David Pyke's Blog

OnMyBlock co-founders, Morgan Schwanke and Jordan Jadallah

Venture Vetting (V2) student finalists pitched their entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of four angel investors in a competition for a share of the $25,000 prize last night at the USD School of Business. Of the original 32 business venture ideas – nearly double the number of entries over last year – four pitched to the judges.

Each finalist made a 7-minute pitch to the panel, followed by a 10-minute one-on-one pitch with each …Read Full Article

Dean Pyke and Justin McAnear outside Apple headquarters

Some cities just have a buzz.  I remember traveling with my family to Hong Kong and Singapore to give lectures at some universities and do teaching for Accenture. I had been to Hong Kong prior to that, but never to Singapore.  People told me that Hong Kong has a continual buzz, and Singapore has a continual hum, and it was true.  Hong Kong is constantly in motion, and Singapore hums with efficiency.  …Read Full Article

A current USD School of Business MBA student, Jayla Siciliano ’13, is finding new life for wine spritzers in her start-up company, Bon Affair.

Find out how Jayla went from working in product development and design for both Diesel and Burton Snowboards to reinventing the wine spritzer.  (Hint: It had a lot to do with breaking through the perception that this is a women-only drink.) Her story appeared yesterday in this New York Times blog post. (Click on title, above, for links.)

Poster for Fertitta and Breitling presentation at USD School of Business

Yesterday I saw what could be the future for some of our current USD School of Business students. I wasn’t looking into a crystal ball; I was looking at a friendship formed 25 years ago at USD that crystallized into an extremely successful business relationship.

Lorenzo Fertitta (BBA ’91) and Tom Breitling (BA ’91) were roommates at USD; today, Lorenzo is Chairman and CEO of Zuffa, LLC (which owns and …Read Full Article

Diego Torero helps Prof. Mike Lawless and Dean Pyke spread the word about the USD V2 competition

Pitch your idea at the USD Venture Vetting (V2) competition and you could win up to $25,000 in prize money from angel investors.

I even had a photo-shoot with USD mascot, Diego Torero, this week to make sure all of our students know that this is a campus-wide entrepreneurship event. Great new business ideas can come from USD undergraduate or graduate students in any …Read Full Article