Entrepreneur in the Making

Adamo O'Kane

Applied Business Management Alum (Class of 2010) Adam O'Kane talks about his time at the Thompson School, helpful faculty and his dream of launching his own business ScoopStream.

I'm lucky in that I've known since I was 5 or 6 years old that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I graduated from Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH in 2008. When I started at the Thompson School, I was looking for an experience that could help me develop basic business skills, like managerial accounting and marketing. I’ve read a lot about businesses (startups, mostly) in my free time and have always had a desire to start a company, so I thought the Thompson School would be a good place to round out my fundamentals.

While learning these fundamental skills I found a few particularly helpful professors including Justin Nadeau, Ben Fowler, Bill Scott and Jerry Howe.  When I first began to think about the concept for my business ScoopStream.com in October 2009, I spent some time developing the idea and business model. 

ScoopStream, which is still being developed, is a platform to help communities report on themselves. We want to convert idle consumers into dynamic news publishers, while blurring the line between professional and "citizen" journalists.

During the first stages of developing my idea, I was in a class with Thompson School adjunct faculty Justin Nadeau, who seemed well connected and business savvy, so I sent him an email outlining what I was trying to do.  He immediately liked my idea and has since become part of the venture.  Now we’re currently developing the product and trying to raise the necessary funding. 

I liked the intimacy of the Thompson School and the "hands-on" approach to learning. I love UNH and I transferred to the Communication program after graduation from the Thompson School with my associate in applied science degree in Applied Business Management, but my parents advised that I take this semester off to build ScoopStream.  If I can't gain the funding I need, I'll be back in class in the Spring semester.  I feel that I’m in a no-lose situation. I’m lucky that I'm in a position to give my business a shot and I'm confident I'll learn a lot regardless of what happens.