Shelby Leisinger
A University of Iowa program is serving as a steppingstone for a start-up company or a different direction for an established one.
Community entrepreneurs are welcome to participate in the Venture School program, led by UI professors, staff, and serial entrepreneurs.
The program is a statewide initiative with classes held in Iowa City and Des Moines, in addition to classes taking place online for other hopeful Iowa entrepreneurs.
“We help entrepreneurs validate their business ideas. We encourage them to get out of the office building and talk to consumers,” said Jennifer Banta, the Papajohn Entrepreneurial Center training and engagement liaison.
Venture School requirements may have students interview up to 100 consumers to assess whether their idea would really be marketable, said Kady Light, an event coordinator for the Entrepreneurial Center.
Applications for the program are due Sept. 16 , and the program will start on Oct. 7. The cost is $500 for each team, which must consist of at least two people.
However, the program is primarily for community members because it can heavily interfere with students’ class schedules.
“Whenever we’ve had students, it’s just an overwhelming amount of work for them on top of their current class load,” Banta said.
UI students may feel more at ease in the student-accelerator program, which occurs in the summer over a course of nine weeks.
The Venture School lasts eight weeks and is designed to “develop an entrepreneurial mindset, being able to see opportunities, and taking advantage of resources that are available,” said UI Entrepreneurial Center Professor Kimm Harris.
Harris has been with the program for three years and also helps with the student-accelerator program and the faculty innovators’ program, designed to help professors get their research off the ground.
Once faculty have completed the faculty innovators’ program, which lasts four weeks, they are encouraged to continue their progress and enroll in the Venture School program.
“I would really encourage people who have an idea or existing business where they would like to explore expansion,” Harris said. “It’s a very effective way to determine your opportunity in a very short amount of time and strategize about how you want to proceed.”
Though the Venture program begins on Oct. 7 and finishes up in December, the faculty innovators’ workshop will run several times throughout the year, according to its website.
“The faculty innovators is set up so that the schedule is more conducive to a faculty member,” Harris said. “So really, it’s taking the Venture School curriculum and model and being able to adjust it to the different programs.”
The faculty innovators’ workshop is also accepting applications for the fall as part of the same curriculum produced by I-Corps and the National Science Foundation that helps to develop faculty innovations for research grants and funding.
With the Venture School, prizes are also available for innovations and entrepreneurial ideas that are well-developed. These prizes can be financial investments or research grants.
Prizes are available to people after an entrepreneurial panel of judges, investors, etc., determine which have marketability, Harris said, and the Entrepreneurial Center is available to help students and faculty find other resources beyond those prizes.
“I went through the Venture School myself with this start-up idea. Going through it myself, I was so impressed with the process that was being used to quickly identify opportunities,” Harris said. “We continue to consult with them [after the program ends]. They can call on instructors, mentors — that’s another advantage with Venture School is that you can continue to get ongoing support.”