SVCE-IDEAS Speaker Session: The Next Big Entrepreneurial Opportunities
Name of Sponsoring Organization: Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship (SVCE) at San Jose State University
Details of the Activity:
SJSU Student Union Theater
February 10, 2025, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
Speaker: Ashmeet Sidana, Founder & Managing Partner of Engineering Capital
Topic: “The Next Big Entrepreneurial Opportunities”
What I Learned:
The session gave a lot of useful information about starting a business, venture capital, and new business possibilities in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI). Ashmeet Sidana talked about how venture capitalists evaluate early-stage startups and how technical knowledge is important for starting great businesses. He talked about cybersecurity as an important problem with huge business opportunities. He pointed out that computer security is broken by nature and is always changing. He also talked about how AI is changing businesses and whether it will be a disruptive or sustaining innovation.
He also taught me important things about the attitude needed to be an entrepreneur, such as being resilient, willing to take risks, and motivated. He used historical examples, like the Enigma machine and Alan Turing’s work, to show how big steps forward in technology can lead to huge possibilities. He also said that the way explorers like Ernest Shackleton thought was a lot like the way startup founders think. This supported the idea that real entrepreneurs are driven by passion and fixing problems, not just making money.
As a major in Management Information Systems (MIS), this lesson was directly related to what I’m learning about business strategy, technology, and new ideas. The talk about hacking sparked my interest in IT security, which is very important for businesses today. The information about how AI has changed things added to what I was learning in school about cloud computing and new technologies. It also made me realize how important it is to understand data protection and AI-driven business solutions.
The session also helped me understand how venture capital works, which is important if I want to be an entrepreneur or a leader in a tech business. Learning about how startups get funding and spread their ideas helped me see how business strategy and technology development are connected. Both are important in MIS jobs like product management, consulting, and IT leadership.
Overall, the event was very helpful. It made me think more deeply about how scientific knowledge and problem-solving can help entrepreneurs, as well as how I can use my background in MIS to help make cybersecurity and AI more innovative.