A year after graduation, Brian Shiau '05 launched thesimexchange.com, an online virtual stock market where gamers buy shares to predict how well they think video games will sell.
Over 2,600 people have joined the site since November.
This website is similar to other prediction market websites where people bet on who will win elections or sporting events, but thesimexchange.com does not involve money.
"I've been a gamer all my life, [but] the difficulty was trying to come up with a ... fictional asset that will capture how video games work," Shiau said. Instead of dollars, gamers on Shiau's site use virtual "DKP"s to predict how many copies of a game will sell, allowing them to learn about the market without risking any money.
While Shiau said he learned broad financial principles at the University, he taught himself how to create a business.
The Entrepreneurship Club and a few classes serve as resources for current Princeton students to learn about starting a business.
Club officer Joseph Perla '09 directs a small, "precept-sized" discussion group about high-tech entrepreneurship every week. Perla presented a business plan for the group to critique this week.
"Economics classes do not help you for entrepreneurship at all," Perla said. He noted that he did not receive any specific guidance from the University when starting his business.
Perla said that the most valuable thing about his Princeton education has been "the people I've met here and talked to."
He said his passion for entrepreneurship stemmed from a desire to work for himself.
"I like the idea of creating real value for people directly," he said.
Shiau, who majored in economics and received a finance certificate, pointed to one class that highlighted the essentials of startups.
Professor Ed Zschau '61, who teaches "High-Tech Entrepreneurship," a class cross-listed in the electrical engineering and ORFE departments, challenged each student to create a business plan at the end of the course. He also helped to found the Entrepreneurship Club in 1998.
"My course is designed to provide encouragement, analytical approaches, know how, and 'experience' through discussion of real cases that enables my students to be more successful in achieving their entrepreneurial aspirations," Zschau said in an email.
Zschau emphasized that entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business, but starting something new in any endeavor. "It's about dreaming big dreams and then — this is the important part — taking those actions to make those dreams come true."
"There is a wonderful wave of entrepreneurial spirit among Princeton students," he added.
The Entrepreneurship Club also brings speakers to campus to discuss their business ventures and hosts an annual business plan competition judged by venture capitalists.
The club cosponsored a talk in February with Tim Westergren, founder of pandora.com, an online music discovery service.
The Office of Career Services offers advice to students interested in starting a business, but it usually refers them to outside sources, such as the "venture-net" discussion group on Tigernet, Director of Career Services Beverly Hamilton-Chandler said in an email.
"One of the great things about being an entrepreneur from Princeton is getting advice and help from Princeton alumni," Shiau said.
Some students even start businesses while on campus. Alex Salzman '07 co-founded Rethos in the fall. The social networking site allows people to connect with NGOs, corporations and peers to take action on pertinent issues in social justice and the environment.
"It's intimately tied in with the University's motto," Salzman said, adding that one of his goals for the site is to rally Princeton behind the site to serve the nation.
Salzman plans to attract a target audience of college students this summer. "I think Rethos is pretty ambitious. We intend, in just a few years, to make it global," he said.
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