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School:Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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~~===~~ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Innovation Ecosystem<br/u>~~'''~~ ~~Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship~~ '''Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship'' ~~===~~'

==== '''''The motto of entrepreneurship at RPI:  A way to think. A way to learn. A way to succeed. '''''====

"Entrepreneurial thinking lies at the heart of Rensselaer’s philosophy. Like our faculty, Rensselaer students are encouraged to pursue creativity and discovery — and the results are often spectacular. Our undergraduates embrace change in ways that have transformed how the world works, plays, and lives.

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Our entrepreneurship program is built on the premise that ''not everyone wants to, or needs to, become an entrepreneur, but in today’s world everyone should know how to think like one."''

This statement shows RPI's commitment to entrepreneurial thinking, not so much the outcome of entreprenurship. The RPI Exemplar's program is a great example of the culture of entrepreneurship that RPI thrives on, as the Exemplar's program is designed for students who have a high level of interest in complementing their education by aquiring an entrepreneurail perspective.

~~'''~~''''''Formal programs:'''<br/>M.S. Technological Communication & Entrepreneurship

'''Extracurricular activities: ''' Exemplar's Program RPI Foundry Business Model Competition Change the World Challenge Elevator Pitch Competition <br/~~><br/~~>Education geared toward entrepreneurial thinking encourages students at RPI to think in different ways, to come up with new ideas to solve problems and to enter on-campus competitions such as the Change the World Challenge, the Class of ’51 Entrepreneurial Fund, the Elevator Pitch Competition, and the RPI Business Plan Competition.  These programs often provide the spark which gives students the entrepreneurial bug and encourages them to continue pursuing their ideas.~~~~

The Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship (SCTE), centered in Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology, helps to foster new generations of budding and successful entrepreneurs through outreach programs, education, and support systems.  In recognition of the fact that most business students aren’t inventors, the Lally School intersects with other schools on campus to encourage the formation of new student teams and the fusing of their ideas.

Small Buhrmaster grants in the amounts of $1,000 to $2,000 are available, as determined by the Director of the Severino Center, for student ventures to test the market feasibility of their business concepts and to establish and define their target customers.  Mr. Buhrmaster, ’69 is a friend of the Lally school and a member of its advisory council.

The Severino Center also provides Mentoring and Resources via the Student Sandbox, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, the Rensselaer Student Entrepreneurship Club, and assistance in finding teammates.  Experienced entrepreneur volunteers are assigned to coach teams that receive a Buhrmaster grant to help guide them in their market and business development activities.

~~'''~~ '''Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship''' ~~'''~~''Incredible professors like Burt Swersey, Dr. Eric Ledet, and many others''

''"For the last decade, the Rensselaer Plan has provided a blueprint for transformation and impact. It has guided development of an exceptional campus environment for advancing research with the potential to address science and society’s most challenging problems. Based on this strong foundation, Rensselaer research is creating a better future through the innovation and engineering of a better world. With our accelerated trajectory, the best is yet to come."''

Research is huge on RPI's campus and encouraging innovation is both in line with The Rensselaer Plan and Rensselaer's motto of "why not change the world?"

~~'''~~ '''Actively supporting the university technology transfer function''' ~~'''~~''RPI Office of Technology Commercialization: ''[http://www.rpitechnology.com/http://www.rpitechnology.com/]<br/span><br/~~span~~>~~'''~~ '''Facilitating University-Industry Collaboration''' ~~'''~~''RPI Tech Park<br/span> <br/~~span~~>~~''''~~EVE (Emerging Ventures Ecosystem)''

The work of turning ideas into real companies happens in RPI’s incubator, the Emerging Ventures Ecosystem (EVE).  EVE is a distributed incubation program which accelerates the growth of new businesses and boosts the transfer of scientific and technological breakthroughs from the laboratory and classroom to the marketplace, for social and economic impact.

Launched in February 2011, the Emerging Ventures Ecosystem (EVE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute serves to link “Rensselaer institutional resources and alumni/ae expertise symbiotically with community strengths, in a multi-faceted partnership for mutual benefit.”  The goal of EVE is to nurture new businesses and to build upon the decades of successful efforts of RPI’s previous incubator by helping young businesses grow and succeed.

Rensselaer’s previous incubator program was opened in 1980 as the nation’s first such program wholly sponsored and operated by a university. In its later stages, the incubator was primarily used for its “brick and mortar” assets, as place for entrepreneurially minded students to rent at a low cost, with convenient access to a photocopier.  The model of RPI’s old incubator was traditional: it was rented by students who were seeking to start a venture, which either lived or died, and then moved on.  The RPI Incubator building was closed in late 2009 simply because it did not make any money for the institution.

