Podcast: Identifying the entrepreneurial spark

podcast-sheri-smith
September 28, 2020
By On the Heels of Innovation Podcast

With Sheri Smith, founder and CEO of the Indigo Project

What if you had more than an inkling of who is most poised to become an entrepreneur? What if there was a way to identify K-12 students who may lack access to traditional resources, but who have characteristics they can use to build entrepreneurial success? In this episode, Sheri Smith describes how her venture the Indigo Project uses an assessment technology based on artificial intelligence to find young entrepreneurial-oriented students and inspire them to build their own ventures. What does it mean that entrepreneurs score high on individualism, innovation and futuristic thinking, but low on time management? Is their tendency to focus on external goals a help or a hinderance? And can entrepreneurial behavior really be predicted? Smith answers these questions and more. She also shares a case study of how the assessment technology helped identify students from the Navajo Nation Indian reservation who are now using their entrepreneurial spark to make an economic impact.

UNC students, faculty and staff: Do you need advice about launching your own venture? Or something else related to entrepreneurship? Check out our new Ask an Innovator online platform that gives you a quick, simple way to get answers about your idea or venture.

Explore the complete On the Heels of Innovation podcast series.