A Growing Hub for Entrepreneurship
G. Steven Burrill at Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
The Wisconsin School of Business increasingly is recognized as a national leader in entrepreneurship. In addition to its MBA career specialization in Entrepreneurial Management, recently named the National Model MBA Entrepreneurship Program by the United States Association for Small Business Entrepreneurship, the school offers unmatched depth in innovative entrepreneurial initiatives, such as:
- A “boot camp” in entrepreneurship for graduate students in law, engineering and natural sciences, taught by Silicon Valley pioneers.
- The school’s own venture capital fund that makes equity investments of up to $100,000 in promising student start-ups.
- An annual technology entrepreneurship conference attended by leading entrepreneurship scholars from around the world.
A major reason for the growing awareness of the school’s strength in entrepreneurship is the many activities of the school’s Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship.
The Weinert Center is dedicated to teaching and research relating to entrepreneurship. It leads the career specialization in Entrepreneurial Management in the school’s full-time MBA program. The Wisconsin MBA in Entrepreneurial Management was ranked 13th in the nation in a recent survey published in Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.
Another key element in the school’s strength in entrepreneurship is INSITE ((Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship). Based in the Wisconsin School of Business, INSITE promotes entrepreneurship research and education across the UW-Madison campus.
Entrepreneurship Close-Ups
Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (WEB)
Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (WEB) is an innovative, hands-on week of learning for graduate students in natural sciences, law, and engineering, who are interested in launching business start-ups. Veterans of Silicon Valley’s blazing tech success have shared their business expertise. Business leaders who have participated since the program launched in 2007 include Wisconsin School of Business alumni John Morgridge, chair emeritus of Cisco Systems; and G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill and Co., a leading venture capital and private equity firm in the life sciences.
G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition
Students from across campus compete in teams each year for cash prizes, including a $10,000 top prize. Over the 10 years the competition has been held, dozens of teams have leveraged the knowledge, experience, and exposure gained from the competition to launch successful new business ventures.
Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship
This yearlong applied practicum for budding entrepreneurs in the Wisconsin MBA program involves a weekly seminar, and interaction with local and national experts. Students work with young, high-promise businesses and the program’s venture funds make equity investments of up to $100,000 in student start-ups. Many successful businesses got their start here.
Technology Entrepreneurship Conference
Each year, leading entrepreneurship scholars from around the world attend a conference on technology entrepreneurship and institutions hosted by INSITE.
Entrepreneurship and Undergraduates
- Since 2007, the Wisconsin School of Business has offered an option in Entrepreneurship within its undergraduate major in Management and Human Resources.
- For the past two years, an undergraduate of the Wisconsin School of Business has been named a finalist in BusinessWeek’s annual search to discover the 25 most promising young entrepreneurs in the nation. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/news/0269.asp The 2008, the finalist was Corey Capasso, a senior specializing in entrepreneurship and risk management. His company is devoted to commercial development of a plastic capable of emitting flavors. In 2007, Ashutosh Gupta, a finance and entrepreneur major, was named for his success in launching a financial consulting firm.
- Starting January 2009, a student-led business incubator will assist undergraduates interested in launching a business
Campuswide Initiatives
- UW-Madison is one of nine "Kauffman Campuses" in the U.S., and received $4 million from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to help train students in a variety of majors about the principles and practices of entrepreneurship and to spur greater research commercialization statewide. As part of that effort, Wiscontrepreneur fosters campus entrepreneurial thinking and promotes creation of new business entities and socially beneficial organizations.
- University Research Park houses more than 115 companies, including many start-up companies with a focus on biotechnology.
- WARF (the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation) helps move inventions from the university's laboratories into the marketplace. It manages more than 856 pending and 933 issued U.S. patents based on UW-Madison technologies,
- UW-Madison is one of only a handful of universities in the country to offer an entrepreneurial residential learning community. In fall 2008, 30 entrepreneurial-minded students moved into a designated residence hall to launch the effort.
- The Wisconsin School of Business is part of the Madison Entrepreneur Resource, Learning and Innovation Network (MERLIN), which brings together experienced business leaders to help entrepreneurs turn ideas into companies.
Other Headlines
Jonathan Eckhardt Named a Kauffman Fellow in Entrepreneurial Research
Wisconsin's Entrepreneurship Program Rated Among Nation’s Best
Does Venture Capital Spur Innovation?
BusinessWeek Explores Masako Ueda's Research
Wisconsin Undergrad Among "America's Best Young Entrepreneurs"