Entrepreneurship Activities

for Engineering Students and

Faculty
David Barbe
Professor, ECE
University of Maryland
New Directions for Engineers

 The old days – The choices for engineers were to

work for big companies or governmental agencies
 New option – starting their own companies or
working for startups
 Students are demanding entrepreneurship
education

 Engineering Schools can “educate” students about

technology startups
What about the down economy?

 The economy is cyclical

 Down times are a actually a good time to

start ventures
 prepare for upswings
The Radar Screen

 Dean, Provost, President support?

 If yes, very helpful
 If not sure, just do it “under the radar”
Capitalizing On Innovations

Research & Self-Use

Knowledge Resources

Entrepreneurial
Culture

Hands-On Seed-Stage
Assistance Monies
Classifications of Activities
 Education and culture building
 Encourage faculty and students to examine their
research for “commercially viable” concepts
 I can start a venture!
 Widely available resources
 Help “entrepreneurs” to help themselves
 Hands-on assistance and guidance; money
 Combine technical innovations with business
acumen and process
Education and Culture Building

 Students need to believe in the feasibility of

starting companies and commercializing
technologies:
 People available to help
 Diverse monetary resources
 Case studies
 Students need to understand accepted
“tactics” for creating a technical venture
 How do “I” proceed with my concept?
Education and Culture Building Activities

Education and culture building activities

designed to encourage students to take the
critical step – learn about venture creation:
 Boot Camps

 Technology Ventures Clubs

 Entrepreneurship Courses

 Business Plan Competitions

 Residency Programs

 Promotion of Success Stories

Technology Startup Boot Camp
 Kicks off the academic year
 Large audience of students (and faculty)
 Regional sponsors
 Basic startup processes
 Evaluating tech ideas
 IP basics and licensing
 Legal fundamentals
 Building a team
 Obtaining financing
 Entrepreneur experiences
 Presented by experienced VCs, service providers, and
tech executives
 Networking
Technology Ventures Club
 Dynamic forum for technical graduate students to
network and explore commercializing an idea and
forming a venture
 25 to 100 active members
 Monthly meetings include start-up workshops, speakers,
and social mixers
 Members have opportunity to network with local VCs,
service providers, business students and entrepreneurs

 Started by faculty/staff
 Student president and VP
 Migrate to student-run with faculty advisors
 NCIIA guide available
Fundamentals of Technology Startups
Course
 < 30 technical graduate students
 Boardroom setting best
 Study basic processes of tech company
formation and operation
 Form into teams
 Teams develop business plans during
semester
 Teams present plans to “judges”
 Course is best co-taught by technical and
business faculty/staff
 Adjuncts ok
Business Plan Competition
 Culmination of academic year
 Prize money and/or contributed services raised from
external sponsors
 Scale the competition to the supply of entrants
 Start advertising early in the Fall Semester
 First level of down-select based on executive summaries
submitted near the end of the Fall semester
 Use a Judging panel to select top ~ six for full plans and
presentations
 Give two or three awards
 Conduct Networking and mentoring sessions between
finalists and judges/sponsors during the Spring semester
Entrepreneurial Residency Programs

 Provide one location for students to

reside
 Adds significantly to relationship building
 Select Undergraduate Students having
strong Entrepreneurial Spirit
 GPA
 Essay
 Example: UMD’s Hinman CEOs Program
The Hinman CEOs
Program
 Program Goals

• Attract students with an entrepreneurial spirit

• Create a sense of community and cooperation
among like-minded students
• Impact the way they think about their
careers and destinies
• Help prepare them to start businesses
 Jointly Founded
Clark School of Engineering Smith School of Business

David Barbe – Faculty Director

Karen Thornton - Program Director
 Third cohort - 100 students
The CEOs
44% hard sciences, 39% business, 17% other
(30% are engineers)

Indian, African American, Asian, Hispanic – 54%

Caucasian - 46%

Female - 27%, male - 73%

Class GPA - 3.57

12% have 3.8 or above with 4 perfect 4.0 GPAs
CEOs Program Components

• Community
• Technology
• Team Building
• Seminars and Workshops Mentoring
• Product Development Projects
• Technology Opportunities
• Entrepreneurship Education
• Partnerships
 Community
• A Living-Learning
Program
• Facilitates sense of small
community within larger
university
– Living Spaces
– Working Spaces
– Meeting Spaces
 Technology
• Incubator-Like Setting
• State-of-the-Art Technology

- Wireless technology
- Videoconferencing
- IP Phones in the rooms
- Computer-based
conferencing capabilities
- Computer labs
- Business software
- Copiers, fax
Team building

