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Universities Love Startups

Written by: Martin Zwilling

Article Overview: I'm continually impressed with the initiatives and resources I see from local universities to help startups. These definitely are not limited to students, since every university wants and needs the real world exposure and experience of entrepreneurs who already have credibility in the marketplace.

Universities Love Startups

I'm continually impressed with the initiatives and resources I see from local universities to help startups. These definitely are not limited to students, since every university wants and needs the real world exposure and experience of entrepreneurs who already have credibility in the marketplace.

Here is a short list of the areas where you should be able to find help:

1. Finding an idea. Universities are brimming with new ideas from their students, their professors, and their own research, but need entrepreneurs from the real world to decide which ones are viable in the marketplace. Start by contacting a professor in your area of interest or expertise.

2. Research and development. Take advantage of the labs, equipment, and skilled students available and looking for real world problems to research. They are likely to be able to get grants to fund development for you in strategic focus areas, like alternative energy sources, that would otherwise cost you many thousands of dollars.

3. Business plan creation. Every university has educational courses and can provide assistance on creating your initial plan. Look for evening courses, or special programs for entrepreneurs, like the Technopolis program mentioned below, available to non-students.

4. Funding. Don’t look here for venture capital levels of funding, but certainly early-stage government grants and entrepreneurship incentives are available from endowments and state funds. Collaborative efforts with companies, like Siemens Venture Capital, are available for certain technology and focus areas.

5. Legal advice. Most universities have some sort of an entrepreneurship legal clinic, to address concerns like protection of intellectual property. These may be available online, and are usually staffed by outside lawyers working on a ‘pro bono’ basis with the school. Start by contacting the school entrepreneurship support organization.

6. Finding a team. If you need part-time engineers to build a prototype, you can always find high-caliber grad students with the latest theory ready to work. If you need experienced executives, the best professors and entrepreneurship staff will have the contacts you need into the local talent pool.

7. Mentoring. Similar to finding experienced executives, you can use university contacts who do consulting in the real world. Most schools also foster relationships with local executives “Entrepreneurs in Residence” whom they use to lecture in MBA courses, judge student business plans, and assign as mentors for spinoffs (I am one of these).

For example, I live in the Phoenix area, near Arizona State University. They have several "outreach" programs to help startups, including their Technopolis program to train you for a nominal fee on how to write business plans, provide executive mentors for six months, and provide office space at Skysong during your gestation period.

Other engineering departments at ASU often provide grad students to build prototypes, and even venture funding for certain projects. In the last year alone, they worked in concert with the Science Foundation of Arizona to distribute $33.6 million dollars in Innovation Investment Grants throughout Arizona in 3 strategic focus areas: Information and Communications Technology, Sustainable Systems, and Biomedical Research.

I have several contacts I use at ASU, and I've enjoyed doing some guest lecturing in their MBA program on the practical issues that every startup should be aware of. Let me know if you need a connection in this area, and don't forget to explore comparable resources in your own geography.

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Article Tags: alternative energy sources, bono basis, business plan creation, collaborative efforts, credibility, educational courses, endowments, focus areas, government grants, initial plan, legal advice, professors, research and development, siemens venture capital, skilled students, startups, support organization, technopolis, thousands of dollars, world exposure



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