Thanks to Startup Dinner, a series of events sponsored by the Slater Technology Fund, computer science students have a new outlet to explore entrepreneurship.

Scott Norton '08 and Chris Ordonez '07 came up with the idea for the informal evening sessions because they wanted to give students a space to share and hear brief pitches on ideas for startup businesses by fellow Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students and alums. Though this first meeting featured just five pitches, Ordonez said he and Norton plan to bring more ideas to future meetings - as well as guest speakers, such as the entrepreneurs behind well-known startup companies...

...Norton and Ordonez - who are forming their own online startup, Havadot - cooked up the idea for Startup Dinner after spending the summer in Silicon Valley, where they attended numerous pitch-and-mingle events.

Among the speakers were Jason French '08 and Matt Gillooly '04. French's startup idea, Fantasy Hip Hop, is a simulation game similar in execution to fantasy baseball. Since he programmed it over winter break last year, Fantasy Hip Hop has gained around 14,700 users and was recently the runner-up of the Brown Entrepreneurship Program's Business Plan Competition.

Gillooly spoke about spawning his first startup, East Transit Technologies, out of a group project for CSCI 1900: "Software System Design". Three of the four original students, including Gillooly, are now at another local startup, Public Display .