball, It has a kitchen, you know, big
fridge for everybody to kind of socialize around on, you know,
food and games and socialization brings everybody together. That's the
(18:04):
bottom floor. The philosophy of the top floor is focus
a little bit more closed environment. You go up there
for when it's time to put the headphones on and
hunker down and go into a flow state and build
something really cool.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, and so that's kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
The philosophy of the building itself, and that kind of
marries over with Lamar where we have on the bottom
floor of our building.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Over there, we also have.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
A thing called the Hatchery, which is which is an
ideal lab with whiteboards all over, you know, crazy green
colors on the wall. It will have a ping pong
table very soon. Somebody likes we like ping pong over here.
But yeah, that's kind of the philosophy, like getting everybody together,
get the experts together. The one thing that I'll mention
is that on LinkedIn, there's a lot of great advice,
(18:45):
you know, on the internet, YouTube, et cetera. There's a
lot of people that have a story that they're trying
to tell and they give you great advice, you know.
But but at the end of the day, that vice
is not timely or relevant to you in the moment.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
That you saw it. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
What you need is is experts aligned with your business
idea giving you advice at the right time, right, And
that's not what That's not something that YouTube and LinkedIn
and stuff really provide for you. That's what this incubator
and our Venture Center in the Forge, that's what it's
providing is expert advice at the right time for your business.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, okay, and I would extend some of that philosophy around,
you know, whether it's at the Venture Center on campus
where it's an open environment where anybody can come in
and out and the Forge, same applies, right. And what
we know about entrepreneurship is that it's a community affair.
You need support from experts, you need support from fellow
(19:40):
entrepreneurs going through the same journey. And we know that
good ideas don't happen when you schedule a meeting, right,
So you have to create a cluster of people coming
together who can randomly bounce off each other, provide to
support the expertise, but also just sharing the good ideas
that they may not have had on their own. Yeah,
and so are y'all open every day? Like what are
your hours that people typically can can come in as
(20:02):
it by appointment only or how does that work? So
on campus? Right? Standard campus hours Monday through Friday eight
to five. There's going to be some programming outside of
those hours, but doors are open okay, regular business hours,
and then the Forge has a little bit different model.
It's a bit more expansive in terms of hours and
days that it's open.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So, as I was listening to you a talk, I
was trying to picture the flow, and so correct me
if I'm wrong. Is the like is the incubators, Like
somebody has an idea. Is that where you first like
flesh it out before you bring it over to the
Forge or is that not necessarily the case?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
So I would say, come to us as early as
you can. Yeah, come to us as soon as you
have that idea, because the first thing, the first step
to becoming an entrepreneur is to act right. Yes, you
have a bias for action, have a buyas towards action. Yes,
get out of your own head, quit talking about it.
If you have this idea, get in front of some people.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
First.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
You can come see me at the Venture Center and
then we'll connect you with the Forge. But the incubation
stage is let's just act on this and put a
plan in place.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, gotcha. That makes complete sense. So you are a
good first point of contact whenever somebody has an idea.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Got it all right?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Okay, we're going to take another short break and come
back with mister ed Sterrock and Kyle Scott with the
Venture Center at Lamar University. This is Andy Hemmings with
capitol title on the Dana Simons Show, and we'll be
right back. Welcome back to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
This is Andy Hemmings with capital title, guest host for
(21:35):
Miss Dana Today. And it's a pleasure to be here.
And we are talking with two gentlemen here, mister ed
Sterrock and Kyle Scott with the Venture Center at Lamar University,
and we're talking about entrepreneurship. If you are thinking about
starting a business, these are two gentlemen that you're going
to want to connect with. And I guess now is
as opportune time as any for anybody that's listening listening.
(21:57):
What's a good way for them to get started or
get an touch with you guys.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Yeah, so I'll give my cell phone out right now, Okay, okay, good? Yeah,
So if you want to call me, this is Kyle
uh seven one three eight zero five zero five eight one.
Now if I don't pick up, it's because I think
you're trying to sell me a new roof. For some
health insurance. But if you leave a message, I'll call
you right back, right we all get those spam calls.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Absolutely, yeah, sorry, Or.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
My email is case Scott seventy four at Lamar dot edu.
Either one works, okay, and I'll add that.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Just go to Forge dot us you can there's an
info at Forge dot us. You can email that anytime
as well. You can kind of get a feel for
what the Forge is about off that website, okay, and
it'll have some of the Lamar programming up on it
pretty soon as well. But that as far as getting
in contact with us. Either one of those is a
great approach to start the conversation. You land on one
(22:53):
of our rosters of entrepreneurs, investors or or a faculty
or local institution.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
So yeah, yeah, you'll pick them up and start guiding
them down the path. Yeah, excellent. During the break, Kyle,
we were talking a little bit about another avenue for
entrepreneurship that a lot of people may not think about.
You don't have to start with the brand new idea.
There's existing businesses out there that might be available for
you to bring your own unique twist to and carry
(23:21):
on that business. So and I think the way you
phrased it was entrepreneurship as acquisition, So tell us a
little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yeah, So, I mean, one of the fascinating things that
I've been pleasantly surprised by in Beaumont in the surrounding
area is how entrepreneurial it already is. You can't throw
a rock and not hit a privately owned business, a
family owned business that's been there for generations or maybe
first gen.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Right, Obviously they're onto something they've been around for one
hundred years or around.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
So, but there's also a challenge that this community may face. Right,
a lot of these founders are getting to a point
in their careers when they're thinking about maybe shutting things
down enjoying their life in some other way, which leaves
an opportunity for younger people to buy into these businesses.
What we don't want to see happen is for some
(24:10):
big investment firm amount of Dallas or Chicago or the
Woodlands come in and buy one of these things, because
when they do, they don't have the community's best interest
at heart. We want to be able to have this
here because it's the local owners who are going to
invest in the symphony and the chamber and all of
these other things and be presences in the community, recognize
that it's the community why they're here, and so we want
(24:34):
to be able to provide some support and some expertise
around how if I'm a young, aspiring entrepreneur, can I
enter this space by acquiring an existing business? Right, you're
mitigating a lot of the risk because it's a proven
model that already works. The challenge is how do I
put the capitol together? How do I make these contacts? Well,
that's what we're here.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
To help with.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, so that's a fantastic point. And because there are
a lo a lot of businesses out there were just
as you said, the the owners are aging out, so
to speak, and they don't have family members to carry
it on. So does the process work? How does how
does the process? How's it similar or different when working
through the Venture center with an existing somebody taking over
(25:18):
an existing business.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
You know, I would say that we're that we are.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
We have programming kind of like whether you're a new
idea or whether you are an existing business, and in
this sense a subset of existing business that is looking
to pass the torch on. And so we have programming
that that that comes in. So as long as you
come into our funnel of of of uh contacts, like
we'll we'll get you situated to the right spot of
(25:43):
the program, right and every the entire program.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
A lot of being an.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Entrepreneur is very similar, whether it's a new idea, an
existing idea, or you're trying to pass the torch on.
So there's a lot of patterns that that we can
kind of help people understand instruct them on how to
navigate the various patterns that are out there where we're creating.
