Prometheus

Finn is a current IWU student majoring in finance and president of the PE/VC student club. Finn talks about the creation of the student club, their work in venture capital, and the value of experiential learning opportunities in college.

Paul Halvorsen is the CFO of SMF, Inc a metal fabrication and machining company. Paul talks about his journey from an accounting major at IWU and entrepreneurship in supply chains.

Dr. Brenda Lessen Knoll is a nursing professor at IWU and innovator of the PIOMI therapy. It is a method used on preterm babies to help them transition to oral feeding allowing them to leave the hospital days earlier. Brenda talks about PIOMI, the training/consulting business she has founded, and her path in nursing education.

Chris is an IWU alum and co-founder of Bottleneck Management. We talk about the necessity of distinctiveness, providing value, and data-informed decision making.

Hadi is a computer science major and co-winner of the 2025 Titan New Venture Challenge. He has developed an app that helps people control their overuse of their phones. Hadi talks about the app's creation and how he merged his psychology and computer science education to develop his idea. We talk about the pitch competition and the value he received from competing.

Will Jenkins is an IWU alum and serial entrepreneur. Will discusses a career in sales and how important sales is to an entrepreneur. We discuss how a curricular program in professional sales matches the skills developed at a liberal arts university. We even talk about how being a competitive athlete translates to professional success.

Marc Talluto is an IWU grad and serial entrepreneur. Marc talks about his journey as an entrepreneur and his thoughts on the strategies of a successful entrepreneur. He also emphasizes the value of experiential learning and why emphasizing entrepreneurship within a liberal arts college is appropriate.

Dr. Zachary Rodriguez is currently a professor at Union College but as an undergraduate started a nonprofit, Embrace it Africa, which strives to address poverty in Uganda. Zach talks about fundraising for their school fees, the aims of microfinance, and shares his thoughts on social entrepreneurship.

Caleb Martinez is a student-entrepreneur at Illinois Wesleyan and a co-winner of the 2025 Titan New Venture Challenge pitch competition for his search optimization company Bear SEO. Caleb talks about his experiences as a student-entrepreneur and how being a student-athlete has helped him on his journey.

Professor Tara Gerstner talks about the entrepreneurship curriculum at IWU, her path to teaching entrepreneurship, and her thoughts on the future of higher education instruction.

This is the introductory podcast explaining our aspiration.