For the past several months I’ve been working on putting together an hour long television pilot titled 54 Hours to Launch.

Find out what happens when everyday entrepreneurs race against time and each other to form companies over a weekend and win startup funding.

54 Hours to Launch is partnering with Startup Weekend and Chapman University to host the event and one or more lucky teams will be selected for up to 25 thousand dollars in startup funding and mentoring from K5 Launch startup accelerator!

The event is March 30-April 1, 2012

Find out more about Startup weekend at www.startupweekend.org

Find out more about K5 Launch at http://www.k5launch.com/

Find out more about Chapman University’s Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship at www.chapman.edu/launch

My life has become an amalgam of meetings, class, work and general time constraint. One of the things that has helped to even me out and keep me grounded is watching some inspirational videos and clips from some fantastic minds from around the world. I wanted to share some of these here for those interested.

The WHY of business. Simon Sinek on Why, not how or what.

On Happiness.  Mattheiu Ricard speaks to being happy.

On Motivation.  Daniel Pink explains how to motivate.

Ideas.  Steven Johnson on where good ideas come from.

I was excited by some good news this week.  One of the projects I’ve been working on developing since August is a comedic web series called Film School Kids.  Created with my cohorts:  Cole Akins, Chris Boyce, Ryan Cuming and Jacques Edeline, Film School Kids tells the story of a rag-tag group of students who band together to overcome all of their hardships and make the movie of their lives, their thesis.

My team applied for the Chapman Scholarly Creative Grant.  We were very fortunate to hear that we won the grant to assist in the creation of our project.  We’re all very much excited about the series and more information will be forthcoming as we get closer to the production date in May 2012.

Congrats and thank you to Cole, Chris, Ryan and Jacques.  Wish us luck!

So I had a really cool experience this weekend.  I got in a room with 150-200 other Entrepreneurs, listened to 64 pitches, watched those pitches pair down to 17 final pitches and got to see teams of people band together to form companies.

I paired with a great group of guys and formed a social network called Prowl (name to be changed) in which you can connect with people, where ever you are, outside of your friend network that share several interests with you.  Basically a way to find collaborators and make friends that you share MORE in common with than the hundreds of people you’re friends with on Facebook that you never really talk to.  Check it out @ www.prowll.com

Hey Everyone, how many of those Facebook friends do you REALLY talk to? GET ON THE PROWL!

What amazes me is how many other people out there have such drive, passion and great ideas.  It’s invigorating.  Some highlights:

Need a trusted pet-sitter last minute for Spot or Whiskers?  www.watchmypetnow.com.  They offer pet sitting services from a variety of pre-screened pet lovers.

Looking for sponsors for your event.  Head over to www.sponsta.com

Finally?  Need to better organize your life?  Try out the geolocation calendar that Appoint Map created.

(Most of these are in beta or not live to the public yet but you can try to be an early adopter)

With speeches by Paul Darbee (Inventor of the Universal Remote), Jason Lucash (OrigAudio) Sean Ellis (CatchFree), Eric Jackson (PayPal) and several others I would absolutely recommend attending a startup weekend to anyone with the entrepreneurial bug.

To learn more about startup weekends go to their website here:  www.startupweekend.org

While my team didn’t win I still feel great about the event, the connections I made and all I learned in the process.  Every failure is just a rung on the ladder to success.  Onward my friends.

When I came to Chapman University I quickly became involved with a group of young spirited MBA students that had an idea they wanted to form a club.  Basically it’s a community service club that picks one large project per year and decides to do that as a way of enriching our community.

I pitched the CMBAP an idea that had been stewing in my brain for a few years and to my joy and amazement we will be pursuing this philanthropic endeavor from now through spring of 2013 as our capstone project!  I can’t spill all the details here but the philanthropy will be announced soon.

Here’s a picture of me and some of my fellow CMBAP’s at the Chapman Chili Cookoff with University President Jim Doti and a video showing what people thought of the chili…

President Doti loves CMBAP Chili!

Hello Everyone,

www.rob-erickson.com is currently under construction.  Bear with me while I tweak it to perfection. Thanks!

-Rob