1. Describe five businesses or non-profits that have been created in my field.

CrowdStrike is a company that specializes in cyber threats, response and recovery services, and providing solutions that let companies protect themselves in a cyber environment. It was created in 2011 and it has expanded over 11 locations around the world. Fortinet is a company that has 60 locations and was launched in 2000. It offers physical firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion prevention capabilities, and offers a premium cost for its software. Malwarebytes is a software company that only focuses on malware and removal of it. Almost anyone can download and use its service to scan for malware and remove potential malware from any systems. Palo Alto Networks is a company that offers network solutions in cloud, Kubernetes, and automation tools. A lot of its products are custom priced, but the company make over $4 billion in revenue. Okta is a company that makes authentication and authorization services in applications. Developers use it to integrate authentication without creating their own system from scratch.

2. What is your overall perspective on the entrepreneurship experience? 

I really thought that the entrepreneurship experience was kind of basic. I thought that it would be a very intensive class on making something and trying to acquire customers. I took a lower level entrepreneurship class and a lot of the concepts were already familiar to me. Though, I really enjoyed the pitching assignment. I actually got to make a pitch for a product and focus on being able to present it to anyone who does not understand the idea. I also was kind of disappointed that groups were not assigned right in the beginning of class. I wanted to get started on the fifteen page essay, but I didn’t get to spend some time to know my peers and knock out some of the work for the class. I think that journal entries can be more improved by having more options to pick what questions that we can write about and reduce the amount of journal entries to make an assignment where we have to do actual marketing. I think that an actual marketing experience would be fun and allow us to learn a skill instead of writing about stuff that we have read in the modules.

3. How did the entrepreneurship prepare or not prepare you to be a competitive candidate for vacant positions?

It kind of gave me some experience to be an entrepreneur in the future. At the moment, I am trying to get experience in my major, but I plan to create a venture after I have some achievements under my belt. I did learn some valuable skills that can boost my productivity such as managing my time, working in collaborative setting with my team, practicing leadership skills, and being able to plan out an idea. I do wish that I could do more than writing because I already do tons of writing for other classes, but I want to do something that is related to building an MVP and managing a budget. In some cases, I do not think that the class will help me much in the workforce because building a business for a company can be a struggle and tiring task beyond working the classic 9-5 hours. I really liked the independent part of owing my idea and doing research about the possibility of developing a thorough dive into my industry. I do wish that the class taught some hard skills like programming or maybe content creation. I do like that I met some wonderful people in the class that I can reach out in the future or possibly collaborating with them on stuff related to our major.

4. What suggestions do you have to improve the experience? 

I have some suggestions that could improve the experience. I think that the content can be updated to reflect trends within our majors and give us a starting point for finding possible solutions to problems. Another way to improve is to focus less on writing and allow people to implement their problem that could be pitched to a live audience perhaps online or in-person. Next, the sheer number of modules should be revamped and combined to reduce some of the need to keep clicking to the next page. I would prefer most information to be present in a document, so I can just download and look through it. I just hate the Canvas way of having so much links to access the information. I do like that the information is free and that no textbook is needed for the class which saves a lot of money because most of entrepreneurship content is available online and accessible to anyone. I do think that the content should be graded in a fast time, so the students do not have to wait long to find out what their grades are, but I do know that the teacher is occupied with other stuff. Lastly, I want weekly announcements to see the teacher’s expectations and to keep track of deadlines. Since the class is asynchronous, it can be easy to forget about assignments on top of everything going on in life. The notifications let me know about the course and everything that I am supposed to accomplish on a weekly basis.  

5. What’s next for you?

I don’t really have much plans after taking this class. I am most likely to graduate after this semester, so I will be done with classes. I plan on finding an internship in cybersecurity in the summer. After the summer internship, I will look for entry-level jobs to gain more experience. As I am working, I will be trying to make some connections and have a social life besides being too focused on my work. My financial goals is to make money and start saving to buy a house. I don’t know how expensive a house will be in 6 years, but I need to be prepared when the market has cooled down. My other financial goal is to save up money to make my own enterprise and start building community until I have reached product-market fit. Lastly, I want to thank my parents for helping with my education needs and taking the time to check in with me, despite my super busy and hectic college life.