One of the things that we'll be doing is creating
playbooks for when you're launching your first Facebook page or
(26:07):
your first LinkedIn page.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
What do you need to do?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
What do you need to think about? Yea, And if
you already have one, how do you make it better?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You know?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
And so there's playbooks that we have, entire whole playbooks
that we're going to be building to shuttle an entrepreneur
through the process of being an entrepreneur, because, let's be honest,
like it is chaotic, it is crazy, it is twenty
four to seven. Entrepreneurs are built a little bit differently,
you know, in a lot of ways, we all know
some of them, right, so they need all the help
(26:36):
they can get.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yeah, end of the day.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah, and you know a lot of what we're talking
about sounds pretty structured, and a lot of it is,
and we offer that. But if you just need a
resource of I'm thinking about this, who should I contact, Well,
we're there for that as well, right, So it's not
like you have to come in and take part in
some formal process. We're there for that as well. But
if you just need to talk to somebody kind of
(26:58):
figure out where to go or what the next is,
just it's it can be that casual.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So what you're if I understand you correctly, you can
serve as a connectors, as a resource just for who
they need to go talk to. That's simply absolutely modern
roll index if you will, right.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yes, And to get tactical, like some people need an
engineer to get to advise them. Maybe they're not an engineer,
maybe they're not a technologist, you know, they need to
be a software developer. We can we can kind of
help connect those dots for people.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Right, and that there is so much value in that
just a quick connection to my industry. That's how that's
one of the ways that I serve in my industry
in real estate minus specific to real estate. But I've
been doing it for almost thirty years now, and I
know somebody in the real estate space that's going to
be able to help you with whatever you need. And
that's just so vital, just such a good service that
(27:48):
you can provide to your your customers or perspective customers.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
So, going back to the entrepreneurship as acquisition, how does
someone find in existing business that might be interested in selling.
What would be the process? Like, as we're talking, somebody
may say, you know what, I would rather just find
an existing law and care business or blueprint shop, whatever
it might be. How does that happen?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Now, you have to be a little careful about this
because if you know anybody who started a business, this
business is their baby, and they don't want to just
you to walk in and say, you know, put a
price tag on their baby.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
That's the truth.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
They want to know that you're going to care for
it and take care of it in the way that
they did.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Right.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
They love their employees, they love their customers, and they
want to make sure that it's in safe hands. So
you don't want to just knock on a door and
be like, hey, you look old. How about you sell
this to me? Like, that's not the route to go.
A little more tact is involved.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Not only that, but.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Entrepreneurs they sometimes they can't let it out that they
are potentially looking at exiting their business in some way, right,
Like that could be that could be detrimental to their business, right.
And so there's a lot of privacy that is I
say that is required in this. There's NDA's there's other
things that are needed. So what we what we want
to do is try to keep mentioning these rosters. We
(29:03):
have a we have rosters of entrepreneurs looking for businesses.
We have rosters of entrepreneurs looking to sell businesses. And
so those internal rosters are internal, right, We're not We're
not shouting it from the rooftop set this moment. You know,
if we if somebody wants to package their business up
and put it for sale officially, we can help with
that for sure. But I can tell you seven, eight, eight,
(29:24):
maybe even nine times out of ten they want a
little bit more privacy through that engagement.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, because there's business brokers out there that can do this.
But I I know a lot of business owners don't
want to go that round. They want it private.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Yeah, yeah, they want it private. And also, you know,
you can come to us, we can help mix a
match and partner you up and say, you know, make
the a softer approach that that's not going to offend anybody.
But at the same time, if you're an a ployee
at an existing business and you've been there for five
or seven years, don't think that it's not an option
(29:56):
for you to come in and be the next owner
of this business.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And that right, actually pretty good candidate. Yeah, yeah, and
a lot of absolutely right. You have the relationships, you
know a little bit about it. So it's about adopting
that entrepreneurial mindset to recognize that you are capable of
being a business owner. Is that first switch that needs
to flip on, right, because then you'll start seeing all
of the opportunities around you. Yeah, yeah, And I would
(30:20):
you know, kind of thinking through it, I would imagine
that there's you have to have a delicate balance of
keeping the old and blending in the new, you know,
because that business was successful and had longevity for a reason. Yep,
you don't want to throw out the good stuff. And
I would imagine a lot of people come in with
a lot of ideas and like, you know, maybe maybe not.
You know, so that's what y'all are there for, to
(30:41):
help guide them through that decision.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Absolutely right, You you want to make sure not just
for because it's the right thing to do, but it
makes business sense to recognize the value that they've been
delivering and they may know something that you need to learn.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, And I'd love to kind of cast an even
long term vision with you guys if possible. You know,
like one of the things that we really aspire to
do is bring together all the local institutions that are
trying to support entrepreneurship. We aspire to build you know,
name TBD, but something like the Gulf Coach Venture Alliance, right,
(31:17):
which is a group of all of the local economic
development councils, the Chambers of commerce is multiple right. Southeast
Texas is a multi variant community community with a lot
of different investments in entrepreneurship, but nobody necessarily coordinating with
each other all that well, you know, and so I
think that that's the one opportunity that we have. We
have all these great institutions putting stuff out there, but
(31:41):
the programming isn't coordinated, it's not sinked right. Everybody's putting
in ten twenty five fifty thousand dollars into this event
or that event, or have some speaker come into town.
But it's not like a grouped a set of programming
and a content calendar kind of oriented towards, you know,
the the year of what is going to happen all
(32:03):
year for entrepreneurship. And I think we can pool our
resources a lot better than these smaller investments into entrepreneurship
as well.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
I think that's a fantastic idea. I can imagine there's
synchronicities between all of them. You just have to you
have to get everybody together and figure.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Out what part of this part of being an entrepreneur
just kind of planting the seed, Like this is that
moment where we're trying to plant that seed kind of
manifested into reality.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh I love that, I that I love it.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Love it all Right, We are going to take a
quick break and come back. This is Andy Hemmings with
capital title. You're listening to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
Welcome back to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show. This
is Andy Hemmings with Capital Title, and thank you so
much for joining us today. We are talking with two
(32:47):
local entrepreneur professionals, mister Kyle Scott and Ed Starrock with
the Venture Center at Lamar University. They're giving some great tips,
some great advice for entrepreneurs out there and how you
can start art your journey. And thank you so much
for being here with us, gentlemen. And you know, as
we were talking, it struck me that, you know, Beaumont
(33:09):
is a very generous community. I grew up here, you know,
this is my hometown, and there's a lot of there's
just a lot of generosity in our community. And I'm
sure there's some people out there that are listening that
would like to be a part of this, you know,
be a partner and help to foster your growth. So
what are some ways that people just that are in
our community that want to be involved, What are some
ways they can help.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Yeah, so the first two things that we need, I
think are fundamental to what we do. We need mentors.
If you want to support local entrepreneurs, we can use
your help to support our entrepreneurs. You can share your expertise.
This is a great way to give back. We also
need entrepreneurs. This thing does not work without you, right.
If you have an idea, we will come searching for you.
