Resources

Penn State’s Engineering Entrepreneurship (E-SHIP) Minor

The E-SHIP Minor is open to any student in any major, with the goal to develop your entrepreneurial leadership skills, and support your new product/service/venture ideas.

Program Director:
Phil Boyer
213 Hammond Building
pgb10@psu.edu
814-865-2952

SparkPlug 

A new seed funding program for Penn State students and student teams to take any creative or innovative idea (art, music, film, products, services) to first implementation. The idea should have potential “traction”, meaning people will be interested in underwriting the idea or buying it. Teams apply for up to $500 to get their idea ready for crowd-sourced funding using websites like Kickstarter, Quirky, Profounder or RocketHub; see Online Funding below.  The Sparkplug website will  be running in October 2011.

Questions?
Contact:
Matt Poese                                 or                       Liz Kisenwether
mxp227@psu.edu                                             exk13@psu.edu

Public and Government Initiatives for Supporting Entrepreneurship

• Entreworld
  Run by the Kauffman Foundation, Entreworld is an international resource designed to help build entrepreneurial economies.
• Fast Comany
  Fast Company has a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership, and design.
  
• Small Business Administration (SBA)
  The SBA supports small businesses and small-business owners across the nation. SBA provides “3C service”: capital ($$), contracts and counseling.
  
• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SMTT)
  Eleven federal departments participate in the SBIR program; five departments participate in the STTR program. Each year these programs award $2billion to small high-tech businesses.

Online Funding

• Kickstarter
  “We’re the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world.”
• Quirky
  Quirky draws upon a community of 57,000 members to invent, develop, and market products.
• Profounder
  Online crowdfunding platform that provides tools for entrepreneurs to raise their investment capital from their communities.
• RocketHub
  “RocketHub is on a mission to liberate creativity.”

Expert Entrepreneur Videos and Stories

• Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner
  This website “offers 2000 free videos and podcasts, featuring entrepreneurship and innovation thought leaders. Start exploring now.”

• Cornell-based Entrepreneurial Videos
  For a small subscription fee, users may view “over 15,000 2-minute clips from experts” and “200 topics on business, leadership and entrepreneurship.”

• Global Entrepreneurship Week
  Global Entrepreneurship Week is “the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.”

Penn State/UP Courses:
Entrepreneurship courses outside the E-SHIP Minor core courses are being offered across Penn State/UP in a variety of colleges.

College of Communications:
                COMM493 – Entrepreneurship in the Information Age: Senior Seminar

College of Engineering:
                ENGR 312  – Sustainable Energy Entrepreneurship
                ENGR497K- Social Entrepreneurship

College of Information Science and Technology:
                IST 402 – Google Online Marketing Challenge

College of Health and Human Development:
                HRIM 497F – Entrepreneurship in the Hospitality Industry

Smeal College of Business:
                MGMT497A - Start-Up Company
                MGMT/IST/ENGR425 – New Venture Creation
                MGMT/IST/ENGR426 – Invention Commercialization
                MGMT 431 – Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management