40! Apparently, as that is the number of teams that have applied to be part of this year’s Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge (almost doubling last year)! This is really exciting as we have completely revamped the Michigan Clean Energy Prize to be an acceleration project instead of a business plan competition. The teams that are…
Today is the last day UM students can apply to the Chicago Entrepreneurial Experience 2011 trip. Why is this event important? Each year the Center for Entrepreneurship takes a group of entrepreneurial students on the road to tour amazing startups, build their network and gain feedback on their ideas. We are excited to be taking…
This is the final blog post of the Acceleration Project. See last week’s post for the Acceleration Phase and the first post in this series for an overview of what I’m rambling on about here. On the evening of Thursday, April 21, 2011, 40 student startup ventures met in the basement of the parking garage…
This is the third phase (fourth blog post) of the Acceleration Project. See last week’s post for the Skill Building Phase and the first post in this series for an overview of what I’m rambling about here. I was thinking back to a strategy session I was having at one of my early startups I…
This is the second phase (third blog post) of the Acceleration Project. See last week’s post for the Application Phase and the first post in this series for an overview of what I’m rambling about here. In Colorado Springs, teams gather to sharpen their skills, train and win. They analyze their performance, meet with experts…
Last week I posted an overview of the Acceleration Project concept, which I believe, is a much better substitute for business plan competitions. (see last week’s post for an overview of the concept) This week I wanted to spend more time on the first part of the Acceleration Project – the Application Phase. Why, you…
Imagine that there were no Olympic training camps for aspiring athletes. In fact, let’s imagine that there were no regional qualifiers; state finals or even high school sports programs. Now let’s assume that every four years we gather together and let anyone who aspires to compete for a gold medal sign-up, get in front of…
The last two days we were fortunate enough to have Steve Blank spend time with us at the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship. During those two 12-hour days we packed Steve’s schedule with meetings, presentations, reviews, office hours and opportunities to meet with as many of our entrepreneurial community as possible (without killing Steve).…
“What are the key priorities you need to focus on when you launch a new startup,” is a question that I asked the students in my Entrepreneurial Discussion Group class on Friday afternoon. “Don’t answer,” I told them, “just think about it for a moment then let’s try this exercise before you answer.” I’ve done…
In a few weeks we are going to be taking 25 entrepreneurial students to New York City and another 50 students to the Bay Area. The purpose for these trips is to both help these students move their business ideas forward and, more importantly, to build their entrepreneurial networks! As Armando Pauker, General Partner at…
Doug Neal 