Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club will hold its annual entrepreneurship conference on Feb. 10.
The conference, entitled Pioneers, will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. in Huntsman Hall. It will feature entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and innovators from companies like La Colombe Coffee, Moderna, and TikTok. It will feature four hour-long panels, each focusing on different topics and with different speakers.
From 1 to 2 p.m., attendees will be able to watch an investor and investee panel. A biotech panel will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. and from 3 to 4 p.m. is an interactive panel. The final session, from 4 to 5 p.m., will be a panel with leaders from the food services industry.
The first panel, an investor and investee-focused discussion, will feature Nagarajan Pillay, founder of DRADS Capital, Aram Salzman, CEO of AngioWave, and Dan Davis, CFO of AngioWave.
WUEC plans for the biotech panel to include talks from numerous leaders in the field. These leaders include Moderna Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer Jerh Collins, Bainbridge cofounder Sean O’Neill, Onselex Pharmaceuticals CEO Ernest Shin, and Centivax CEO Stephanie Wisner.
The interactive panel, entitled “Do you think like a founder?," will take the format of an audience discussion featuring speakers Gregg Spiridellis, a media and technology entrepreneur, and Sarah Norman, a sales and data leader at TikTok.
The final panel, entitled “Coffee anyone?," will include talks from Chuck Chupein, president of La Colombe Coffee Roasters, John Goodman, chairman of CORE Foodservices, and Lizette Apy, owner of Thunder Mug Café.
Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club aims to provide resources that promote entrepreneurship to Penn students. The club has previously hosted speakers, such as the CFO of Uber and co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker.
Vereta Gour, a Wharton junior and WUEC's co-president, said that the club has been working on the conference for "over a year now."
“It’s really supposed to highlight all aspects of the entrepreneurial ecosystem," Gour said.
Gour also stressed that the conference is not for just those interested in business or who already know about entrepreneurship.
“This is for anyone even vaguely interested in the entrepreneurial space,” she said, adding that the club hosts networking events and pitch competitions alongside bringing in speakers.
Last April, WUEC held a Phase Zero Grant Competition on April 14, where winners of the competition were able to join the 10-week HAX Phase Zero grant program, which gives startups $10,000 of funding and pairs them with mentors, industry partners, and angel investors.
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