Hi Todd,
Like Colin, I am sceptic about almost unconditionally granting ANY funds. Not all students are ready to jump into entrepreneurship with both feet during the course. Most of my students intentions for taking my course are simply to learn more about it so they can make the jump when they feel they're ready.
In my course, I make the learning experiential from the first day. However, I only gradually make the context more 'real' over the course of the semester.
For reference, here's the course outline for the semester staring next week:
http://www.asb.unsw.edu.au/schools/Courseoutlines/MGMT2010_Innovation_and_Entrepreneurship_Principles_and_Practices_S22014.pdf
Here is last week's conference paper about the flipped classroom pedagogy behind the course (best paper at SEAANZ):
http://seaanz.org/sites/seaanz/documents/2014SEAANZConference/SEAANZ_2014-Bliemel.pdf
And here's a broader discussion paper about experiential learning in entrepreneurship that hints at the gradual increase from vicarious experience to virtual experience to real experience:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259198148_Getting_Entrepreneurship_Education_Out_of_the_Classroom_and_into_Students_Heads?ev=prf_pub
In terms of legal issues, I was advised that the criteria for the ventures are:
1. Its legal ( eg., not breach of any consumer or other laws)
2. It doesn't purport to be a university sponsored business
§ No use of university email for business. Vice-versa, no spamming university emails from the business email address
3. It will not damage the reputation of the university
Best,
Martin
Dr Martin Bliemel | Lecturer | School of Management
Australian School of Business | UNSW Australia
Level 5, East Wing | ASB Building | UNSW Sydney 2052
Telephone: +61 (2) 9385 5671 | Web: www.asb.unsw.edu.au
mbliemel@unsw.edu.au @mbliemel
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I have been doing this very thing since early 2010. My students have designed and operated more than 90 online stores. They are learning entrepreneurship by doing it. While I believe that many will learn more from failure, recent successes include www.equip4kids.com and www.midnightyoga.ca each of which netted more than $1000 in their first month of operations. Famously, www.GoVoluntouring.com, the first such business built in my class was later sold for what I estimate to be about $6M!
Over these 12 terms I have tried many different providers (Blogger, Wix, Wetpaint, etc.). I even had one custom made for a while. Ultimately, I have concluded that Shopify offers the best combination of cost ($79 per store per month) and support. A former student of mine has also built a free app that pulls data from their API so that the professor and students can follow the exciting progress made by all your students' stores on one page. This leaderboard is described here www.onlineventurechallenge.com.
I have happily explained this to several colleagues who have now adopted the online venture challenge at their schools (Ole Miss, U.Regina, U.Minnesota Duluth, etc.) I am hopeful that one day soon we will have critical mass that will support a competition between schools. Even with non-traditional students, I find that real competition inspires great work.
By the way, Todd, the final assignment in my class is to describe how you will build upon the story of your real, live pilot program. I literally ask the students to ask for a $10,000 investment (just like you do). If they started with about $100, and made that into thousands through an MVP...think of what could be done now that we know what customers are willing to pay for...
Geoff Archer, PhD, Associate Professor & Director
Eric C. Douglass Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies | Royal Roads University
T 250.391.2600 ext. 4207 | F 250.391.2610
2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, BC Canada V9B 5Y2 | royalroads.ca
Twitter: @GeoffArcherPhD
Check out these alumni owned businesses
http://ecdc.royalroads.ca/alumni-owned-businesses
LIFE.CHANGING
How about getting them to start something without funding, and thus making it more realistic?
Getting students to start an online company enables the upfront need for funding to greatly reduced
Sent from my Samsung GALAXY S4 on the Telstra 4G network
-------- Original message --------
Date:19/07/2014 6:23 AM (GMT+10:00)
Subject: [ENTREP] Asssitance with New Experiential Program
I am creating a new course/program where students actually go through the entire entrepreneurial process during an academic year. They will be setting up their own companies, incorporating themselves, presenting their ideas to an advisory board for funding, getting a loan (up to $10,000 from the university), selling their product/service, and giving their profits at the end of the year to charity. They will have an opportunity to continue with their ventures at the end of the program. I have bench-marked our program off of the University of Minnesota (John Stavig). I know Babson does this at the freshman level, but we are doing this at the Junior and Senior level. I was wondering if anyone else out there has done something similar to this. I would like to get your feedback on legal issues, funding, and how you structured your program in regards to inside versus outside the university.
Thank you in advance for any assistance,
Todd A. Finkle, Ph.D.
Pigott Professor of Entrepreneurship
Gonzaga University
School of Business Administration
502 East Boone Avenue, AD Box 9
Spokane, Washington 99258
509-313-7048
finklet2000@yahoo.com
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If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
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