(33:51):
But you also need to come to us because not
every entrepreneur is going to make themselves known. So we
need the entrepreneurs. We also need there's going to be
a final need, right, We need investments and we need
donations to support our students, to support our faculty in
what we're doing at the Venture Center.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Yeah, and I'll double top on that last point that
the investment in the center is an investment in entrepreneurship.
You know, you give to Lamar University through the Ambition
Fund or through the through the Venture Center Fund at
Lamar University, so we can direct that giving straight into entrepreneurship.
(34:27):
It is professionally managed giving, right, and so it goes
to the right place. It goes directly to Kyl and
myself to deploy into the community. And so what we
ask really is honestly open the wallets to some of
your more senior entrepreneurs. They've already kind of you know,
made it, you know, in life, and and they want
(34:48):
to give back. Well, this is a great way to
give back in the way that helps younger entrepreneurs that
are doing the same journey that they went through and
they needed that help, They needed that advice, needed that support.
This this money goes to directly into the ecosystem for
UH paid workshops, for for workshops that you actually get
(35:09):
something out of, not just you know speaker series that
come in and you know rah rah type sessions. You know,
they are getting a tangible deliverable with each one of
these workshops. It helps pay for those, It helps pay
for some of the seed investments in some of these companies.
We're professionally geared up to deploy this giving properly into
the entrepreneurship section. So it's not just a general Lamar
(35:31):
University gift, which they we are more than welcome to
to to, yes exactly, but but this is very directed
into entrepreneurship. So please, you know, help us, help us
actually get this off the ground.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
We need it fantastic. Let's get your contact information again,
if you don't mind. For if someone wanted to donate,
what's the best way for them to start that process.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, I would start with I would start with contact
and Kyle to be honest, So you want to give
your content.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Directly that again.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
The phone again is seven one three eight zero five
zero five eight one, and then the email is K
Scott seventy four at Lamar dot edu.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
That is the best way at this moment. We will
have a website up pretty soon. You can give to
the Lamari Ambition Fund on the Lamar website on Lamar
dot ed u slash give I believe and uh direct
it to the Ambition Fund if you do.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
If you do that, okay, great, perfect. So let's in
our in our last little part here, let's talk about
what would you say is the biggest win that y'all
have seen so far since y'all have been up and running.
What uh what? What success story could you could you
share with us?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
So it's a little too early to say that we've
taken a company to I p O at this point, man,
but I'll tell.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
You yes and I and I fully realized that I
should have I should have properly couched my my uh
my question there. But just turn terms of your mission
like some wins.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
I'll say, first and foremost, the community at Lamar, in
the community of Beaumont, has welcomed me with open arms.
I've been overwhelmed by the hospitality and the support that
we've seen. I was within my first week we did
have faculty saying, hey, I heard this was kind of
going on, students saying I heard this was I have
this idea. So the early traction that we're seeing with
(37:25):
interest and people willing to work with us and listen
to us has just been such an early inspiration that
I just see you upright the right future ahead.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, I would say the biggest twin for me personally
is the idea that LAMAR, a state institution, would would
play ball in this risky level of startup life right
and be open to that risk and that appetite for
for for change. At the end of the day, this
is not easy. It is one of the only one
(37:56):
of the with the very few institutions that actually will
help the general public entrepreneur. It's different to help the
kids and the students. How you kind of expect that
out of LAMAR Right, They're they're they're branching even wider.
They caught the vision. They they they want to invest
in Southeast Texas. Our key KPI for the program is
change in Southeast Texas right, and that hyper focused, geo
(38:19):
focused investment for the area that's Lamar saying, hey, we're
going to raise our hand, We're.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Going to actually do that.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
To me, that's a that's that gives me chill bumps. Yeah,
that that that they're willing to to do something like that.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
You know, I'm and I'm so proud to hear this
and see what what you all are doing. Back when
I was at Lamar in the late eighties, I think
I think the predecessor to all this was the John
Gray Institute, I believe back in the day, I mean
way back when, because I remember they had they would
they would have classes or events similar to this. And
(38:50):
I just love to see the way that it's evolved
and where it's come and and that's thanks to good
leadership at Lamar University. Yeah, yeah, very good, very good.
So one of the things I mentioned to y'all, and
this is a little bit a little bit off, somewhat
off topic, is what a couple things, what's your favorite
(39:10):
book that you're reading right now personally, and what books
would you recommend to anyone interested in getting involved in
the in the entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
So the two I have going right now, one with
my daughter and one on my own. So Screwtape Letters
by C. S.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Lewis.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Oh my gosh, that is such a fantastic book. And
then wow, that's an interesting choice.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
It was. It was good.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
My daughter and I are sharing that. And then Rebel Yell,
which is about Ulyssea S. Grant has experienced during the
Civil War.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Okay, yeah, very good. I haven't read that one. It's
really good. All right. Okay, so that's your personal choices, yes,
all right, we'll come back to you for your business choices.
For entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
You know me, I'm I'm a little more boring. I
I read mostly diligence documents and such.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Off of.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Angel List is a great venue to go to. You
can actually join these things called syndicates. You get access
to all these diligence documents for all these entrepreneurs in
the area.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
That fills up my reading time.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
To be honest, I will say that, you know, whenever
I actually get time to read, I actually bounce out
of entrepreneurship. I got to get out of this, you know.
So I do a lot of uh, you know, fantasy
reading again plaid zombie guy. You know, I'm kind of
a nerd, so I do some fantasy reading. You know,
the Robert Jordan's here, He's Game of Thrones all that stuff,
you know. But I would say that for me, you know,
(40:31):
actually getting getting tapped into the blogs and the various
uh uh newsletters.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
I love t ld R.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
It's it's a it's a group of new letters, newsletters
that are kind of geared around technology a little bit,
but uh, they also cover what these big enterprises are
doing in entrepreneurs It is called t l d R.
It's called too Long Didn't Read, So it's too short
short short summaries. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so it's short summer.
All these great articles kind of coming through the massive
(41:04):
information flow that we have today. They pull those together
for you and they summarize them and then you can
kind of go dive deep into the articles that are
that are relevant to you. So whenever I get my time,
that's usually what I spend it on is catching up
on what the innovation eastgosphere, you know, is giving us
these days. I would also offer that Houston Innovation Network
(41:25):
is also like producing a few different newsletters as well,
which is great.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Okay, good deal, we are we're out of time, gentlemen.
This just went so good. This was great. Thank you
both so much for being with us here today. This
has been Kyle Scott and Ed Starrock with the Venture
Center at Lamar University. Thank you for helping build our community.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Thanks for vank you for having us out.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
This has been Andy Hemmings with the Dana Simmons Show.
Thank you so much for tuning in, and everyone have
a wonderful day, right
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
My name is Andy Hemmings and I am the guest
host today with capital title Dana. We appreciate you letting
capital title fill in to host the show today, and
we've got a good one today. We have two fine
gentlemen here that are visiting us from Lamar University, mister
(00:23):
Edstrock and mister Kyle Scott, and they're both in the
field of entrepreneurship. And we have a lot to unpack
because what we're going to talk about today and the
endeavors that they're involved in, it really has a lot
to do with real estate. Lots of ties it ties
in with real estate because obviously business helps drive the
whole local economy, including real estate. So very happy to
(00:45):
have you all here and just happy to have you
in the community doing the work that you are. So Ed,
let's start with you, just tell us a little bit
about yourself and how you got involved in this field.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Thank you, Thank you for having us. By the way,
We're excited to be here. And you know, I'm Ed Sturik.
