Open: NCIIA 14th Annual Conference

This session reports on an innovative entrepreneurship curriculum designed to facilitate the actual implementation of student business ventures as part of a core entrepreneurial curriculum across disciplines. The capstone experience in many university entrepreneurial programs revolves around the development and review of business plans in courses or competitions. This curriculum was created to emphasize implementation over planning. The courses are housed under the Center for Innovation at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Beginning with a freshmen-level creative problem-solving course, students identify business ideas and build on them throughout the course sequence. Winners of a college business plan competition receive the right to launch their start-ups as part of the curriculum's capstone offering, a two-semester sequence entitled New Venture Creation I and II. Upon completion of this curriculum, all students can earn either a certificate or minor in entrepreneurship.

Michigan Technological University, in collaboration with MTEC SmartZone, has developed a program for targeted development of student-led startup companies based on outcomes of engineering capstone design projects. Under the SmartTrac program, student teams that include a cross-section of business, engineering, and communications skills form companies who conduct the necessary business and technical development activities to commercialize capstone project outcomes. In addition to basic underwriting funding for student stipends, the partners work together to find grant and investment capital from various sources. The SmartTrac model will be presented as well as experiences to-date in commercializing a hospital mattress that substantially improves the effectiveness of CPR. The technology was developed in a capstone project, has been patented by the university, and is licensed to a student-led company, CPRM Inc., which to-date has attracted nearly $200k in funding from various sources.

Continuous process improvement (CPI) has improved product and business performance in many industries and business sectors. However, it has not been widely adopted in the new technology venture (NTV) sector. The resistance to CPI adoption has been attributed to the perception of insufficient payoff and protracted timelines. In addition, there has been a tendency toward heroic management of chaotic ad hoc processes in a rapid response environment with an overarching first-to-market imperative. Western Michigan University is developing a study to determine if CPI would improve product and business performance in this sector. This paper describes how and why new technology ventures may benefit from CPI initiatives that arose from the aerospace industry. If this study confirms the applicability and benefit in the NTV sector, findings could equip practitioners with a proven framework, CMMI®, to aid in systematically increasing the successful launch rates of new technology ventures.

The last mile in the development of a new venture, moving from feasible concept to business, can result in the venture never starting. Entrepreneurs, especially those in rural communities, often lack access to the resources and expertise needed to harden the concept and convert it to an operating business. In 2009, the N2TEC Institute launched a unique summer accelerator program that included an AI2V intensive workshop and an eight-week period that addressed the critical knowledge, expertise, and resource issues of the participants by surrounding them with a team of mentors and experts. The result was the launch of five new businesses in South Dakota and one in Oregon. Participants were selected from a national call for technology entrepreneurs willing to move to Sioux Falls for the summer, receive a stipend of $15,000, and work aggressively toward the launch of their business.