Where are you from originally?
I was born in New Orleans, but I spent the first few years of my life in the Middle East(Egypt, UAE). I moved the Dallas area in the 6th grade.
What university did you go to?
I went to the University of Texas, and I am back there now getting my MBA.
What brought you to Austin?
School, and then I just couldn’t find a compelling reason to leave.
What is your passion and strength?
Providing services or products that add value to people’s lives in forum that is an integral part of its community.
What need does it fulfill?
For me it fulfills the need to see the results of my work. To feel like I did something productive and beneficial at the end of the day.
What exactly do you bring to startups?
I’m still working on that. My natural bent is creative solutions to problems or identifying a void in a market. But I am building the skills to implement all the moving parts to an idea.
What type of startup would benefit from your strengths?
Those that need an outside perspective. Someone who can understand what they are trying to do, but may not be married to the way they are going about it.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?
I wish I had a good answer to this but I don’t.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Research. Everthing.
What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
So far grad school, and taking the opportunity to work with startups through educational partnerships.
I am in the part time program, which means I am working full time while I go to school. In lieu of internships we have the opportunity to work on ENHANCE projects. These are actual projects for actual companies that the grad students work on and present findings to the company. Most of these are found through University staff and are from larger companies.
As a member and now President of the Texas Evening Entrepreneurs I have been involved in recruiting projects from small businesses in the Austin area. It allows us to work on something entrepreneurial, and provides small business owners a team of 3-5 intelligent people to work on an issue they are facing for free.
Our official website is being revamped but if there is any interest in this or the other opportunities we have for entrepreneurs through TEE please email me at Brandon.Leblanc@mba12.mccombs.utexas.edu or connect to our facebook group http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=79967277818
