The goal of the 2-day workshop is to guide graduate students in the mathematical sciences on how to start a business. There will be presentations by company founders, venture capitalists, and angel investors. This is a hands-on workshop in which students will work in teams. After being given guidelines of what is business plan, each team, working with a mentor venture capitalist, will create one based on a technology or an idea provided by the organizers. The team will make a “pitch” in front of a panel of “investors” who will critique the presentation. The panel will select the most promising business plan for recognition and further discussion.

Keynote Speaker: Jeffrey Hoffstein, Brown University
Jeffrey Hoffstein is Professor of Mathematics at Brown University and co-founder of NTRU Cryptosystems. The company was acquired by Security Innovation in 2009. Professor Hoffstein's research interests are in number theory, automorphic forms, and cryptography.

What students will do and learn during the two days:
• Meet entrepreneurs and venture capitalists
• Find out what it is like to be part of a start up – what are the issues and challenges
• Intellectual properties, legal matters, how-to's and not-to's in starting a company
• Personal experiences from entrepreneurs
• How to put together a business plan and how to pitch it
• Actually make a business plan and pitch it to a group of investors, and get feedback