I'm a local Southeast Texan native. I built one of
the first tech companies out of the area called Amra Commerce.
We turned it into kart dot Com. We grew it
from about fifteen of us in a garage to about
eighteen hundred people all over the country. That's kind of
(01:19):
my claim to fame. Since then, I've kind of been
kind of tinkering with some entrepreneurial endeavors, and now I've
kind of landed as the chief entrepreneur here at Lamar University,
where we are starting something called the Venture Center, and
then we'll talk about that in a second, but we're
really excited about trying to bolster the entrepreneurial ecosystem here
(01:41):
in Southeast Texas. We have an investment fund that also
holds some other tech investments, and we're starting to branch
out into other entrepreneurial investments. So that's what I'm here.
I'm here to champion entrepreneurship for Southeast Texas and try
to grow what the chaotic life of an entrepreneur, try
to it exactly, give them some sense to their world,
(02:03):
you know, and help them with some advice. You know,
We've we've scaled big businesses, you know, like we're here
to help.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So excellent, Thank you. I appreciate that and you are
a right here from Southeast Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Right here from Southeast Texas. I'm kind of known as
the plaid guy. I wear away too much plaid, and
I like zombies. I've got zombies like on my suit
right now. Okay, And so yeah, the plaid zombie guy
that plays too much pickleball. That's the that's the fun side.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
A right, very good. Well, thank you very much for
being here.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yes, and mister Kyle Scott, yeah, likewise, thanks for having
us here. Unlike Ed, I cannot make a claim that
I'm a local boy, but I'm not from too far away, Spring,
Texas born and just up the road, just up the
road a bit now in ninety nine. In there, it's
much easier to get back. Yes, Yeah, So I started
life as an academic, as a teacher and professor, and
(02:51):
then began my entrepreneurial journey. In two thousand and eight,
about the time we had our second kid, we had
to move back home to Texas. Thank goodness we were
able to do so. But if you remember correctly, two
thousand and eight was not a great time to be
looking for a job.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, I think it good for Really, it wasn't good
for anything.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
No, you know, it's a bad closing when your realtor
turns to you and says, don't worry, you're still young.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You can make it back. Oh wow, oh wow.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
So for the next sixteen or so years, I you know,
charted that course and had some successes and like every entrepreneur,
a couple of failures in the mix. But I had
the opportunity to return to academia as a professor of
entrepreneurship at sam Houston State University. Okay, that was in
twenty twenty four, and then this position opened up. It
fit closer to my skill set and my ambition of
(03:41):
building an entrepreneur ecosystem. Yes, helping people realize their dreams
to build the life where they want exactly where they
are right. We don't want people to have to feel
like they need to relocate to Houston or Dallas or
New Orleans or something like that. We want them to
live out their dreams where they are right.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And how long have you been a part of, uh
this endeavor at Lamar.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
So I'm the executive director of Entrepreneurship and you have
caught me in the middle of week number.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Four, Okay, because I thought when when I was reading
a little bit about this, it seems like you're fairly
new to the staff. I even saw when you had
posted an ad not long ago. We need somebody. So yeah, yeah,
it looks like you landed on a on a good one.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Here we canvas, honestly, we canvassed the whole country. We
had almost one hundred applicants, right, and so I had
I had a really good pick of some really good talent,
you know, and Kyle rose to the top and just
so happened he was like right up the road, which
is great, you know, great for.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Us, excellent, well, fantastic. So let's let's start to unpack
what this looks like at Lamar. Okay, So it's called
the Venture Center, right, and it was formerly known by
another name. But if you would just kind of go
over again, what the overarching vision is for the for
(04:56):
the Venture Center.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The you know, the Venture Center itself is responsible for
taking any entrepreneur, and I say any meaning not just
a student or a faculty member, which is really unique
in the university system. Right, the university is here to
actually support general public entrepreneurs. Also, so the Venture Center
(05:20):
actually houses two entities, one is one is our innovation
Lab that we are creating and that has an incubator,
pitch competitions, new ideas, new innovation, new technology. That's all
about that. That's one side of the Venture Center. The
other side of the Venture Center is an institution we
(05:41):
have a lot of us entrepreneurs have learned about and utilized.
Is the Small Business Development Center the SBDC. John Lee
great staple of the community. He's everywhere all the time
and he's been supporting on So is.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
This part of the Small Business Development Center or y'all
just work in tandem with your work intent them Okay, gotcha?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Okay exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And so with those two kind of like high level
entities in the in the Venture Center, we we tackle
general entrepreneurship through the SBDC with John Lee, and we
tackle new ideas, new ventures, new pitches, new investment, new
opportunities through the Innovation Center, which is part of which
(06:22):
is exactly what Kyle is here to run. And Kyle
has come into to help build that ecosystem out Engage
with the community, Engage with the students, the faculty, get
those ideas out of them, give them the advice, the mentorship,
the access to capital, which is what a lot of
(06:43):
people actually need, right, and hone those ideas and get
them out to market at the end of the day,
validate those ideas, get them out to market, and then
start to accelerate or scale those ideas into something that
turns into a pretty large business at the end of
the day.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Fantastic. So, Kyle, I'm picturing a shark tank kind of atmosphere.
Is that what it looks like? Or when when somebody
comes in to this to do a pitch or they
start this process, what does that look like?
Speaker 4 (07:09):
So the initial intake, right, you're going to reach out
to me, We're going to meet. I'm just gonna try
to understand where you're at in your professional life, your
personal life, find out what your real ambitions are. And
then you don't even have to come to us with
an idea, but maybe just an idea of becoming an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So, there's a number of associated programs. I would say
that we have three pillar programs. One of those is
just general workshops where we're going to give you a takeaway.
