College Entrepreneurs Part 1: Looking for A's in making money

Who might be the Mark Zuckerberg of tomorrow? Money College blogger LeeAnn Maton looks at five entrepreneurs in this two-part series on college students and their start-ups.

For college-aged entrepreneurs -- those brave students who balance boardrooms with backpacks and venture-planning with exam cramming -- the "real world" starts long before graduation day.

"Ten years ago, you didn't hear people talk about having a career as an entrepreneur," said Janet Srimaitis, managing director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College, a Massachusetts business school that's top-ranked for entrepreneurship. The first academic entrepreneurship programs began to appear in the '70s, she said, but "now it's all over the news, and particularly with the recent economic downturn, people are looking to entrepreneurs to help with the recovery."

In that spirit, Money College presents its "fearless five," a group of college start-ups (and the brains behind them) in areas ranging from fashion to environmental science to better dorm room living who are making the business world take notice. Diploma not required.