Resource:How to create a student prototyping fund

Introduction

A student prototyping fund is used to determine the physical feasibility of your business concept or idea. Testing includes money (in most situations) and the initial funds can often be one of the biggest obstacles to tackle. Starting a prototyping fund can help you get the money you need to test your business concept and help others get the support they need as well. If you’re looking to create a network of entrepreneurs on your campus and actively participate in the success of others, then creating a student prototyping fund is the way to go!  

Where to Start

When attempting to start a successful student prototyping fund, a good first step is to form a committee. Dedicated faculty and student members are essential to forming a strong committee which will help you reach your goals. Faculty members can be an invaluable resource when forming a prototyping fund. Faculty can help your committee, and therefore your fund, grow if they truly believe in your cause. For example, a faculty member who reaches 100 students daily could offer extra credit points if students attend your meeting. This outreach could vastly grow the awareness and attendance of your meetings and cause. The committee which you form is only as good as the members who make it up and the faculty sponsors who support it. It is through this committee that many essential needs will be fulfilled on the path to forming the prototyping fund. By forming a committee within the university network, many connections will be made and start-up funding may be provided by the university.

Analyzing Available Opportunities

Much like any research project, it is of particular importance to do a review of the existing projects that have a similar function in whatever one sets out to do. If some of these projects being introduced already exist, outline whether or not the goals have been achieved or what areas can be tackled or improved. In many educational institutions, there exist a number of organizations that deal with some form of innovation and entrepreneurship. It is important to identify some of these groups and try to partner with those mission statements which are in agreement with the prototype fund being created. Also, a good campus resource will be the faculty. Most of the federal grants and money allocated to large campuses are given to the faculty advisors who distribute it to various organizations. Maintaining good relations with these advisors not only secures funding for various projects but also enables the faculty advisor to keep track of the accomplishments of the organization and highlight these achievements to the right people. 

Decide your Mission and Values

One of the most important parts about raising funds for your project is determining what your mission is and what values are important to achieving your goals. The mission (used described as a mission statement) is a short one or two sentence statement that encompasses what you aim to do and how you plan to do it. When determining your mission statement for the project, you must have a clear goal of what you are trying to accomplish. The best way to do this would be by determining the value proposition of your project and trying to condense the through process into two sentences. Some of the best companies in the world run their multi-billion dollar operations around a one sentence mission. After your mission is complete you will want to lay out your operating values. The values you determine will act as a code of rules for how the company will be run. The most impactful values for a company may range from a single word to a multi-sentenced idea. Once your values are set, you want to form your actions around them. That being said, values ARE NOT always concrete and will change based on the circumstances. Stay true to your values and work hard to achieve your mission and that will have a direct impact on your success.

Obtaining the Proper Funding

When in the search for funds, a great place to start would be on campus. Any type of center for entrepreneurship will have an open ear to new business ventures. They will also, most likely, have donors of their own so do not hesitate to ask for their resources. Branching out to local investors is also a great way to go as long as you are sure that you present an idea with a very strong foundation. Having a good foundation is the most important part of asking for funding.  Grants are also a very good way to go. Grants can be found locally after doing research. It is essential to make sure that the mission of the funding party matches that of the asking party. If it were to occur that the two missions did not match, it could result in conflict later down the line. This makes choosing the funders carefully, a very critical aspect.

Implement Your Student Prototyping Fund

Once all the initial startup work is complete, and adequate funding has been found, it is time to implement your Student Prototyping Fund.  Student groups will come to your organization in search of funding, and a great way to determine what groups would be good to fund is to set up an application process.  The results of this process should highlight potentially valuable groups, and following is a list of methods that can be useful in creating an application process.

• Require applicants to have a documented mission statement.  It is best if their mission as an organization aligns with that of your organization.
• Require applicants to have a faculty or community sponsor that will support them and give them advice throughout the startup of their organization.

Once applicants have been chosen as beneficiaries to receive funding, it is key to support them in their ventures. The Prototyping Fund should provide educational opportunities for its recipients in order to assist them in their initial work, such as pop-up classes, rapid prototyping, entrepreneurship design thinking, and the business canvas model.  Another great way to assist recipients is to host meetings for organizations to attend in order to discuss problems, roadblocks, successes, etc.