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Every Monday, a handful of students gather in the Newhouse Startup Garage, starting class by sharing updates about their business ventures. On the wall, a poster reads “A place where you can leave your mark.”

By the end of the semester, those students have a chance to leave the class with their fully fleshed out startup, living by the poster’s phrase.

“The students are the magic of the whole thing,” said Sean Branagan, Newhouse School of Public Communications director for the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship.

Branagan first pitched the idea for his class, MMI 427: New Media Venture Launch, to Newhouse’s then-dean in 2011. Since then, he has been teaching students how to start a business without having to know all the “business stuff,” he said.

To get into Branagan’s class, students must pitch an idea for a future venture and get it approved to join the course. The class contains mostly seniors and graduate students, but has the occasional sophomore or junior, Branagan said.

Branagan graduated from Newhouse in 1980 with a degree in magazine, but after getting into the workforce, decided he didn’t want to be a journalist. He realized that he liked to do things rather than write about other people doing things, Branagan said.

Ultimately, he ended up working in the tech field, but later pivoted into marketing for internet service businesses. When the company expanded, he eventually was fired right when things were becoming mobile and the internet was taking off, or what he called “the best time ever.” Since 2011, he’s been a professor at Newhouse, where he’s also part of the advising faculty for the Goldring Arts, Style and Culture Journalism master’s program.

Graduate student Cypris Wilkinson, who created a food show startup, “Cooking with ‘Cuse,” said Branagan’s class is nothing like she’s ever experienced before. Branagan stresses that if college students have an idea, they should make it “more than an idea,” Wilkinson said.

Branagan’s teaching approach is very straightforward and is also big on networking between students and professionals, he said. One of the ways he has done this is through treating his class as a mini Y Combinator, one of the world’s most powerful startup accelerator programs. Through his class, Branagan has had two groups of his students participate in the real Y Combinator over the years.

“I want to work with people who are doing stuff, not people who are talking about it. Ambitious? Fine. Ambitious with action? Better. Ambitious with action and taking risks? Even better,” Branagan said.

Senior Sylvie Feldman, who is in Branagan’s startup class this semester, chose a makeup line for her venture. “Show Your Layers” is inspired by her love of makeup and expressing herself creatively, she said. Feldman began working on her project with a chemist to create her first product, but ultimately it ended up falling through, she said.

Feldman said the class has taught her that failure is a growth opportunity.

“Everyone is doing something so different there’s no way you could compare (yourself),” Feldman said.

Graduate student Laurenne Yomi Mvete created “Founders Without Borders,” a foundation that brings underrepresented entrepreneurs together to create a global peer-to-peer networking program. She started the program in Branagan’s class in 2025 and was inspired to start it because of an internship in South Africa over the summer.

Branagan had previously done work in Estonia through Fulbright in 2021. In Estonia, Branagan worked with Tallinn University to help them expand their media entrepreneurship programs, he said.

Mvete heard about Branagan’s work in Estonia and virtual conferences he participated in in South Africa. When Mvete learned about Branagan’s work, she knew she needed to meet him. Mvete messaged him and was immediately drawn to his “big, bright personality” and loved “his entrepreneurship spirit,” she said.

Branagan also collaborated with South by Southwest, a tech, film and music festival located in Austin, Texas, to create “Student Startup Madness,” a national tournament-style pitch competition for college students. Branagan said it began with him combining two things he loves: startups and college basketball.

While Branagan no longer assists with “Student Startup Madness” as of last year, he had a great run with the competition — helping many successful groups, usually from “unappreciated universities,” he said.

Now, working at Newhouse, Branagan appreciates teaching his classes in a way that makes entrepreneurship a creative endeavor, he said. His teaching is about believing in your ideas, Feldman said.

“When somebody says they’re going to make a movie or write a book, they don’t read how the publishing industry works and how to market a book,” Branagan said. “It’s good to know that, but I think a lot of times that keeps you tap dancing so you never actually do the damn thing.”

One of the things Mvete has taken away from his class is “effectuation,” five entrepreneurship principles. Branagan has taught those ideas for 15 years and credits University of Virginia Professor Saras Sarasvathy for coming up with the concept.

One of the key principles of effectuation is to speak, share and believe in one’s ideas, which Mvete learned to live by.

“If you don’t believe in (your idea) then you ultimately won’t be successful,” Mvete said.

Branagan’s advice to students is simple: If you have something you want to pursue, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“Go do something. ‘Oh well I’ve got a great idea.’ Well, that’s not doing anything. Everybody has a great idea, that means you have a pulse,” Branagan said.

Published on April 7, 2026 at 10:15 pm
Contact Alex: arice19@syr.edu