Smart Money has a feature by Diana Ransom on the growing trend of creating incubators and hatcheries on college campuses to help attract and support student entrepreneurs. The article highlights several programs, including ours here at Belmont:
Three years ago, Andy Tabar, then an 18-year-old college freshman at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., started up the first iteration of his web-development company, Bizooki, with less than $1,000 and a little bit of know-how.
To help get his business off the ground, Tabar applied for membership to the university’s “hatchery” called the Practicing Student Entrepreneur Program. Through the hatchery, which began in 2004, http://www.ativan777.com Tabar and about 70 of his fellow fledgling entrepreneurs have access to desks, computers, phones, fax machines and copiers. Students can bounce business ideas off of seasoned entrepreneurs in residence at the university, as well as seek out free marketing advice and accounting help.
Students also can apply for need-based seed funding or vie for larger sums through an annual business plan competition. Tabar garnered a $5,000 award in his freshman year but says “the amount of consulting and support that I’m getting from these people is just as valuable as any financial support that I’m getting.”
Belmont’s newest student business Hatchery.