Background
Trey Bowles is a serial entrepreneur who had his start in the realm of media technology and is now the co-founder and CEO of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center. Trey has a BA in Marketing from Baylor University and is also an Adjunct Professor at SMU, teaching and developing Art Entrepreneurship courses.
Interview
What is your advice for young entrepreneurs?
“Good ideas are a dime a dozen, what sets you apart is intitative”
What should college students know?
“How easy they’ve got it. Comparitively, the responsilbilties of most college students couldn’t hold a candle to those of working adults. You might go to class 18hrs a week, where as I’ve got team members working that many hours in a day.”
What is your vision for SMU and Dallas?
“SMU needs to make sure it stays relevant. I didn’t want to teach entrepreneurship in the business school because I think their style more traditional. I focus on both the knowledge and application of entrepreneurial ideas. I think SMU needs a Center for Social Innovation. And for Dallas, I want to see a start-up village in the city. When people think of cities that are good for start-ups, they’ll most likely say the West Coast, San Francisco in particular, and the East Coast with Boston and the Raliegh area to some degree. I think Dallas is the next great hub for entrepreneurs.”
What are your three pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs?
1. Show initiative and get accustomed to failure. You’re young and you don’t have to worry about supporting a family yet.
2. Leverage everything your school has to your advantage. Take for instance the data available to you at SMU. I would have to pay thousands to have access to that same data. You also have access to experts and mentors that won’t be as easy to find when you graduate.
3. Get out and explore. I took 4 months off to explore Europe after I graduated, and what I noticed when I got back is that no one else had changed and the converstations they were having were the same. I had changed though, and as a result, had a different impact on those around me. Exposing yourself to different cultures will develop you as a person and allow you to understand how different people can be.
Interview conducted by Chase Harker, a SMU Engineering Student