Ropes Course
Facilitate Team Forming
 Seminars and Workshops

Weekly seminars
• Education
• Experiences
• Resources
 Entrepreneurship Education
Four-Course Entrepreneurship Citation Program
• Starting a New Venture

• Financing a New Venture

• Growing and Managing an Emerging Venture

• Business Plan Development

 Mentoring
Level One Mentoring -
Just-in-time

• Program Director
and MBA Grad Assistant
Level Two Mentoring -
Advanced

• Faculty and Staff

• Outside Experts
Product Development

 NCIIA and Campus Sponsored

 Funding for patent work and to

help build Prototypes

 Faculty Supervision including

internships
Technology Opportunities
 To Expose CEOs to
Technology
Commercialization
Opportunities

 Network CEOs with MBAs

and Technical Grad
Students to form Teams
Partners
• Technology firms
• Venture firms
• Legal firms
• Other service providers
• Individuals
• Retired executives
Promotion of Success Stories
 Evidence that it can be done is a powerful incentive
for others to try
 Word about successes will spread among students
 Legislators and Alums will like it
 Successes stories should be promulgated
to expand the reach
 Campus newspaper
 Local publications
Self-Use Resources

 Creat resources to support venture formation:

 Build a mentor network: execs, VCs, marketing
experts, legal, accounting…
 Technology Startup Portal with comprehensive
information in plenary stage
Mentor Network

 Business plan reviews, questions about funding,

advice about IP common inquiries to mentors
 Available to all students or students involved in the
other entrepreneurial activities
 University staff involved in technical
entrepreneurship provide “level one” mentoring
 Extensive database of entrepreneurs, consultants,
retired execs, VCs, and service providers offer “level
two” mentoring
Entrepreneurial Resources Web Portal

 Technical entrepreneurship web portal

under development:
 Forecasting template

 Business plan preparation guidance

 IP rules

 Information on funding sources

 Testimonials and case studies

Hands-On Assistance

 Build programs to provide hands-on guidance

and assistance to technical ventures started
by students on campus
 Many successful technical ventures follow a
“dual-path” approach to launch – assistance
needed!
Launching Technical Ventures

Technical development: Business Planning:

 Final product development  Recruitment

 Beta testing  Marketing materials

 Alpha testing  Customer segmentation

 Laboratory testing  Solicit funding

 Begin developing  Monetary needs

prototype(s)  Business planning
 Concept is feasible  Commercial viability

Many technical entrepreneurs lack experience in business planning.

Hands-On Programs

 VentureAccelerator: Hands-On Assistance

 Couple with local incubator(s)
VentureAccelerator

 Comprehensive consulting and “interim”

management services for approximately five
companies at one time
 Selection process
 Services coordinated by on-campus person
provided by a network of key mentors and
service providers
VentureAccelerator

 Services:
 Strategic planning
 Forecasting
 Executive recruitment (database)
 Fundraising (debt, equity, grants)
 License negotiations
 Legal/accounting issues
 Marketing analysis
 “Marshall” diverse business resources
Graduation from Accelerator

 Demonstrate likelihood of “self-sustainability:”

 Significant financing event (e.g. “A” round)
 Significant initial customer(s)
 Addition of key, full-time executive managers
 Or…recognize business not worth pursuing
Identifying Accelerator Companies

 Incubator
 Faculty outreach
 Residency program
 Tech Ventures Club
 Tech Ventures Class
 Accelerator can feed other programs too
Seed Monies

 The Current Climate

 Investors returning to fundamentals
 Fundamentals = great technology
 Universities good places to find technology
Seed Monies

 Actively build “seed investor” network

 Couple with nearest “angels” and VC firms
 Take max advantage of SBIRs and other
programs (e.g. NIST ATP)
 Encourage solicitation of strategic
investments by startups
 Other sources??
Program Information Sources

 NCIIA
 www.nciia.org/
 N2TEC
 www.n2tec.org/

 Small Business Administration

 www.sba.gov/gcbd/7j.html.
Meetings

 ASEE – Entrepreneruship Division - June

 NCIIA - March
Funding for Starting a Program

 NCIIA
 www.nciia.org/
 Kauffman Foundation
 www.emkf.org/
 Coleman Foundation
 www.colemanfoundation.org/
 Lemelson Foundation
 http://www.lemelson.org/index.html
Conclusion

 Your campus can become a nucleus of

technical venture formation in your region
 Engineering research and knowledge provide
sources
 Combining research with increasingly
entrepreneurial culture as well as new
resources, assistance programs, and sources
of seed monies will yield even more
successful startup ventures