December 19th, 2008
A Growing Hub for Entrepreneurship
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.Among its initiatives, INSITE coordinates or supports a business plan competition, an important research conference, a freshman entrepreneurship learning community, and a web-based census of UW-Madison based business startups.INSITE also has created a useful guide to entrepreneurship resources on 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. The 2008 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