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***PUB TALK: THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2000 EnContacto.net, a startup launching in July, and its Latin American founder, MexCom, have found a unique way to bring the business and Internet savvy of MBA candidates out of the classroom and up to snuff. Tanja Kaufmann and Natanya Myers will present the model for “transition training” that will prepare academic grads for a life of entrepreneurial growth in the Internet Economy. ABOUT ENCONTACTO.NET, CAFEMANIA.NET, AND ED CULP, CO-FOUNDER MexCom's founder, Ed Culp, founded several successful start-ups in Mexico before opening offices in Silicon Valley and funding EnContacto.Net. Before initiating operations in California, MexCom had been accepted as an Associate of the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. To bring EnContacto.Net to life, Ed sought a passionate, multicultural, multilingual team with broad international work experience. At the Monterey Institute of International Studies, he discovered his team, but the group lacked an Internet entrepreneurial background. The question arose, can MBA students use their academic background to become successful entrepreneurs in the real world? To answer the question, the group is rolling up its sleeves and getting its hands dirty with its own startup, CafeMania.net. It will be a “bootcamp” to learn the street smarts one doesn’t learn in business school, every aspect of beginning and running a business -- from setting up technical networks to doing battles with bureaucracy. CafeMania.net is a separate entity wholly owned by the group with seed funding from the EnContacto.Net project in Monterey, CA. ABOUT TANJA KAUFMANN As the only non-MBA student Tanja Kaufmann brings a different perspective to the CafeMania.Net team. Born and raised in Germany, she then moved to California at a young age. After receiving her sociology degree from the University of California Santa Cruz, she moved south of the border and worked in diverse areas of business, including business development between the city of Orlando and Mexico. After seven years of immersion in the culture Tanja decided to steer away from business. She left her position as translator for one of Mexico‚s biggest brokerage firms and came to the Monterey Institute of International Studies to pursue an MA in Translation and Interpretation. ABOUT NATANYA MYERS Natanya Myers is a international MBA student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Before working with CafeMania.net, she was responsible for making English a fun, interesting, and profitable business for one of the largest English language schools in Japan. As Nationwide Training Coordinator she dealt with all aspects of the youth programs: from cross-cultural labor management to self-defense tips for teachers of children. The pre-Japan years were spent living, working, and studying in Germany, France, and Spain, between and around a BA-length stay at the University of Oregon. |