Profile
Member Since 2014
Site Staff, Public Member, EIX Editor
Jon Eckhardt
Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Distinguished Professor / Wisconsin School of Business & Wisconsin Institute for Discovery / University of Wisconsin-Madison
AUTHORED RESOURCES
Should I Participate in a Business Accelerator?
4913235 views
Even some experienced entrepreneurs don't understand how business accelerators operate and what they can do. Read More...
How Alec Slocum Turned Apartment Hunting Frustration Into a Startup
5374 views
Alec Slocum built ABODO after struggling to find an apartment himself. He shares lessons on spotting problems, moving quickly and building the right team. Read More...
How Eric Martell Built EatStreet From a College Idea Into a Growing Startup
10952 views
Eric Martell explains how a simple food delivery idea became EatStreet, serving thousands of restaurants and college students across more than 100 cities. Read More...
How Isomark Turned University Research Into a Life Saving Startup
4182 views
Joe Kremer explains how Isomark commercialized breath-test technology with help from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and navigated the challenges of growth. Read More...
Matt Younkle on Failure, Persistence & Grounded Optimism
4964 views
Entrepreneur Matt Younkle shares how early setbacks with TurboTap shaped his approach to risk, resilience and building new ventures with disciplined optimism. Read More...
How Toni Sikes Built a Business Connecting Artists With Customers
28112 views
CODAworx founder Toni Sikes explains how she created a marketplace for artists and buyers while navigating the challenges of startup growth. Read More...
Why Entrepreneurship Research Should Treat Practicing Entrepreneurs as Customers
22895 views
Business schools often reward publications and citations more than practical impact. This article argues that entrepreneurs should help shape research priorities. Read More...
For the Best Customer Data, Look Beyond the Market
64199 views
Hobbyists and passionate "early adopters" often point the way to potential commercial successes. Read More...
Research Insight: Proven Entrepreneurs May Benefit Less from Partnering With Experienced VCs
30273 views
Like the football execs who try to pick future Super Bowl standouts, VCs often take a chance on businesses led by unproven entrepreneurs. It takes experience to spot the diamond in the rough. Read More...
T-Shirt Project Teaches Customer Discovery to Future Entrepreneurs
6143 views
Many entrepreneurship professors want to provide students with applied learning experiences. Yet, implementing an applied project in a large, introductory entrepreneurship course can be a challenge. Read More...
Technical Specialized Knowledge and Founder Leadership at Initial Public Offering
22964 views
Founders have staying power when they have deep knowledge that is important to their company’s commercial success but hard to share with others. Read More...
An Interview with David Teece, a Practicing Business Intellectual
21002 views
Professor David Teece is one of the impactful business scholars of his generation. His research has been cited over 128,474 times according to Google Scholar. His work is required reading for Ph.D. Read More...
James Wetherbe: How Consulting Connects Colleges to the Real World
16575 views
Academics can make their research more meaningful and useful by engaging with businesses and their real-world problems. Read More...
Driving Impactful Research: A Conversation with Charles Dhanaraj
11261 views
Charles Dhanaraj is the Executive Director of the Translational Research Center at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and the H. F. Lenfest Professor of Strategy. He is an expert in Read More...
Producing Research Entrepreneurs Can Use
8491 views
Entrepreneurs often perceive a gap between research conducted in academia, and the practical problems that they face when building companies. Read More...
Technology Tools for Working or Teaching Remotely
6507 views
While many entrepreneurs and teachers prefer being in the same room, working effectively online can save the day (or the semester) during a crisis. Read More...
Rob Roquitte of eCIO: Growing a business during a crisis
39434 views
In this video, Jon Eckhardt interviews Rob Roquitte about building his pre-seed stage company that he started before the COVID-19 pandemic. Roquitte's company, eCIO , helps nonprofit Read More...
Past e-Fest Winners Continue Innovating
18383 views
Participating in e-Fest gave undergraduate innovators not only capital for their businesses, but also connections, confidence and valuable experience. We caught up with teams from 2019 and 2022. Read More...
Paychex Founder Tom Golisano's Advice for Innovators
28775 views
The founder of the $4 billion payroll processing company talks with us about challenging conventional wisdom, complimenting competitors, the pitfalls of sharing equity and what he looks for as an investor. Read More...
Timeless Lessons from Dick Schulze
27572 views
The founder of Best Buy (and EIX and FamilyBusiness.org) has always had a passion for helping business owners succeed. He lives by these rules. Read More...
Learn From Leaders: Developing an Idea
421592 views
The founders and CEOS of Best Buy, Minute Clinic, LegalZoom and other successful companies share their advice for early-stage entrepreneurs in our exclusive video series. Read More...
Learn from Leaders #2: Getting the Financing Your Venture Needs to Survive
46423 views
In Part 2 of our exclusive video series, celebrated entrepreneurs discuss how they convinced early investors and lenders to take a chance on them. Read More...
Learn From Leaders #3: Advisors and Mentors
43003 views
Mentors and carefully chosen advisors can help founders make sound decisions. Watch and learn how these advocates helped shape MinuteClinic, LegalZoom and other firms. Read More...
