UW-Whitewater’s Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization chapter is trying to differentiate itself from other campus organizations this semester by searching for “passionate students.”

CEO’S Chief Public Relations Officer freshman Dan Fink said many organizations on campus have a large number of members, some even over 200 students. While having a lot of members can be beneficial to some organizations, Fink said CEO is more about the qualitative measure.

“We’re rearranging things this semester by trying to find more people from different majors and backgrounds,” Fink said. “Art students, law students, math … we want to just get a whole variety of people because entrepreneurs can be anyone.”

CEO describes an entrepreneur as anyone who has an idea and pursues it.

Not everyone involved with CEO has their own business, Fink said.

“Whether you have a business already or not, we all bounce ideas off each other,” Fink said. “You might think your idea is stupid at the time, but we always help each other build from that. The chances are it’s probably a good idea, you just have to find the right people and create the right team.”

Fink described CEO as being “more about the start-up, where as other organizations already have local or county marketing agencies.”

Over winter break, Fink, junior Andrew Hoeft and other CEO members with their own businesses talked to the entrepreneur class at Whitewater High School.

Fink said they thought it would be beneficial for the high school students to listen to young people who have started their own businesses and succeeded. The CEO members spoke to the students about their own experiences of getting started and why they made the decision to do so.

Two of the businesses started in CEO are really starting to take off this semester.

Fink’s business, MacBros, fixes and sells Mac computers and parts for reasonable prices.

MacBros is in the process of developing an application for educational institutions.

“I can’t really disclose a lot about what this app will be, but it’s going to change a lot,” Fink said. “Like how you take tests or how you write in class and share information, it’s all going to be done on an iPad.”

Fink believes the “century-old way of teaching” from a book and lectures will soon disappear.

“iPads are interactive,” Fink said. “Our generation is always in front of our mobile phones, computer, iPads or any other tabloid. We’re always doing something.”

Hoeft, 19, has been a part of CEO for a couple of years. Hoeft founded PinPoint Software Inc., a company that created expiration date management software for grocery stores called Date Check Pro.

Hoeft’s idea led him to win CEO’s Business Modelathon last May, which awarded him with his own space at the Innovation Center beginning this semester.

Hoeft will work as an apprentice with two people working under him. Fink said the contract Hoeft signed with the university shows what CEO members can accomplish by pursuing an idea.

“We need more entrepreneurs,” Fink said. “Entrepreneurs think differently. They’re crazy. In order for us to get out of this crap economy, we need more innovation.”

CEO is currently undergoing its annual Business Modelathon. The nine-part plan helps students break apart their ideas and eventually write a formal business plan.

“Business Modelathon is an idea party,” senior CEO board member Abbie Murphy said.

Murphy said CEO has various professors come in to help students further their ideas. The winner of the modelathon wins $5,000 for their business, and a spot in the Innovation Center.

“Anybody can be an entrepreneur,” Fink said. “You don’t have to have a definite idea to be a part of CEO. Just by hearing everybody bounce ideas off one another, it can create a whole new idea. CEO is really all about the networking experiences.”