CAN ENTREPRENEURS BE MADE OR ARE THEY BORN? Chelmsford Native Pete Lawlor Finds Out as He Takes Part in Weeklong Entrepreneurial Immersion

Early-stage entrepreneurship is at its highest level of popularity since Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) began tracking it in 1999—and programs like LehighSiliconValley are helping students interested in embarking on an entrepreneurial endeavor. The weeklong summit through Lehigh University’s Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation (ranked one of the country’s Top 25 Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs by Entrepreneur magazine) brings 60 Lehigh University students—including Chelmsford’s own Pete Lawlor—together with entrepreneurs, inventors, CEOs, venture capitalists and others who play key roles in the building of new enterprises from seed to startup to expansion and exit stage.

“Entrepreneurship is the driver of our entire economic system. Capitalism relies on business creation and innovation to survive. As an economics major, this macro view of entrepreneurship fascinates me. The risk endured by both entrepreneurs and venture capital investors is also fascinating,” said Lawlor. “An entrepreneur is someone who is willing to take an idea for a business and stake ownership in that idea. With that ownership comes a tremendous amount of research, networking, successes and failures.”

The question remains: Can entrepreneurship actually be taught? Two of last year’s participants, Jake Huber and Greg Horn, think so. Since attending LSV last year, Huber and Horn moved to Silicon Valley and created Gigawatt, an online crowdfunding platform for colleges that engages young alumni. Only time will tell if they end up as the next Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker. But stories like theirs are inspirational to Lawlor, and we will be keeping an eye on him to see where his entrepreneurial dreams take him.