The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/114745
'' MY ROLE AS BUS CONDUCTOR IS ONE OF CHEERLEADER, DRILL SERGEANT, TASK MASTER, MOMMY AND DADDY. I HAVE TO COMFORT THEM, BUT I ALSO HAVE TO CHALLENGE THEM—AND IT'S A VERY EMOTIONAL, WEARING PROCESS. BUT WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE, I FEEL SO MUCH PRIDE IN THEIR WORK. IT'S LIKE BEING A PROUD PARENT. '' entrepreneur who now has a support system in place. "If you can create a start-up company from soup to nuts in three days, imagine what you can do when you have wiƂ that works and electricity that works." The StartupBus alumni network, some 500 last year, is expected to double for the spring 2013 competition and grow internationally, with the number of buses from Europe increasing from one to six. And the community reaches beyond the annual road trip. In April, the StartupBus community competed in the International Space Apps Challenge in New York City. The challenge drew 2,083 participants from 25 cities in 17 countries. The New York StartupBus, says Caprio, "created Ƃve fully functional products that will truly change the world and disrupt the status quo, per our mission." Two NYC teams were chosen for global judging for products "that will get further scrutiny from a worldwide community of scientists, activists, and business and government stakeholders." The unconference StartupBus Accelerate NYC 2012 was held in December in the form of a six-hour intensive workshop for buspreneurs to network with other entrepreneurs and share ex- 50 Winter 2013 periences with pitching ideas, funding, business design, testing, marketing, etc., and, hopefully, igniting some start-ups. "My favorite thing about working in start-ups," says Caprio, "is freedom—the freedom to experiment, to learn new things, to try methods or approaches nobody has ever thought of before. It's very much like a scientiƂc or engineering project in so many ways; coming up with a hypothesis or theory about how a business venture will succeed, then experimenting, over and over, until you Ƃnd the right combination of variables for success." The ƃip side, of course, is failure, which is particularly frustrating, he says, "when you've done everything right and still can't Ƃnd the right formula or come across the right set of circumstances for achieving success. Every failure is a valuable lesson, but that doesn't make it any easier." Caprio sees good things down the road for StartupBus and entrepreneurial networks in general. "Talent is the capital of the future. Nothing is more true than this, especially considering that the growth of graduates in technical disciplines seems to be trending downward or ƃattening out domestically and even internationally to some degree. The demand for top talent only keeps increasing, and the supply seems to be stagnant. I can only imagine that the future of an alumni organization of the most talented people around can keep getting brighter and brighter! StartupBus alumni will become the movers and shakers globally, founding the next big companies, creating cuttingedge technologies. They'll change the world and disrupt the status quo—and that's exactly our vision for the future." This spring Caprio plans to attend a StartupBus alumni event pre-SXSW, and maybe even catch a ride on a bus or two as a "ƃoating conductor," possibly doing stints on the Ohio and Washington, D.C., buses, as well as the New York bus. So, do you have to literally "hit the road" to get things started? "It takes you out of your comfort zone and presents new challenges. Trying to move more than 300 people from 11 cities to one destination all at the same time just doesn't happen," Caprio laughs. Between dust storms in the west, rain storms in the east, massive trafƂc jams, and a hundred quirky sideshow distractions that just seem to materialize on the side of the road, the spirit of the trip will take over. As king of the road Jack Kerouac once pointed out, "They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there— and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see." The trip, the journey, is the thing, Caprio discovered. It allows you to make connections, form an intelligent and trusting network, express your creativity. And all you have to do is just keep moving and never stop starting. J