So I want to start a business, what do I
need to do? Okay, let's file for an EI in
Let's get your legal structure set up of just basic,
just basic stuff. And it's not a workshop where you
just listen to take notes. They're real takeaways that you
(07:48):
can have. So if you need some financial planning, let's
put together your spreadsheets so that you can go back
and plug in the numbers and it's just plug and play.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
The other one is what we call an inc You
may or may not be familiar with an incubator.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I'm not, but I wrote it down here. Yeah, I
want to hear about that.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
So an incubator much like a chicken incubator, right, it's
where instead of chickens go to hatch, it's where ideas
go to hatch.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So we take you from exploring what's a good idea
or taking your idea and refining it, and we just
take you through a series of courses. And when I
say courses, let's think of that in a very loose term,
not in an academic term, right.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, because that may be daunting to someone to think
about that, or and it's really not. So you know,
you come in on a Monday for an hour. We say, okay,
this week we're going to work on your minimum viable
product or we're going to work on your marketing, we'll
work on talking to customers, and then we'll see you
back at the end of the week. After we've done this,
we'll all come together as a cohort and we'll share
our experiences and ideas, make any necessary changes, and then
(08:50):
at the end of this program, you're going to be
put in front of investors who will possibly be able
to provide you with that seed funding. So, because you
had mentioned access to capital, and I thought, okay, where's
this capital coming from?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
So a lot.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So you know, there's the general donations that come in
through university systems. That's great for funding student grants, faculty grants,
or just providing a general level of support, but we
really want to have that investment arm right. Altruism only
takes you so far. So if we're relying on people's
goodwill and faith to support these businesses, it's not going
(09:27):
to be sustainable. We need people to see returns on
their investment.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, and I would imagine that these individuals that are
these potential investors, they're part of the vetting process, so
they help to kind of fletch a deal out as well.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, that's where the rubber meets down right. We can
do all this, but why it's so important to connect
these people with investment at the end is that's the
only way that an entrepreneurial endeavor will thrive. If all
we do is provide the toolkit, provide the training, it's
just an academic enterprise and that's not what we're here
to do. We're here to make a sustainable econom impact
(10:00):
in the region.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, fantastic, And I think out of the area, you
know that there hasn't been an investment vehicle. I keep
sounding calling a vehicle, but it's you know, we don't
have a Beaumont or Southeast Texas Angel Fund or an
investment fund, and we aspire to start the first one
of those to invest in these businesses, to have investors
come in and ultimately have these entrepreneurs convince an investor
(10:21):
that their idea is worth it. Investor puts money in,
and then the investor actually expects and gets a return
over time, right, just like any other venture fund that's
out there in larger markets.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
We are going to take a quick break here, and
we have so much to unpack. I've got so many
more questions. You're listening to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
This is Andy Hemmings with capital title. Thank you so
much for tuning in and we'll be right back. Welcome
back to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show. This is
Andy Hemmings with capital title, and so glad you could
(10:56):
join us today. We were talking with mister ed Starrock
and mister Kyle Scott from Lamar University with the Venture Center,
which focuses on entrepreneurship and helping nurture entrepreneurs in our
area and helping build our business community. Got some lot,
got a lot of great things to cover and Ed
(11:17):
you were talking about. There's a particular arm of what
y'all are doing. It's called the Forge. Okay, So tell
us a little bit about the purpose of the Forge
and how it matches with the Venture Center.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, the Forge is a venture studio in a coworking
space and this goes hand in hand with an entrepreneur
that's trying to get started. An entrepreneur needs space, they
need desk, they need conference rooms, they need the ability
to meet. The Forge is the entity right here in
downtown Beaumont to sixty eight Pearl. It has all of
(11:49):
that it's a it's a tech office, vibe, ping pong tables,
there's there's there's video games, there's all that fun stuff.
But then upstairs there's all of the dedicated space to
conduct your business. It's also a venture studio in the
sense that this is our investment vehicle into the entrepreneurs
of the area. We will put in investment funds through
(12:12):
the Forge or through what's called an Angel network, which
is a group of individual investors that put money into
individual companies as they decide, and the Forge will help
kind of like collaborate and build that investment ecosystem out
for the entrepreneurs. We need to keep that very separate
from a state institution that that has a responsibility to
(12:33):
a different kind of mandate than a private investment vehicle.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So this is the private wing of your mission exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
And you know, the co working space is the brand
that if I need a desk, you know we have
we have also desks at the Lamar at our building
at Colin I's building at Lamar have this great beautiful
building with desk and with offices and with stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
And we want to create that ecosystem that vibe of
of of.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Of entrepreneurship here in south east Texas. So we have
all that stuff to be able to rent out. It's
super cheap. You come in and you just kind of
snag a desk, you work, and then you go home
and then you just have no idea this was going on.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, you know, And the nice thing about the Forge
is it really represents it's that physical representation of our
ambition to reach into the community. Right. You don't have
to come on campus. Now, our building on campus is
really accessible because it's on the outer skirts, free parking,
So we want the community to come in, but we
also recognize the reality that we have to go into
(13:30):
the community. Right, So we have the Forge that's in
downtown Beaumont where entrepreneurs of all stripes can come in
and out. There are few restrictions. But it also allows
us the flexibility to move at the speed of business
because universities don't necessarily do that. It's not really in
their DNA. So we're infusing some of that entrepreneurial DNA
(13:52):
into the Lamar system through this collaboration.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, and so the prior to the ventures Or, it
had it and it had an acronym and I won't
remember what it stands for. But how is what you're
doing now different from the way Lamar used to do things.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yeah, so there have been a you know, we like
to say third times is charm. There have been a
couple false starts. Now I think the overall ambition is
very similar. I would say that we're emphasizing the reaching
out into community far more and the incubator itself, the
partnerships and the funding that's going to be available is
(14:30):
a different take on this as well as well as
the private public private partnership that we have.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
With the Forge.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, and how long has the Forge been up and
running now? We're a little over a year now, so
it's still very it's still very.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Very new as well. Exactly, it used to be our
tech office.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
You know, whenever I mentioned Kart dot com and the
crazy explosive growth that we had, we kind of started
a lot of that right there in that office. And
so as we outgrew and went national and it was
a fully remote company, great experience. We didn't really need
the office anymore, like, and I didn't want to sell
it and just have you know, I mean, I love
my lawyer friends, but like, like ultimately, like it's downtown,
(15:07):
you know, like a lawyer would probably buy it and
make it their office. And we're like, well, let's what
can we do a little bit different in the area.
Let's do something, Let's do something.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Crazy like this.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, And I did.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Want to mention that the co working space is one
one part of the Forge, but the Forge also is
that that venture studio. Some of the members in the
Forge are marketing professionals, they are branding professionals. We've got
a video guy in there, right, We've got a podcaster
in there, We've got a we've got a guitar guy
in there.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You know, it's it's ultimately, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Pretty Yeah, there's a guitar guy you needed you need
a soundtrack for your for your video. He's there, he's waiting,
you know. He gives lessons too, by the way. But uh,
but you have all these like really cool businesses kind
of coming into the Forge, and there's a lot of
cross collaboration and cross pollination of entrepreneurs happening there.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And so we want to create that as the studio.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So when a brand come in, maybe they're not the
best marketing pros, they're entrepreneurs, right, they got a crazy idea,
they don't sleep at night.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You know, they need marketing help.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You know there's people there that are able to do
that and facilitate that for them.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's probably more common that
somebody has a they're a good idea person, they just
and it's probably and there's a lot of good ideas.
But executing that idea that's what i'll that's what y'all
are helping them with because there's so many different elements
to bringing that idea to fruition.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Absolutely right, when you come with an idea, it's not
just about having the ideas, right, it's about being able
to fulfill that in a way that makes sense from
a business perspective. Right, all of us just sat back
and said, well, why doesn't somebody do something about this
or I wish this would happen. Well, that's not a
viable business if you're the only one with that thought, right, Right,
(16:51):
So we need to go out and first find out
if other people share your problem or those sorts of things,
and then what's a way that we can create a
business model around this. Because because even if you're looking
to be a nonprofit or some social enterprise, that's it
still meets financial reality. So we need to figure out
how this is going to attract funding and attract customers
(17:11):
so that this can be a viable business.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, as you're talking, I'm actually thinking of several people.
