The Center for Entrepreneurship at University of Michigan's School of Engineering came into existence just under a year ago. Thomas Zurbuchen, the center's founding director, describes it as a space for people to achieve their dreams.
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Thomas cites two programs that have been critical in fostering connections between the academic and entrepreneurial communities in the first year:
- The entrepreneurial student group, MPowered Entrepreneurship. It is essentially a self-sustaining network of students that provides energy and direction to the center's activities.
- The entrepreneurship seminar that has connected students to entrepreneurs at both the national and the local level.
As we have noted elsewhere, another component critical to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation is funding. Thomas notes three levels of funding and how they are achieved in the center:
- Initial exploration of the concept. Typically on the order of $10,000. The center has facilities for providing this funding, often in combination with the Zell-Lurie Institute.
- Further development of the concept toward achieving first customers. Typically on the order of $30,000 to $40,000. This past summer the center ran a program with the Detroit Chamber of Commerce where twenty students were paid to work in their own companies. We recently interviewed one of these students, Yue Fan.
- Investment funding in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is the point where the external community can play a strong role.
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