McCombs Students Pitch Solutions at Fintech Entrepreneurship Practicum
New hands-on learning course in the new Entrepreneurship Minor concludes with showcase day.
Teams of undergraduate students from across the university presented fintech solutions for Austin startups on Dec. 10 at the concluding showcase of the inaugural Fintech Entrepreneurship Practicum.
The practicum, supported by Ernst & Young, provided undergraduate students with hands-on learning opportunities over the course of the fall semester. It is one of the courses in the new McCombs Entrepreneurship Minor, which is open to students from any major at UT. The practicum was developed by Texas McCombs Lecturer Mike Peterson with support from the Herb Kelleher Center, which brought in Ernst & Young as a partner and connected the class with the Austin startup community.
Each week, teams of mentors from Ernst & Young travelled from Dallas to the UT campus to assist practicum students.
Students were tasked with identifying and solving entrepreneurial business problems specific to Austin startups, including Claimbot, Lawgix, Liveoak Technologies, Rocket Dollar, and VISIO. EY mentors offered effective fintech recommendations and solutions. Financial technology, or fintech, exists to disrupt traditional financial and banking models.
“Our EY mentors were able to hop on weekly conference calls with us where they answered any of our questions and helped us work through some problems we were dealing with,” said Sam Gordon, BBA ’20. “Overall, I liked being able to go into a physical startup location in Austin as that’s one of my goals.”
EY financial services consultant Allie Koenig, BBA ’15, mentored Gordon’s team as they worked with Lawgix, a litigation workflow service.
“Coming out of undergrad, students have a hard time dealing with a vague environment,” Koenig said. “One team didn’t have a clear project at the beginning of the semester. That was mind-blowing for them.”
Twelve students pursuing the Entrepreneurship Minor participated on nine teams and were paired with EY mentors. Over the last semester, 33 students took a management and strategy course that prepared them to present their innovations.
“Student success comes with a semester’s worth of hard work and mentorship from EY professionals,” said Amanda Golden, the minor’s program administrator. “Our students get to present solutions to as they would in the real world.”
Each fall, McCombs plans to sponsor a fintech demo day as a culmination of the class. During the spring semester, the school plans to feature industries and business challenges such as machine learning or bitcoin.
