Staff
Steve VanderVeen believes his calling is to discover and develop entrepreneurial leaders.
His calling wasn't initially evident. A pre-seminary student, he earned a BA in English (Calvin College). While pursuing an MBA (Western Michigan University), he drove a moving van. Then he worked as a stockbroker. In 1989 he returned to Calvin College to teach business. While at Calvin, he took a two-year leave of absence to pursue a Ph.D in marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He finished and defended his dissertation on heroes in 1995. Back at Calvin, he taught marketing, leadership, and entrepreneurship courses. He also wrote articles and made presentations on faith and business.
He accepted a teaching position at Hope College in 2004. From 2007 to 2016, he directed Hope’s Center for Faithful Leadership, including its CFL Consulting, Hope Entrepreneurship Initiative, and Leadership Minor programs; from 2017 to 2021 he served as advisor to Hope’s Baker Scholars. Along the way he served for one year as department chair at Trinity Christian College.
In 2016 he launched Start-Up AcademE, Inc. to engage what he consider under-served students -- those attending the Boys and Girls Club, Escape Ministries, and Trio/Upward Bound. He also worked with adults with special needs at Preferred Employment and Living Supports.
From July 2021 to December 2024 he volunteered to write a Sunday column in the Holland Sentinel on local, historical entrepreneurs.
He retired from Hope College in June 2022. But, then, in August, accepted a full-time position at Cornerstone University as Professor of Management and Faculty Lead of the Center for Experiential Learning. He left Cornerstone in June 2025 and accepted a half-time role at Calvin University to continue his work of discovering and developing entrepreneurial leaders. He is also piloting a class on entrepreneurship at Escape Ministries and hopes to do the same at 70x7.
In his spare time he continues to write -- currently a memoir on a local business leader -- and spends one day a week with adults with special needs.
Stone Soup
A metaphor for Start-Up AcademE, Inc is an English folk story called “Stone Soup.”
Some travelers came to a village situated near a woods and a small stream. They had with them only their belongings and a large cooking pot filled with small pails. The people in the village were curious.
From a distance the villagers watched as the travelers dug a fire pit near the stream and scavenged the woods for large branches to build a contraption from which to hang their pot. Next, they saw the travelers go to the stream, each carrying two pails. They filled them and emptied them into the large pot. Then they searched the river bed for a large stone. Curiously, they carried the large stone to the pot and carefully lowered it into the water. Then they gathered wood and built a crackling fire in the pit.
Eventually, one of the villagers wandered up to the travelers and asked what the they were doing. Surprisingly, the travelers said they were making “stone soup.” They said it would be delicious and nourishing, but only if the villagers contributed some of what they had. Skeptical but hopeful, the questioning villager contributed a few carrots and beans, and stood by to see what would happen.
Soon another villager stopped to inquire about the pot and again the travelers suggested their stone soup wouldn’t reach its potential unless more villagers contributed some of what they had. The second villager then put a litle meat and a few potatoes into the pot, and stood by to see what would happen. The bystanders noticed the steam from the pot began to smell delicious.
As time went by, more and more villagers saw the gathering crowd and smelled the simmering soup, and each added his or her own unique ingredients.
And the soup was delicious and nourishing.
Inspired, whenever the villagers travel, they carry with them a large cooking pot filled with small pails.
(Adapted from https://medium.com/@salescoachmike/stone-soup-a-client-development-metaphor-8f49992c8b06; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup)
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To support Start-Up AcademE, Inc, click here or contact Steve VanderVeen (skvveen@gmail.com). Thank you!
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