Get advice for creating a new product and launching your idea. Our authors are faculty, staff, students and professionals. Read what lessons they can share about ideation, prototyping, company formation, law, marketing and more.
You no longer need to be an experienced programmer to build working software. With AI-powered development tools, University of Utah students from any major can describe an idea in plain language and turn it into a real app, website, or service in a matter of hours. The practice has a name, “vibe coding,” and it […]
In my senior year at the University of Utah, I sat in a classroom where business, science, and engineering students debated for two hours whether a novel computer imaging technology should go after the oil and gas market or the medical imaging market. I had led the design of the course the year before, as […]
This is my second post responding to Paul Graham’s essay on university entrepreneurship centers. In the first I focused on what he gets right, while defending what I see as the best of what we do at the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. Then I read the responses of people I respect — particularly Bill Aulet, managing […]
Paul Graham, a co-founder of the influential Y Combinator startup accelerator, just published an essay arguing that universities should not build entrepreneurship centers, should not hire “deans of entrepreneurship,” and should hand any spare money to the people teaching computer science and mechanical engineering and molecular biology (agreed, btw). At one point he asks — as […]
With over 20 years of experience, IP strategy and licensing is University of Utah alum Andy Godsey’s bread and butter. Founder of The Inventor Playbook and COO at Summit Venture Studio, Godsey was the perfect host for the Lassonde for Life workshop, “How to License Your Technology,” where he walked through the how-to of successful […]
Before University of Utah alum Lindsey Shipley launched and successfully exited her startup, Lactation Link, she was a labor and delivery nurse. To explain her journey, she recently led a Lassonde for Life workshop, “From One Follower to Exit,” showcasing the importance of digital products and how anyone — with the right path — can […]
Scott Holley, a University of Utah alumnus, entrepreneur, and business executive, has joined the Lassonde Entrepreneurship Institute as its new executive director. Holley has vast experience in the world of entrepreneurship, particularly in cross-border manufacturing, consumer-branded products, and entrepreneurship through acquisition. Now, taking the helm on Lassonde’s 25th anniversary year, Holley has big plans. Sustaining […]
I started the Startup Stack in 2020 to help founders survive the COVID pandemic through deals on the software and services they use to run their business. I was one of three co-founders, and the only one to begin to work on the company full-time in May 2023 at what seemed like the right time. […]
Aaron Dobron, director of business development at Park City Aviators and a serial entrepreneur, is also a storied University of Utah alum. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in materials science and was a member of the first graduating cohort of the Master of Business Creation (MBC) program. He brought his experiences to a Lassonde […]
Taylor Halversen-Bates is a University of Utah MBA graduate and current senior product manager at Grain, where she leads the creation of AI-driven technology to revolutionize meeting productivity. Recently, she hosted a Lassonde for Life workshop called “Making AI-Centered Products,” aimed at helping founders not just keep up, but become disrupters. “We don’t know how […]
