Bill Rasmussen of ESPN Inspires Kansas City's Young Entrepreneurs

Ask any high school student what they want to be when they are older and they will proudly boast about their goals of being an NBA superstar, a chef, a broadcaster, or a famous photographer.  High school students have no problem telling you exactly what they want to do when they graduate from college.  But how many of them want to be entrepreneurs?  Quite a few.  

Which is why Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas has been created.  Youth Entrepreneurs is a nonprofit organization that teaches business and entrepreneurial skills in high school classrooms and offers hands-on experiences to help students succeed as business owners or employees.  

Place an entrepreneurial-minded high school student in Youth Entrepreneurs and he is sure to succeed.  But put an entrepreneurial-minded high school student in front of the founder of ESPN and he is sure to succeed, listen and be inspired even further. 

Youth Entrepreneurs is doing just that.  On November 18, Youth Entrepreneurs is hosting its inaugural Business for Breakfast benefit in Kansas City with life-long entrepreneur and founder of ESPN, Bill Rasmussen.

Attendees of the benefit, moderated by Bruce Haertl, Eyewitness Sports, will gain business insights from Rasmussen as he shares his entrepreneurial success story.  Rasmussen undoubtedly changed the face of sports and television by brainstorming a network that has become the Worldwide Leader in Sports, ESPN.   

The Business for Breakfast will be presented by Lockton and will be held at the College Basketball Experience at the Sprint Center from 7:30-9:00am on November 18th.  The cost is $75 per person and all proceeds will benefit Youth Entrepreneurs.

Reserve your ticket today: http://www.yeks.org.

Follow me! @AllisonThinkBig

How Did Startup Weekend Actually Startup?

Startup Weekend in San Diego.

What do most of your weekends consist of?

Guzzling beer on the Lazy Boy while watching ESPN?

Sleeping in until 1:00 in the afternoon and grabbing a bowl of Cap’N Crunch?

Maybe it’s time to start doing something productive with your weekends.  And we have your opportunity:  Startup Weekend Kansas City. 

On April 15-17, Think Big Partners is proud to host Startup Weekend Kansas City—an opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop feedback on an idea, learn new skills, meet co-founders, and test the entrepreneurial waters.  Startup Weekend is a risk-free environment where everyone is expected to roll up their sleeves and dive into the exhilarating world of startups.  It’s all about collaboration, it’s all about coworking, it’s what we’re all about!

But how in the world did the idea for Startup Weekend, well…start up?

It was a late night in June of 2007 at TechStars when the idea was coined.  Danny Newman and Stan James discussed how they missed collaborating on projects with others now that they were working on bigger projects, later David Cohen and Joe Scharf pushed founder Andrew Hyde to take the concept into reality. In May of 2009, Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen really saw an opportunity to help Startup Weekend continue to grow and took over the operations of Startup Weekend.  When everyone started collaborating, Startup Weekend became a success because of its drive towards coworking, idea-building, and entrepreneurship. 

Today, there are at least three Startup Weekends that occur each weekend in various cities…and not just in the U.S.!  You can find Startup Weekend in Paris, Kyoto and many more!     

So what are you waiting for?  You have an idea, you have a free weekend, and it’s time to put them to good use!  Put down the bag of Lay’s potato chips, get off your Lazy Boy and join us for Startup Weekend, coming to Kansas City April 15-17 at the Think Big Partners business incubator (1800 Baltimore, Kansas City, Missouri).  Register today!  Now’s your chance to Think Big! 

Written by Allison Way.  Allison is a writer for Think Big Partners, Kansas City’s early stage business incubator and startup accelerator.  To read more of Allison’s work, check out the Kansas City Entrepreneurship Examiner as well as her articles on Helium, BrooWaha and eZine.  Follow Allison! @AllisonThinkBig