I know that they need to connect with you guys,
and I don't know if they are aware of it,
and maybe they have already. But I love hearing this
and I really love when you describe the atmosphere. And
what popped into my mind was like Google, you know
how they the bean bag chairs and ping pong tables
(17:35):
and whatever, So how like what went into that design
and what's the philosophy behind the design and that environment
and how does it help towards your goals?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, great question. You know, like ultimately, the bottom is
a multi floor building. The bottom floor is a social center, right,
It's designed to have It has the ping pong table,
it has foosball, It has a kitchen, you know, big
fridge for everybody to kind of socialize around on, you know,
food and games and socialization brings everybody together. That's the
(18:04):
bottom floor. The philosophy of the top floor is focus
a little bit more closed environment. You go up there
for when it's time to put the headphones on and
hunker down and go into a flow state and build
something really cool.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, and so that's kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
The philosophy of the building itself, and that kind of
marries over with Lamar where we have on the bottom
floor of our building.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Over there, we also have.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
A thing called the Hatchery, which is which is an
ideal lab with whiteboards all over, you know, crazy green
colors on the wall. It will have a ping pong
table very soon. Somebody likes we like ping pong over here.
But yeah, that's kind of the philosophy, like getting everybody together,
get the experts together. The one thing that I'll mention
is that on LinkedIn, there's a lot of great advice,
(18:45):
you know, on the internet, YouTube, et cetera. There's a
lot of people that have a story that they're trying
to tell and they give you great advice, you know.
But but at the end of the day, that vice
is not timely or relevant to you in the moment.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
That you saw it. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
What you need is is experts aligned with your business
idea giving you advice at the right time, right, And
that's not what That's not something that YouTube and LinkedIn
and stuff really provide for you. That's what this incubator
and our Venture Center in the Forge, that's what it's
providing is expert advice at the right time for your business.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, okay, and I would extend some of that philosophy around,
you know, whether it's at the Venture Center on campus
where it's an open environment where anybody can come in
and out and the Forge, same applies, right. And what
we know about entrepreneurship is that it's a community affair.
You need support from experts, you need support from fellow
(19:40):
entrepreneurs going through the same journey. And we know that
good ideas don't happen when you schedule a meeting, right,
So you have to create a cluster of people coming
together who can randomly bounce off each other, provide to
support the expertise, but also just sharing the good ideas
that they may not have had on their own. Yeah,
and so are y'all open every day? Like what are
your hours that people typically can can come in as
(20:02):
it by appointment only or how does that work? So
on campus? Right? Standard campus hours Monday through Friday eight
to five. There's going to be some programming outside of
those hours, but doors are open okay, regular business hours,
and then the Forge has a little bit different model.
It's a bit more expansive in terms of hours and
days that it's open.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So, as I was listening to you a talk, I
was trying to picture the flow, and so correct me
if I'm wrong. Is the like is the incubators, Like
somebody has an idea. Is that where you first like
flesh it out before you bring it over to the
Forge or is that not necessarily the case?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
So I would say, come to us as early as
you can. Yeah, come to us as soon as you
have that idea, because the first thing, the first step
to becoming an entrepreneur is to act right. Yes, you
have a bias for action, have a buyas towards action. Yes,
get out of your own head, quit talking about it.
If you have this idea, get in front of some people.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
First.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
You can come see me at the Venture Center and
then we'll connect you with the Forge. But the incubation
stage is let's just act on this and put a
plan in place.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, gotcha. That makes complete sense. So you are a
good first point of contact whenever somebody has an idea.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Got it all right?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Okay, we're going to take another short break and come
back with mister ed Sterrock and Kyle Scott with the
Venture Center at Lamar University. This is Andy Hemmings with
capitol title on the Dana Simons Show, and we'll be
right back. Welcome back to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
This is Andy Hemmings with capital title, guest host for
(21:35):
Miss Dana Today. And it's a pleasure to be here.
And we are talking with two gentlemen here, mister ed
Sterrock and Kyle Scott with the Venture Center at Lamar University,
and we're talking about entrepreneurship. If you are thinking about
starting a business, these are two gentlemen that you're going
to want to connect with. And I guess now is
as opportune time as any for anybody that's listening listening.
(21:57):
What's a good way for them to get started or
get an touch with you guys.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Yeah, so I'll give my cell phone out right now, Okay, okay, good? Yeah,
So if you want to call me, this is Kyle
uh seven one three eight zero five zero five eight one.
Now if I don't pick up, it's because I think
you're trying to sell me a new roof. For some
health insurance. But if you leave a message, I'll call
you right back, right we all get those spam calls.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Absolutely, yeah, sorry, Or.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
My email is case Scott seventy four at Lamar dot edu.
Either one works, okay, and I'll add that.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Just go to Forge dot us you can there's an
info at Forge dot us. You can email that anytime
as well. You can kind of get a feel for
what the Forge is about off that website, okay, and
it'll have some of the Lamar programming up on it
pretty soon as well. But that as far as getting
in contact with us. Either one of those is a
great approach to start the conversation. You land on one
(22:53):
of our rosters of entrepreneurs, investors or or a faculty
or local institution.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
So yeah, yeah, you'll pick them up and start guiding
them down the path. Yeah, excellent. During the break, Kyle,
we were talking a little bit about another avenue for
entrepreneurship that a lot of people may not think about.
You don't have to start with the brand new idea.
There's existing businesses out there that might be available for
you to bring your own unique twist to and carry
(23:21):
on that business. So and I think the way you
phrased it was entrepreneurship as acquisition, So tell us a
little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yeah, So, I mean, one of the fascinating things that
I've been pleasantly surprised by in Beaumont in the surrounding
area is how entrepreneurial it already is. You can't throw
a rock and not hit a privately owned business, a
family owned business that's been there for generations or maybe
first gen.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Right, Obviously they're onto something they've been around for one
hundred years or around.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
So, but there's also a challenge that this community may face. Right,
a lot of these founders are getting to a point
in their careers when they're thinking about maybe shutting things
down enjoying their life in some other way, which leaves
an opportunity for younger people to buy into these businesses.
What we don't want to see happen is for some
(24:10):
big investment firm amount of Dallas or Chicago or the
Woodlands come in and buy one of these things, because
when they do, they don't have the community's best interest
at heart. We want to be able to have this
here because it's the local owners who are going to
invest in the symphony and the chamber and all of
these other things and be presences in the community, recognize
that it's the community why they're here, and so we want
(24:34):
to be able to provide some support and some expertise
around how if I'm a young, aspiring entrepreneur, can I
enter this space by acquiring an existing business? Right, you're
mitigating a lot of the risk because it's a proven
model that already works. The challenge is how do I
put the capitol together? How do I make these contacts? Well,
that's what we're here.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
To help with.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, so that's a fantastic point. And because there are
a lo a lot of businesses out there were just
as you said, the the owners are aging out, so
to speak, and they don't have family members to carry
it on. So does the process work? How does how
does the process? How's it similar or different when working
through the Venture center with an existing somebody taking over
(25:18):
an existing business.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
You know, I would say that we're that we are.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
We have programming kind of like whether you're a new
idea or whether you are an existing business, and in
this sense a subset of existing business that is looking
to pass the torch on. And so we have programming
that that that comes in. So as long as you
come into our funnel of of of uh contacts, like
we'll we'll get you situated to the right spot of
(25:43):
the program, right and every the entire program.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
A lot of being an.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Entrepreneur is very similar, whether it's a new idea, an
existing idea, or you're trying to pass the torch on.
