As professors and students heroically carry on the teaching, learning, and engagement this semester, alumni have stepped forward as well. Case in point: the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship. It brings graduates who are innovating across business sectors back to campus for frequent networking events鈥攁nd recently moved its meetings online.听
鈥淭he alums love it,鈥� says the Shea Center鈥檚 Popolo Family Executive Director Jere Doyle 鈥�87, P鈥�15. 鈥淎nd they want to give back to the school, in part by working with the students.鈥� Not only are alumni eager to support students during a difficult time, but it has been easier to line up sought-after speakers for virtual events. 鈥淭hey could be in New York, Silicon Valley, anywhere,鈥� notes Doyle鈥攖oo far for an in-person visit, but eager to connect with students over Zoom.
In addition, some who鈥檇 signed on to mentor student startups in the Shea Center鈥檚 10-week accelerator program this spring continued to meet with teams virtually until their on April 16. What follows is a look at two of the recent sessions. And, an updated list of participating alumni appears at the end of this page.
By Patrick L. Kennedy '99
In our current moment of crisis, 40 Boston College students tuned in online to hear the reassuring story of a young alum who bounced back from the 2008 financial meltdown, going on to attain success he had never imagined.
鈥淎fter graduation, I worked in investment banking, an industry that was on fire, in a good way,鈥� Bill Clerico 鈥�07 said on March 27th in his virtual chat, hosted by the聽Edmund H. Shea Jr.听 Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carroll School. 鈥淎nd shortly thereafter, it was an industry on fire, not in a good way.鈥�
It was then, during a time of dislocation and unemployment, that Clerico and classmate Richard Aberman chose to start a company,聽.听
鈥淐rises like these are never fun, but they can create opportunities for startups,鈥� said Clerico, who is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. If anything, he added, being your own boss is preferable during a down period: 鈥淭he great thing about entrepreneurship is you always have a job.鈥�
WePay would become a leading provider of integrated payments for software platforms, with $100 million in revenue. It was purchased by JPMorgan Chase in 2017. Clerico, as CEO, now oversees 300 employees around the globe.
The event was part of the Shea Center's now-virtual Lunch with an Entrepreneur series. Jere Doyle 鈥�87, the Center鈥檚 Popolo Family Executive Director, co-hosted the Zoom meeting along with Jack McClelland 鈥�22 and other members of Start@Shea, the center鈥檚 student executive team. McClelland and colleagues collected and relayed a steady stream of questions from their peers鈥攚hich began about 15 minutes into the program and kept flowing for an hour. (The audio for most attendees was muted, but students submitted questions via Zoom鈥檚 chat feature.)
In his opening remarks and in his responses to questions from the student participants, Clerico recounted the ups and downs of his journey with WePay. The company began as a way for friends to split the costs of ski trips before evolving to fill a need for small businesses (a simplified process for collecting payments online).
Take Control Amid the Chaos, Says Lindsay LoBue 鈥�96
鈥淐haos and change do create huge opportunities,鈥� said Lindsay LoBue 鈥�96 to nearly 50 attendees of the Shea Center鈥檚聽now-virtual Lunch with an Entrepreneur on April 1. LoBue, advisory director at Goldman Sachs and founder of Greenback Labs, was a week away from putting significant capital into a new venture when markets collapsed last month. Hardly deterred, LoBue says companies should take control amidst the chaos and adapt accordingly. For instance, her first startup, Greenback Labs, uses interactive media to teach kids financial literacy. As social distancing pushes schools to embrace online learning, LoBue predicts that the red tape she faced trying to bring those tools into schools will disappear. 鈥淲e are just not going back to the way it was. And there are opportunities to leverage that.鈥�
鈥� Leslie Ganson
Along the way, the young entrepreneurs took risks that often paid off, like when they disrupted a PayPal conference in San Francisco with a聽聽encasing cold hard cash and the message 鈥淧ayPal freezes your accounts.鈥�
鈥淲e got more publicity out of that conference than PayPal did,鈥� Clerico recalled. 鈥淵ou can do that when you鈥檙e a small company with nothing to lose.鈥�
鈥淭hat might be my all-time favorite entrepreneurship story,鈥� laughed Doyle, himself a successful serial entrepreneur who continues to advise startups, CEOs, and senior management teams.
Among other tips dispensed by Clerico: Try different things to gain a wide range of experience. For Clerico, that included different majors (settling on computer science in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences). Outside of classes, he volunteered for the American Red Cross, which gave him his first taste of leadership. He also co-founded what is now the Shea Center鈥檚聽Strakosch Venture Competition.
And, it can now be revealed, Clerico performed as Baldwin the Eagle, the Boston College athletics mascot. Through that experience, he met Boston College Trustee Peter Bell 鈥�86, a highly respected investor who would become critical to WePay鈥檚 early efforts to raise funds.
Clerico also advised students, in his responses to questions from Jenny Chu 鈥�21 and Fergal Flood, MBA鈥�20, to 鈥渇ollow your passions and be flexible.鈥� The business you start might evolve as WePay did, Clerico said, but your chances of success are higher 鈥渋f you鈥檙e generally pointed in a direction you鈥檙e deeply passionate about鈥攕omething you can get excited about devoting the next decade of your life to.鈥�
Clerico鈥檚 was the first of a slew of upcoming Shea Center events online, including video chats with, founder of Greenback Labs and advisory director at Goldman Sachs, and聽, co-founder of Spark Capital.
Patrick L. Kennedy, Morrissey College 鈥�99, is a contributing writer at the Carroll School of Management.
April 20 Update:
Alumni who鈥檝e engaged remotely in events hosted by the Shea Center include: Bill Clerico聽鈥�07, Founder and CEO of WePay; Lindsay LoBue聽鈥�96, Advisory Director at Goldman Sachs and Founder of Greenback Labs; Bijan Sabet聽鈥�91, P鈥�21, Co-Founder and General Partner at Spark Capital; Peter Bell聽鈥�86, P 鈥�20, General Partner at Amity Ventures; Johnny Ayers聽鈥�08, M.S. 鈥�09, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President at Socure; and Trevor Stuart聽鈥�09, Co-Founder of Split Software. Four others recently judged the Shea Center鈥檚 Strakosch Venture Competition: Greg Strakosch 鈥�84, P 鈥�14, 鈥�16, and 鈥�17, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of TechTarget; Joe Popolo聽鈥�89, P鈥�20, CEO of Charles & Potomac Capital; John Murphy 鈥�07, M.S. 鈥�09, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Hyperplane Venture Capital; and Frances Schwiep聽鈥�11, Principal at Two Sigma Ventures.
Alumni, of course, aren't the only presenters at these Zoom events. Among others: Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair, who spoke with students on April 17.
Header photo via Nhat V. Meyer / Nhat V. Meyer / Tribune News Service