The new EVE program utilizes an innovative distributed incubation model, maintaining a central office in Troy, NY and working with each company to find an ideal matchup of space-to-enterprise in Troy and the surrounding area.  EVE is overseen by James Spencer, who has 20 years of experience in leading organizational creation and growth as an entrepreneurial business executive.

Once a new company completes the application process for the EVE program — through which Rensselaer will determine, in part, whether the entrepreneur is willing to put in the effort to make the company successful — the program will assign a status to the company: pre-seed, emerging, or early stage. Assigning these descriptions will help EVE mentors and administrators determine the specific services needed by each business.

Under EVE, businesses that are accepted into the program will receive a series of specific services that will help accelerate their growth.  A board of advisers will be established from community resources or alumni/ae for each new company.  If a company already has a board of advisers or directors, EVE will assign an additional person to the board to act as a liaison to mobilize resources within the Institute.

Upon formation of a board of advisors, three or four key objectives are developed by each company with the help of their advisory board.  Milestones for these objectives are then established for each quarter, in an effort to create a concrete plan for success and to generate measurable objectives; new goals are developed for succeeding semesters.  Companies must continue to show steady progress in order to remain in the program.

As a member of EVE, a company will have access to the Entrepreneur(s)-in-Residence at the Lally School as well as other resources including labs, patenting and licensing services, faculty, and students for work-study assignments, internships (REIP), and student projects.  Additional resources for EVE members include alumni/ae and community volunteers such as attorneys and accountants who are available to answer questions and provide advice and one time assistance for basic questions.  If an EVE company requires further professional assistance, they are encouraged to select a professional service company from a list provided through the EVE program. Such services may be offered at a discount to seed and early stage companies.

EVE hosts monthly peer review meetings, known as CEO Roundtable Discussions, among the CEOs of the incubated companies as a framework for peer-to-peer coaching among the mix of pre-seed, early state, and emerging companies supported by the EVE incubator program.  At these meetings, participants will sign disclosure agreements allowing a platform for confidential open discussions about topics and issues of importance to them.  The companies will also be invited to a monthly meeting featuring a speaker or a lecturer based upon a topic selected by the EVE companies’ CEOs and will also attend quarterly meet-ups for all employees of incubated companies, allowing the employees to build relationships and exchange ideas.

EVE promotes and introduces its companies to investors, assists them in identifying and seeking grant opportunities such as NYSERDA and SBIR, and helps them prepare for business plan competitions; the companies are given assistance in preparing applications, presentations, and pitches.  Additionally, members are provided access to professional grant writers to assist them as needed.

The EVE companies are invited to expand their professional networks through networking opportunities within the local business and academic community in order increase exposure to decision makers, funding sources from grants, and potential angel investors.  EVE is physically located off-campus in an effort to incubate companies directly in the community of Troy, NY and to strategically re-invent the typical “brick and mortar” business incubation model followed by RPI’s old incubator.  EVE is not a center where entrepreneurial students can simply rent space and use a photocopier the way a “brick and mortar” incubator is often used, but it is a 4,000 square foot center which strictly focuses on moving students through a business development continuum and on preparing them to fill vacant business facilities in the Troy community, leased at very low prices by realtors.  EVE does not want to focus on space like the traditional brick and mortar incubation model because if a company takes up too much space, they can’t let others in; student startups enrolled in EVE are treated like real businesses.

EVE was launched in February of 2011 with eight companies and now supports over thirty.  The continuum of business development begins with the formation of customized ninety-day plans which include 3-5 specific short term goals, preparing these young ventures to fill business space in the community.  Each venture enrolled in EVE has access to a huge network of professional individuals which include over 90,000 alumni that can potentially serve as mentors (25-30 of which are very active), the wind tunnel and prototyping capabilities at RPI, NYSERDA money, professional services (the first hour or two of which are provided for free), and accounting firms to help set up Quickbooks.  Although many professional services are not provided for EVE companies, aggressive rates are negotiated with local providers and funding often comes from venture pitches.

The key to RPI’s Emerging Ventures Ecosystem is that companies never graduate from the incubator because business development and iteration is never finalized.  Companies supported by EVE are always welcome to come back and ask for assistance in making new connections with the large international network of individuals.  RPI’s large alumni network serves as a virtual incubator in the sense that the network is leveraged to help grow companies as they experience the transition from technology ideas and intellectual property to commercialization through their education.

~~'''~~ '''Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts''' ~~'''~~''Startup Tech Valley'' <br/span>''

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