So there's a lot of patterns that that we can
kind of help people understand instruct them on how to
navigate the various patterns that are out there where we're creating.
One of the things that we'll be doing is creating
playbooks for when you're launching your first Facebook page or
(26:07):
your first LinkedIn page.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
What do you need to do?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
What do you need to think about? Yea, And if
you already have one, how do you make it better?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You know?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
And so there's playbooks that we have, entire whole playbooks
that we're going to be building to shuttle an entrepreneur
through the process of being an entrepreneur, because, let's be honest,
like it is chaotic, it is crazy, it is twenty
four to seven. Entrepreneurs are built a little bit differently,
you know, in a lot of ways, we all know
some of them, right, so they need all the help
(26:36):
they can get.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yeah, end of the day.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah, and you know a lot of what we're talking
about sounds pretty structured, and a lot of it is,
and we offer that. But if you just need a
resource of I'm thinking about this, who should I contact, Well,
we're there for that as well, right, So it's not
like you have to come in and take part in
some formal process. We're there for that as well. But
if you just need to talk to somebody kind of
(26:58):
figure out where to go or what the next is,
just it's it can be that casual.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So what you're if I understand you correctly, you can
serve as a connectors, as a resource just for who
they need to go talk to. That's simply absolutely modern
roll index if you will, right.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yes, And to get tactical, like some people need an
engineer to get to advise them. Maybe they're not an engineer,
maybe they're not a technologist, you know, they need to
be a software developer. We can we can kind of
help connect those dots for people.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Right, and that there is so much value in that
just a quick connection to my industry. That's how that's
one of the ways that I serve in my industry
in real estate minus specific to real estate. But I've
been doing it for almost thirty years now, and I
know somebody in the real estate space that's going to
be able to help you with whatever you need. And
that's just so vital, just such a good service that
(27:48):
you can provide to your your customers or perspective customers.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
So, going back to the entrepreneurship as acquisition, how does
someone find in existing business that might be interested in selling.
What would be the process? Like, as we're talking, somebody
may say, you know what, I would rather just find
an existing law and care business or blueprint shop, whatever
it might be. How does that happen?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Now, you have to be a little careful about this
because if you know anybody who started a business, this
business is their baby, and they don't want to just
you to walk in and say, you know, put a
price tag on their baby.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
That's the truth.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
They want to know that you're going to care for
it and take care of it in the way that
they did.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Right.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
They love their employees, they love their customers, and they
want to make sure that it's in safe hands. So
you don't want to just knock on a door and
be like, hey, you look old. How about you sell
this to me? Like, that's not the route to go.
A little more tact is involved.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Not only that, but.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Entrepreneurs they sometimes they can't let it out that they
are potentially looking at exiting their business in some way, right,
Like that could be that could be detrimental to their business, right.
And so there's a lot of privacy that is I
say that is required in this. There's NDA's there's other
things that are needed. So what we what we want
to do is try to keep mentioning these rosters. We
(29:03):
have a we have rosters of entrepreneurs looking for businesses.
We have rosters of entrepreneurs looking to sell businesses. And
so those internal rosters are internal, right, We're not We're
not shouting it from the rooftop set this moment. You know,
if we if somebody wants to package their business up
and put it for sale officially, we can help with
that for sure. But I can tell you seven, eight, eight,
(29:24):
maybe even nine times out of ten they want a
little bit more privacy through that engagement.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, because there's business brokers out there that can do this.
But I I know a lot of business owners don't
want to go that round. They want it private.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Yeah, yeah, they want it private. And also, you know,
you can come to us, we can help mix a
match and partner you up and say, you know, make
the a softer approach that that's not going to offend anybody.
But at the same time, if you're an a ployee
at an existing business and you've been there for five
or seven years, don't think that it's not an option
(29:56):
for you to come in and be the next owner
of this business.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And that right, actually pretty good candidate. Yeah, yeah, and
a lot of absolutely right. You have the relationships, you
know a little bit about it. So it's about adopting
that entrepreneurial mindset to recognize that you are capable of
being a business owner. Is that first switch that needs
to flip on, right, because then you'll start seeing all
of the opportunities around you. Yeah, yeah, And I would
(30:20):
you know, kind of thinking through it, I would imagine
that there's you have to have a delicate balance of
keeping the old and blending in the new, you know,
because that business was successful and had longevity for a reason. Yep,
you don't want to throw out the good stuff. And
I would imagine a lot of people come in with
a lot of ideas and like, you know, maybe maybe not.
You know, so that's what y'all are there for, to
(30:41):
help guide them through that decision.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Absolutely right, You you want to make sure not just
for because it's the right thing to do, but it
makes business sense to recognize the value that they've been
delivering and they may know something that you need to learn.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, And I'd love to kind of cast an even
long term vision with you guys if possible. You know,
like one of the things that we really aspire to
do is bring together all the local institutions that are
trying to support entrepreneurship. We aspire to build you know,
name TBD, but something like the Gulf Coach Venture Alliance, right,
(31:17):
which is a group of all of the local economic
development councils, the Chambers of commerce is multiple right. Southeast
Texas is a multi variant community community with a lot
of different investments in entrepreneurship, but nobody necessarily coordinating with
each other all that well, you know, and so I
think that that's the one opportunity that we have. We
have all these great institutions putting stuff out there, but
(31:41):
the programming isn't coordinated, it's not sinked right. Everybody's putting
in ten twenty five fifty thousand dollars into this event
or that event, or have some speaker come into town.
But it's not like a grouped a set of programming
and a content calendar kind of oriented towards, you know,
the the year of what is going to happen all
(32:03):
year for entrepreneurship. And I think we can pool our
resources a lot better than these smaller investments into entrepreneurship
as well.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
I think that's a fantastic idea. I can imagine there's
synchronicities between all of them. You just have to you
have to get everybody together and figure.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Out what part of this part of being an entrepreneur
just kind of planting the seed, Like this is that
moment where we're trying to plant that seed kind of
manifested into reality.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh I love that, I that I love it.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Love it all Right, We are going to take a
quick break and come back. This is Andy Hemmings with
capital title. You're listening to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show.
Welcome back to the Dana Simmons Real Estate Show. This
is Andy Hemmings with Capital Title, and thank you so
much for joining us today. We are talking with two
(32:47):
local entrepreneur professionals, mister Kyle Scott and Ed Starrock with
the Venture Center at Lamar University. They're giving some great tips,
some great advice for entrepreneurs out there and how you
can start art your journey. And thank you so much
for being here with us, gentlemen. And you know, as
we were talking, it struck me that, you know, Beaumont
(33:09):
is a very generous community. I grew up here, you know,
this is my hometown, and there's a lot of there's
just a lot of generosity in our community. And I'm
sure there's some people out there that are listening that
would like to be a part of this, you know,
be a partner and help to foster your growth. So
what are some ways that people just that are in
our community that want to be involved, What are some
ways they can help.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Yeah, so the first two things that we need, I
think are fundamental to what we do. We need mentors.
