Remarks from the Managing

Remarks from the Managing Director, Holly DeArmond

Contents

Remarks from the Managing Director Terps Take Action Pitch Dingman Competition Terp Startup Launching Terp Startup Fellows Educating Student Entrepreneurs Student Venture Showcase Being Black in Entrepreneurship Fostering Sustainable Ventures Global Impact Robert G. Hisaoka Speaker Series Bootstrapped Dingman Center Angels Board of Advisors Our Empowering Network Staff, Faculty & Community

DURING THE FALL 2019 semester it was business as usual at the Dingman Center. We came to Van Munching Hall every day ready to engage our students and connect with our community. As always, we filled our calendar with large events to convene our stakeholders. And then came March.

On March 10, the Dingman team headed to work excited to host the annual Pitch Dingman Competition for more than 500 guests. By noon the signature event of our year had been postponed due to COVID-19. Like everyone reading this report, we had been disrupted.

We teach our students that successful entrepreneurs are agile, adaptable, resilient, and creative. They know “that’s how it’s always been done” is not an acceptable response in order to thrive. As a Center, we practiced what we preached: we entered an uncertain virtual work environment, quickly evaluated our portfolio and pivoted many of our programs and events to the virtual space. This report highlights some of those pivots and shows how we delivered on our programming by being entrepreneurial about teaching entrepreneurship.

Beyond COVID-19, we experienced the weight and sadness of racial injustices that swept across our nation. Many of the statistics about race inequities in the venture ecosystem are not new to our team. At Dingman, we have been committed to supporting entrepreneurs of all kinds for many years. We have already made and will continue to make our mark on improving gender diversity through our Ladies First Initiative, but we can’t stop there. We know we have more work to do to empower and equip underserved communities and specifically persons of color.

Now in my second year leading the Center, and with so many disruptions and challenges, I knew it was time to re-think our mission and strategy. We have revised our mission to create an inclusive environment where we educate, empower and equip students with the business skills needed to be an entrepreneur and the resources necessary to make their business ideas a reality. We have also developed a scorecard to measure outcomes based on the following pillars: Turning Ideas into Action; Supporting Entrepreneurs of all Kinds; Providing Resources to our Startup Community; and a Commitment to Center Excellence and Sustainability.

I know the next academic year will surely bring another set of twists and turns. But whether it is on campus or online I know our team is prepared to support our Terp entrepreneurs as they fearlessly pursue their business ideas. Thank you to our students, faculty, advisors, alumni, donors, board members, investors and colleagues who helped make this year a success. But now more than any other year, thank you to the Dingman Center team who proved day in and day out that your entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.

Onward and upward.

Holly DeArmond, MBA ‘17 | Managing Director