Welcome to the quarterly MOBI newsletter for Winter 2023. Each quarter we reach out to our alumni and readers to share important highlights from Santa Clara University’s MOBI program. We hope you will enjoy these updates and continue your relationship with MOBI on your path toward entrepreneurship!

Feel free to opt-out of this newsletter by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom. Para leer este boletín en español, haga clic aquí. 

Thank you from MOBI!

In January, MOBI was honored to be featured in Fortune Magazine. Author Sydney Lake gathered input for the piece from MOBI Executive Director Drew Starbird, PhD, who is quoted throughout the article. We thank Sydney and Fortune for the coverage, and especially for including how MOBI founders Phil and Peggy Holland were originally inspired to create a program of free entrepreneurship training that now includes students and alumni in over 140 countries.

We have begun to add video shorts to our MOBI YouTube channel! Created in English and Spanish, our introductory shorts include “How To” tutorials for our students with helpful screenshots and graphics. If you are interested in learning How to Create a MOBI Student Account, How to Enroll in a MOBI Course, or How to Start (& Continue) Your MOBI Course, visit MOBI’s YouTube channel and click on Shorts! And stay tuned for more videos coming soon!

Partnerships help MOBI fulfill our mission of starting businesses and creating jobs by utilizing their direct relationships to bring our free entrepreneurship curriculum to audiences who need and want it most. We have added a new partner category, and now offer three types of partnerships serving organizations around the world. The three partnerships include Friend, Affiliate, and Collaborator, and each is described briefly below. When evaluating potential partners, MOBI primarily considers mission, impact, and audience.

Friend: MOBI Friends are newly established and/or smaller organizations or programs that believe MOBI’s curriculum and courses could benefit their audiences and their objectives in promoting entrepreneurship. Friend partners can recommend MOBI’s popular open courses to their participants/constituents.

Affiliate: MOBI’s Affiliate partners are established/recognized organizations that refer their communities to MOBI’s popular open courses on their websites or through other communication. Affiliate partners often require or suggest an educational component or entrepreneurial training as part of their own programs, and they find it helpful to refer their participants to MOBI’s free, online, and self-paced curriculum.

Collaborator: MOBI’s Collaborator partners are those organizations for whom MOBI develops a co-branded interface, partner-specific login, and customized course(s) on our learning management system (LMS). Collaborators design their custom course by choosing from among MOBI's existing curriculum sessions (36) to create a combination of topics that best fits their needs (minimum of 10 topics required). Collaborator partners are eligible for cross-promotional marketing opportunities, subject to MOBI’s approval. Applicants must submit the Partnership Request survey and then will be contacted to complete a partnership proposal that is subject to approval.

Examples include (but are not limited to) community colleges, technical and vocational training centers, nonprofit organizations, high schools, NGOs, economic development organizations, city or state governmental agencies, funding programs, and other groups. 

Visit our Partnerships Page for more information, to submit a Partnership Request, to view some of our inspiring partners, or to view our Partner Comparison Chart (pictured above). 

Here are some events from the past few months.

MOBI highlights one theme every week on our social media platforms. We post blogs, videos, lists, and articles on a variety of topics relevant to aspiring entrepreneurs. Based on reader activity, here are some top stories from the past quarter.

We wish you good health and all the best in business success!

The MOBI Team