Why I write about International Entrepreneurs...

International entrepreneurship is my passion.

Entrepreneurship (wherever it occurs) is a powerful idea that anyone with skills and a lot of hard work can create their own livelihood and financially support themselves. To me, entrepreneurs represent empowerment, initiative, innovation, and life-long learning. As a working woman, entrepreneurship means that when my gender has kept me from rising in an organization, I can build my own company and write my own rules.

I started studying international entrepreneurs two years ago at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Manuel Serapio teaches the course on International Entrepreneurship and is one of the top academics in this field. We studied born-global companies, companies that profitably serve the world's developing countries, and international social entrepreneurship. For those in the U.S. who may not know, American exports have outpaced economic growth by about 5 fold recently. Companies are internationalizing at much earlier stages in their development. And entrepreneurs are leveraging competitive advantages from their overseas partners instead of relying solely on internally-derived advantages.

I'm starting this blog in hopes of sharing some of things I'm learning from my consulting and classes. My hope is to create new relationships with contacts in the U.S. and other countries that we may be able to refer each other business opportunities. I'm also hoping to connect with those people who want to tackle the challenges of doing business internationally so that we can exchange ideas.

A little more about me... my name is Becky Park DeStigter and live in Colorado, U.S.A. I have a consulting practice for helping entrepreneurs be more globally competitive. I also work part-time for the Institute for International Business at the University of Colorado Denver serving as business outreach to Colorado companies. I am pursuing two Masters degrees - an MBA and an MS in International Business. I'm married, and have two school-aged children and a golden retriever. I was an exchange student to the Netherlands and still speak Dutch. In addition, I also speak Spanish & German, although they're like a muscle needing exercise. I've learned a little Italian, Tagalog and Chinese, too. For fun, my family likes to alpine ski, cross country ski, hike, travel, and watch sports. I volunteer as a Girl Scout leader and AFS exchange student liaison. My hometown is Appleton, Wisconsin, which for anyone from outside the U.S. is between Chicago and Canada.