Expert entrepreneur guides others with big ideas
January 2009 —In 2005, Josh Anyaosah was a refugee from Sierra Leone pursuing a liberal arts degree at UMass Boston. He wanted to further his studies and become a nurse, but with limited resources and support, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to pursue his dream.
But the way became clear after a meeting with Entrepreneur-in-Residence Dan Phillips—whom Anyaosah referred to as “an angel in disguise”—led to a merit-based scholarship. Today, Anyaosah works at Children’s Hospital Boston and is also the founder of United for African Growth Organization (UAGO), a non-profit that aims to improve healthcare and social welfare in Africa.
Anyaosah is just one of the many students whose careers and lives have been transformed by Phillips through his multifaceted work with the school over the past 15 years. And with aggressive plans to expand an internship program, launched in October, which places graduate and undergraduate students in paid, part-time internships at venture capital-funded technology startups throughout the state, Phillips is just getting warmed up.
A former executive at four venture capital-backed software firms which were either acquired by Fortune 200 companies or went public, Phillips has privately funded scholarships for UMass Boston students, lectures about starting businesses at the College of Management, and will consult at the school’s new Venture Development Center, slated to open in February, with a grand opening celebration being planned for this spring. What Phillips finds at UMass Boston is a student population that mirrors the profile of his former hires: a hardworking, creative, purposeful group that is used to handling adversity.
“The UMass Boston student culture and personality are a perfect fit for a start-up entrepreneurial venture,” he explains. “People are already doing this for MIT, Harvard and Babson students, [but] no one’s doing this for UMass Boston, where I’ve found the students are hungrier, more aggressive, and more focused than their peers at private institutions.”
To develop an internship opportunity, Phillips meets with CEOs to find out what type of needs they have, and then—going through both his mental Rolodex and a stack of resumes—he hand-picks the students who are “maniacal in their focus and drive to succeed,” then meets with each candidate to ensure a proper fit with a company.
So far, the program has been a hit with both students and CEOs; Phillips said he has yet to meet a company leader who hasn’t welcomed the proposition. Phillips adds that the students are also doing extremely well, which is the ultimate selling point of the program: They succeed, and in doing so, make companies more productive.
“The nice thing about start-ups is they need people of all disciplines because they need to fill every department in a company,” as opposed to an established organization which only has specific needs in different niche areas, he said.
“The students may go in to work in one department, but because he companies are young and lean,” he continued, “they see how decisions are made and they see the impact of these decisions.”
That UMass Boston also has such a large international presence among its student body is another asset for these companies to mine, according to Phillips.
“All start-ups would love to have interns that could help them move into international markets,” he said. “It’s expensive for startups to hire people that have an understanding of the verbal skills and customs of a foreign country like China or across Europe,” he said, “so these students are a great value proposition for start-ups.”
Recognizing that opportunities abound in other fields of study, part of Phillips’s plans to expand the program include finding internships for students in healthcare, science and other programs. “We’ve gotten it off the ground, now we need to make it a university-wide program,” he said. “Our aim is to market this university-wide because there are opportunities for all.” One student benefiting from the internship program is Wararat “Sam” Tipwimolratchai, who will graduate from CM in May with an MBA in finance. Currently an analyst intern at Brighton House Associates—an intermediary between fund managers and potential investors—she provides database support for the analyst team.
Tipwimolratchai took a class on portfolio management to learn about hedge funds, and the industry exposure she’s had at BHA has reinforced the difference in strategies behind running a hedge fund and a mutual fund, as well as providing valuable firsthand insight into the industry.
“I know the class theory, but the market changes every day; if you’re not in the market every day, you don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “Working there helps me keep track of industry trends in real-time, and I get to learn what investors really want.”
Another Brighton House Associate intern is accounting graduate student Wei Tang, who also helps maintain databases for the analysts. Her favorite part of the internship are the Friday communal lunches where all sides of the company come together—senior managers, analysts and technical personnel—to discuss what’s going on in the company, and at which interns are encouraged to talk about what they’ve learned and ask any questions.
“Working on the research side, there’s not much access to the technical, sales and management teams, and the Friday lunches are a good opportunity to get to know people and broaden my perspective and understanding of the company,” Tang said. “It’s a good, open culture; a comfortable environment where I feel I’ve developed a close relationship with people in all departments of the company.”
The nascent internship program, Venture Development Center director William Brah said, came about as the answer to the question: How do we introduce the innovation economy to UMass Boston?
“No matter what field of study, students can develop entrepreneurial skills,” he said. “Without providing an entrepreneurial education, we’re not serving the long-term career goals of the student body. Our plan is to have the start-up firms, and internships, located right here on campus in the Venture Development Center.”
Brah predicted the program will attract more students to UMass Boston. “If I knew there was a guy like Dan around, I’d go to that school,” he said, echoing the words of those who have benefited from Phillips’s mentoring. “Dan is giving our students something more valuable than money—he’s providing them with the opportunity to gain real-world experience needed to secure a good job in the future.”
Working alongside Phillips to expand the program, Brah noted that once it reaches 50 to 100 students, the school will seek a foundation grant or ask VC firms to contribute financially or with personnel to help screen resumes. He and Phillips also aim to make the program regional, eventually involving other state and community colleges. More immediately, however, Brah plans to expand the program to the College of Science and Mathematics, the first step on the way to making the internship program—and Phillips’s ideas—university-wide.
“He’s a person that’s going to help the university evolve to its potential,” Brah said. “That will be his legacy at UMass Boston.”
By Geoffrey Kula, The UMass Boston University Reporter
[Contact: Daniel Phillips; daniel.phillips@umb.edu]