The trials and successes of starting a business often make for good comedic material. On Wednesday night, the Brandeis Entrepreneurship Club and the improv comedy group To Be Announced (TBA) co-sponsored a business-themed comedy night called “Laughing At Success” held at Chum’s Coffeehouse.
At the event, three student entrepreneurs shared their stories and made light of the challenges they have faced in developing their products.
Asaf Meir ’14 mentioned his product, a motion sensor program called IntuMusic, which plays customized music based on the ways people are dancing at a party, as a way to “control and create music at the same time.”
Another service was a 3D printing business created by Sebastian Wells ’16, who makes customized cases for cell phones. Event attendees had the chance to win one of Wells’ cases as a raffle prize.
Yuval Galor ’15 also spoke about his experience creating an iPhone application called Linesaver, which helps people find less crowded restaurants and bars. Galor received a grant from the 3-Day Startup program at the Brandeis International Business School, then launched the app.
Galor shared his insights on the entrepreneurship process. “An idea is a hypothesis that you have to test in the real world,” he said.
TBA performed after each student’s monologue, basing its skits on each person’s story. In one sketch, the group invented a fictional product and made a compelling advertising pitch for it, all in fewer than five minutes.
Business and comedy were a natural combination for Nathan Feldman ’14, president of the Entrepreneur Club. “Not many people may realize, but improv and entrepreneurship have a lot in common. They both heavily rely on teamwork, creativity and an ability to pivot with an idea on the spot,” Feldman said.
“Another reason why we chose to hold an event incorporating comedy and entrepreneurship is to set a standard for future events. As a newly chartered club, we felt it is important to be as creative and innovative with our events as entrepreneurs are with their businesses,” Feldman added.
This was the first event hosted by the Entrepreneur Club after just becoming chartered this year. They hold meetings every week.
