It’s an honor to speak with you today. Why don’t you give us some details about you and your story? How did you get to where you are today?
I am Bobby Housel, the founder of Entrepreneur Power Hour, a community that connects and empowers college entrepreneurs across the country. As a passionate entrepreneur, I started my first company in high school and founded Entrepreneur Power Hour during my sophomore year at the University of Michigan in 2021. Our goal is to fix the broken world of college entrepreneurship by providing a platform for the best founders to meet and grow together.
I realized the hyper-fragmented world of college entrepreneurship during my first year of college when I spent countless hours trying to learn about all the entrepreneurship resources and amazing people on campus. Covid-19 struck, and I took a gap year from school. When I came back, I started hosting meetups to catch up with my entrepreneurial friends, only to find that many of them had never met each other. This inspired me to create a platform where student founders could connect and build relationships.
We now have over 300 entrepreneur founders across two college campus communities at the University of Michigan and Stanford, and we’re soon expanding to universities across the country. Our mission is to reinvent how college founders meet and grow together, and we’re excited to connect with anyone building the future at a college or who dropped out.
A few friends at our community event
As someone who loves bringing people together, I’m excited to see the growth of Entrepreneur Power Hour. Our community empowers college founders who often feel isolated and unsupported. We also aim to break down the barriers that student founders face in raising capital, by connecting them with angel investors who have traditionally been excluded from investing in college start-ups.
If you’re interested in investing in the top college founders or building relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs learn more about our syndicate fund. I’m thrilled to be a part of this community and to help student founders succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures.
Building the Power Hour and your Content Service business to this point has not come easily. What challenges have you had to overcome along the way?
The biggest challenges we’ve faced have revolved around redefining what college entrepreneurship is and can be. We are battling against what student founders traditionally think of when they think about college entrepreneurship, which has historically left a lot to be desired.
We are trying to redefine how students build companies in college, and we have had to work hard to combat the negative prejudices many founders already hold. We’ve had to completely change the organizational structure of our community to make sure we are providing frictionless experiences for founders that meet them where they’re at!
Let’s talk about the work your Content Service Business does. What do you specialize in and why should someone work with you over the competition?
We are working hard to build out our own media arm to tell the stories of our college founders. In the past we’ve helped our founders land on well-known entrepreneurship podcasts like My First Million, as well as distinguished journalism outlets such as CNN, Forbes, TechCrunch, and Business Insider.
Although we hope to continue to help our students land in publications like these, we are also working on building out our own media arm to tell the stories of college founders, “in the weeds,” building their companies.
We know that these stories are fascinating to so many, and there are lots of investors, companies, and philanthropists that would love to learn about what is getting built at college. We know that empowering our founders to keep refining their stories with a nationwide media brand will be immensely helpful to all parts of our business model. Right now, there is no clear way to learn the stories of college founders until they get picked up by the biggest funds and investors in the US. We are determined to change that.
What is the best advice you’ve heard your Power Hour community receive from external speakers and experts?
My advice to fellow entrepreneurs is simple: understand what matters to you before you start building a startup. When I entered college, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t know what problems I wanted to solve. It wasn’t until I explored my passions and values that I discovered what I wanted to achieve in the world.
Once I had a clear understanding of my values, it became easier to identify pain points that aligned with my vision. While it’s important not to get bogged down in overthinking, taking the time to understand yourself and your values before starting a business can be incredibly valuable.
Finally, how can people connect with you if they want to learn more?
To learn more, you can:
Check out the Entrepreneur Power Hour website here.
Check out the Founder’s Cupid Angel Syndicate Fund website here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
All of Bobby’s social medias can be found here.