If you want to support local entrepreneurs, we can use
your help to support our entrepreneurs. You can share your expertise.
This is a great way to give back. We also
need entrepreneurs. This thing does not work without you, right.
If you have an idea, we will come searching for you.
(33:51):
But you also need to come to us because not
every entrepreneur is going to make themselves known. So we
need the entrepreneurs. We also need there's going to be
a final need, right, We need investments and we need
donations to support our students, to support our faculty in
what we're doing at the Venture Center.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Yeah, and I'll double top on that last point that
the investment in the center is an investment in entrepreneurship.
You know, you give to Lamar University through the Ambition
Fund or through the through the Venture Center Fund at
Lamar University, so we can direct that giving straight into entrepreneurship.
(34:27):
It is professionally managed giving, right, and so it goes
to the right place. It goes directly to Kyl and
myself to deploy into the community. And so what we
ask really is honestly open the wallets to some of
your more senior entrepreneurs. They've already kind of you know,
made it, you know, in life, and and they want
(34:48):
to give back. Well, this is a great way to
give back in the way that helps younger entrepreneurs that
are doing the same journey that they went through and
they needed that help, They needed that advice, needed that support.
This this money goes to directly into the ecosystem for
UH paid workshops, for for workshops that you actually get
(35:09):
something out of, not just you know speaker series that
come in and you know rah rah type sessions. You know,
they are getting a tangible deliverable with each one of
these workshops. It helps pay for those, It helps pay
for some of the seed investments in some of these companies.
We're professionally geared up to deploy this giving properly into
the entrepreneurship section. So it's not just a general Lamar
(35:31):
University gift, which they we are more than welcome to
to to, yes exactly, but but this is very directed
into entrepreneurship. So please, you know, help us, help us
actually get this off the ground.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
We need it fantastic. Let's get your contact information again,
if you don't mind. For if someone wanted to donate,
what's the best way for them to start that process.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, I would start with I would start with contact
and Kyle to be honest, So you want to give
your content.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Directly that again.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
The phone again is seven one three eight zero five
zero five eight one, and then the email is K
Scott seventy four at Lamar dot edu.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
That is the best way at this moment. We will
have a website up pretty soon. You can give to
the Lamari Ambition Fund on the Lamar website on Lamar
dot ed u slash give I believe and uh direct
it to the Ambition Fund if you do.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
If you do that, okay, great, perfect. So let's in
our in our last little part here, let's talk about
what would you say is the biggest win that y'all
have seen so far since y'all have been up and running.
What uh what? What success story could you could you
share with us?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
So it's a little too early to say that we've
taken a company to I p O at this point, man,
but I'll tell.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
You yes and I and I fully realized that I
should have I should have properly couched my my uh
my question there. But just turn terms of your mission
like some wins.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
I'll say, first and foremost, the community at Lamar, in
the community of Beaumont, has welcomed me with open arms.
I've been overwhelmed by the hospitality and the support that
we've seen. I was within my first week we did
have faculty saying, hey, I heard this was kind of
going on, students saying I heard this was I have
this idea. So the early traction that we're seeing with
(37:25):
interest and people willing to work with us and listen
to us has just been such an early inspiration that
I just see you upright the right future ahead.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, I would say the biggest twin for me personally
is the idea that LAMAR, a state institution, would would
play ball in this risky level of startup life right
and be open to that risk and that appetite for
for for change. At the end of the day, this
is not easy. It is one of the only one
(37:56):
of the with the very few institutions that actually will
help the general public entrepreneur. It's different to help the
kids and the students. How you kind of expect that
out of LAMAR Right, They're they're they're branching even wider.
They caught the vision. They they they want to invest
in Southeast Texas. Our key KPI for the program is
change in Southeast Texas right, and that hyper focused, geo
(38:19):
focused investment for the area that's Lamar saying, hey, we're
going to raise our hand, We're.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Going to actually do that.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
To me, that's a that's that gives me chill bumps. Yeah,
that that that they're willing to to do something like that.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
You know, I'm and I'm so proud to hear this
and see what what you all are doing. Back when
I was at Lamar in the late eighties, I think
I think the predecessor to all this was the John
Gray Institute, I believe back in the day, I mean
way back when, because I remember they had they would
they would have classes or events similar to this. And
(38:50):
I just love to see the way that it's evolved
and where it's come and and that's thanks to good
leadership at Lamar University. Yeah, yeah, very good, very good.
So one of the things I mentioned to y'all, and
this is a little bit a little bit off, somewhat
off topic, is what a couple things, what's your favorite
(39:10):
book that you're reading right now personally, and what books
would you recommend to anyone interested in getting involved in
the in the entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
So the two I have going right now, one with
my daughter and one on my own. So Screwtape Letters
by C. S.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Lewis.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Oh my gosh, that is such a fantastic book. And
then wow, that's an interesting choice.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
It was. It was good.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
My daughter and I are sharing that. And then Rebel Yell,
which is about Ulyssea S. Grant has experienced during the
Civil War.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Okay, yeah, very good. I haven't read that one. It's
really good. All right. Okay, so that's your personal choices, yes,
all right, we'll come back to you for your business choices.
For entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
You know me, I'm I'm a little more boring. I
I read mostly diligence documents and such.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Off of.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Angel List is a great venue to go to. You
can actually join these things called syndicates. You get access
to all these diligence documents for all these entrepreneurs in
the area.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
That fills up my reading time.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
To be honest, I will say that, you know, whenever
I actually get time to read, I actually bounce out
of entrepreneurship. I got to get out of this, you know.
So I do a lot of uh, you know, fantasy
reading again plaid zombie guy. You know, I'm kind of
a nerd, so I do some fantasy reading. You know,
the Robert Jordan's here, He's Game of Thrones all that stuff,
you know. But I would say that for me, you know,
(40:31):
actually getting getting tapped into the blogs and the various
uh uh newsletters.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
I love t ld R.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
It's it's a it's a group of new letters, newsletters
that are kind of geared around technology a little bit,
but uh, they also cover what these big enterprises are
doing in entrepreneurs It is called t l d R.
It's called too Long Didn't Read, So it's too short
short short summaries. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so it's short summer.
All these great articles kind of coming through the massive
(41:04):
information flow that we have today. They pull those together
for you and they summarize them and then you can
kind of go dive deep into the articles that are
that are relevant to you. So whenever I get my time,
that's usually what I spend it on is catching up
on what the innovation eastgosphere, you know, is giving us
these days. I would also offer that Houston Innovation Network
(41:25):
is also like producing a few different newsletters as well,
which is great.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Okay, good deal, we are we're out of time, gentlemen.
This just went so good. This was great. Thank you
both so much for being with us here today. This
has been Kyle Scott and Ed Starrock with the Venture
Center at Lamar University. Thank you for helping build our community.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Thanks for vank you for having us out.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
This has been Andy Hemmings with the Dana Simmons Show.
Thank you so much for tuning in, and everyone have
a wonderful day, right
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