Several weeks ago I sent an inquiry to the list serve regarding my new role in launching a technology entrepreneurship concentration at SFU in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Vancouver</st1:city></st1:place>. First I�d like to thank the many people who responded to my inquiry. The response was very helpful in informing my thoughts regarding program design, student profiles, linking to the external community, etc. As promised, a summary of the feedback is provided below.
University and External Support
strong surrounding industry
visionary Corporate Liaison and Tech Transfer and seed funding
student internships with tech transfer office and startups
Course Content
IP development and management
Value creation
Ent finance
�Initiating the Technology� actual course with syllabus provided by Ed Leach
Business Plans and Competitions: 1) new venture plans had to be drawn from existing patent portfolio of the University tech transfer office, and 2) students from micro-electronic firms were encouraged to join a biotech team, and vice versa.
The following is a summary of a program offered to the community in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city>:
Each cohort goes through a three module 11 month program that kicks off in January. Module I is an intensive 10 week course on building a business plan. At the end of the ten weeks, each team presents a formal presentation of their business plan and submits a written plan for review.
The second module II is a 10-15 week structured mentor process. Each team is assigned a mentor who works with them for this module Refining and honing their business plan. In addition, we meet as a group every other week (except July) with a panel on various topics (Networking, Industry and market assessment, technology assessment, financial assessment, etc.). at the end of Module II, each team has an opportunity to make a refined presentation.
Module III, is the formal competition, where each team competes for top honors and prize money to launch or in the case of an already established nascent venture, sustain, the business. The three competitions will have awarded over $250,000 in prize money and of course exposed the teams to some great networking and potential funders.
Another program had a course which introduced a series of assignments based on accounts of new technologies. The purpose of these assignments was to make students aware of the abundant presence of opportunities in the market and to make them think about how technologies can lead to multiple opportunities to different people (due to differences in prior knowledge, personality, cognitive style etc.)
Students
student population that included a significant number of
scientists and engineers
balance the teams with engineering and commerce students, and bring in real tech executives and venture capitalists to judge the plans
Separating out students curious about entrepreneurship versus those with sincere desires to start their own ventures could be fruitful
References/Resources
Several people suggested I review the work Tom Byers, Kathleen Eisenhardt and others have done with the STVP at Stanford which �exists to help people exactly like me�
- http://stvp.stanford.edu for an overview of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program
- http://ree.stanford.edu for the REE conferences designed for e-ship educators (The next one in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> is at Stanford in October)
- http://edcorner.stanford.edu for the Educators Corner's free teaching resources (videos, podcasts, course outlines, etc.)
FOURTH WEST COAST RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM ON TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP (September 2006)-a niche research conference hosted in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Seattle</st1:city></st1:place> specifically on technology entrepreneurship
- Also, suggestions to review the programs at:
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Carnegie</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Mellon</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>
- University of Twenty http://www.tnw.utwente.nl/at.
- Michael Fountain at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">University of South</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place> leads a Consortium of High Tech Entrepreneurship Centers. It is affiliated with the Kauffman Foundation.
- IIT is offering entrepreneurship to students in science and engineering field. jacobius@iit.edu" target="_blank">jacobius@iit.edu
- www.mba.wfu.edu Babcock Demon Incubator www.wfu.edu then follow links to the medical school and technology asset management, http://www.pten.org
- weekly newsletter on technology-new ventures-innovation-marketing at <u1:p></u1:p>http://marketingtechie.com/
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