Learn from Leaders #4: Building a Team
30252 views
As part of our exclusive video series, leaders of celebrated companies discuss how to attract and incentivize your startup team, and how those teams can evolve as the company matures. Read More...
Learn from Leaders #5: Growing the Business
30119 views
Once you've established a new company, how do you get it to the next level? Founders of celebrated companies share their experiences in our exclusive video series. Read More...
Learn From Leaders: Famous Founders' Best Advice for New Ventures
17907 views
These five exclusive videos focus on the critical steps in launching a company: developing an idea, getting financing, advisors and mentors, building a team and growing the business. Read More...
We Talk with Wes Schroll, CEO of Fetch Rewards, Softbank's latest Unicorn
57182 views
This interview is a preview of EIX's upcoming customer development series, a series of interviews with entrepreneurs building technology companies who share insights on customer discovery and customer development. Read More...
Software is Eating the Software That's Eating the World
29766 views
Software companies that initially gained traction by reducing complexity are now facing the threat of disruption from startups that reduce complexity even more. Read More...
Building a Company Step By Step, Ch. 1: How Startups are Different
85399 views
Our new feature explores the principles outlined in Steve Blank and Bob Dorf's book, Read More...
Building a Company Step by Step, Ch. 2: The Path to the Epiphany
23822 views
Chapter 2 of our series features an interview with Max Fergus of LÜM, an alternative streaming platform that helps emerging musicians connect more authentically with fans. Read More...
Building a Company Step By Step Ch. 3: An Introduction to Customer Discovery
51138 views
We interview Taralinda Willis of Curate, which gives customers access to information from from public committee meetings, agendas and minutes. Read More...
Building a Company Step By Step, Ch. 4: Your Customer Hypothesis
50534 views
Serial entrepreneur Brian Wiegand, co-founder of six companies, talks about whether founders should be visionaries or managers of uncertainty. Read More...
Building a Company Step By Step, Chapter 5: Get Out of the Building
58440 views
Structure matters when going through the customer discovery process, but startup founder Rachel Carpenter notes that sometimes you just need to wing it. Read More...
Building a Company Step by Step, Ch 6: Testing and Pivoting
60257 views
This interview with Alex Yampolsky, co-founder and chief operating officer of Vytal Health, focuses on the importance of testing your proposed product or service and knowing when to pivot. Read More...
Building a Business Step by Step Ch. 7: Verify the Business Model
73509 views
The co-founders of Laquerus turned down lucrative job offers to start a nail salon. Here's how it evolved and what comes next. Read More...
Building a Company Step by Step Ch. 11: Product and Company Positioning
74085 views
Corey Capasso of Urbint talks about his company's evolving role in providing technology to prevent infrastructure disasters. Read More...
Building a Company Step by Step, Ch. 8: Introduction to Customer Validation
39100 views
This chapter discusses the importance of testing and experimenting to determine how a product or service will be sold, before committing resources towards something that may not work out. Read More...
Challenge for 2022: Innovating Despite Uncertainty
10512 views
Our best-read articles in 2021 overwhelmingly fell into two themes: survival, and bringing a great idea from concept to market. Read More...
Building a Company Step By Step Ch. 10: Get Out of the Building and Sell
58821 views
Madison-based Fetch Rewards, which helps consumers get rewards from their grocery shopping, attracted a $210 million investment. Read More...
The Silicon Valley Bank Bust: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know
11178 views
Don't panic. These eight steps can help entrepreneurs protect their ventures. Read More...
What Family Businesses Need to Know About the Silicon Valley Bank Failure
780 views
The SVB fallout is affecting other banks and troubling many business owners. These eight steps can help you protect your firm. Read More...
EIX's Editorial Guidelines for the Use of Generative AI Tools
27656 views
You are welcome to use these tools to help draft, revise, and/or expand on submitted articles -- but make sure you understand our rules. Read More...
Remote Work, Financing and AI Were Top-10 Topics in 2023
197681 views
Our most-read articles in 2023 focused on new challenges such as the rise of remote work and the power and peril of AI -- and age-old ones like access to capital and other resources. Read More...
Research-Based Advice for Businesses: Our 10 Best-Read Articles
120940 views
Over the years we've brought readers practical advice based on research: rigorous studies that analyze what truly works. These ones resonated the most. Read More...
Our Mission: Bringing You Research-Based Business Insights
24201 views
Entrepreneurs and family businesses need practical takeaways supported by academic rigor. Read More...
EDITOR'S PICKS
The Startup Owner's Manual
Blank, Steve, and Bob Dorf. 2012. The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. K&S Ranch, Inc.Steve Blank is a former entrepreneur and teacher who invests in startups; Bob Dorf has a background in venture capital. Their book helps entrepreneurs follow a process that will reduce their risks of over-investing in ideas too quickly, and likely improves the odds that entrepreneurs are on the right path by discovering a way to meet the needs of an unknown body of customers in a way that's repeatable. The book’s processes for entrepreneurs are very similar to the scientific process that scholars use to discover make new inventions and new academic discoveries. The book is a must-read for aspiring entrepreneurs.