As the University of Iowa’s Venture School gears up to head into its 11th year, the program is expanding its services across the state of Iowa.

Since beginning in 2014, the program has collaborated with several local community colleges and universities, such as Des Moines Area Community College, North Iowa Area Community College, Eastern Iowa Community College, and others.

Currently, the seven-week program is offered in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Dubuque, Mason City, the Quad Cities, and Sioux City.

The program offers a curriculum to help individuals validate business ideas and improve pitching skills, serving various communities with diverse ideas.

Attendees can enhance their entrepreneurial skills, collaborate with others to gain hands-on experiences, and ultimately learn what it takes to create a business.

Shannon Henderson, economic development manager at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at the UI, said the program emphasizes customer discovery while pivoting based on feedback and pitching potential business ideas.

“We’re very interested in anybody across campus that has any thought they would want to be a co-founder and are interested in pitching, how business works, or marketing — engineers, medical students, theater students, you name it,” Henderson said.

Henderson said the program has continued to assist participants create successful businesses, even if their initial ideas fail.

“Some people go through Venture School multiple times, each with a different idea,” Henderson said. “They have a lot of ideas, and so they just keep running them through because it allows the individual to take time and solely focus on the idea.”

In addition, Henderson said the program helps existing business owners who are looking to commercialize their research.

“We’re always looking to expand, and we’re always looking for partners, partnerships, and other communities and towns to connect us with people that either are entrepreneurs or want to get into entrepreneurship,” Henderson said.

Henderson said there are several other programs offered at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center for entrepreneurs as well, such as the Startup Incubator.

Associate Director of the Small Business Center at Eastern Iowa Community College Joel Youngs said Venture School focuses on strengthening the regional economy and helping businesses adapt to economic changes while growing.

“We recognize that the business community is vital to strengthen the economic activity in our region with a strong, diverse economic ecosystem,” Youngs said.

Over time, Youngs said Venture School has evolved and adapted to meet the needs of various types of businesses along with the educational needs of business owners across different sectors. Several examples include business owners developing and formulating nonprofits, developing products, producing scientific discoveries, and more.

He also said the program is able to adapt to specific needs.

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The program also allows participants to have one-on-one discussions with instructors and mentors who assist with the class.

Due to continuous growth in technology, Youngs said the program has expanded to become more geographically widespread as well.

“It is really attractive to any business that’s either trying to develop a product or develop a service to meet the clients’ needs rather than the business owners’ needs,” Youngs said.

Scott Swenson, the statewide instructor for Venture School, has been a part of the program since its inception and said the program fosters a community for entrepreneurs while providing mentorship and resources.

“We hope that the people that we’re helping at this stage are going to go on to do greater things with the idea and take it further,” Swenson said.

Swenson said the program has shifted from being more lecture-based to incorporating more hands-on activities and engagement methodologies. It is also looking toward incorporating the use of AI to help entrepreneurs with tasks like customer discovery, competitive analysis, and ecosystem design.

“Creating that community or creating that network is a big part of what we do,” Swenson said. “We’re trying to incorporate all the most relevant tools that would benefit the entrepreneur as they continue to emerge.”