October 9, 2008
Posted by Ryan Graves
Students aren’t fundamentally trained to think about growing a business
Lots of schools have similar programs already. They just don’t have huge companies.MSOE will pay for your patents, and still rarely anyone takes them up on it.
Why?
Students aren’t fundamentally trained to think about growing a business using their engineering skills. Initiatives like KEEN aim to change that.
We’ve actually laid a much better framework for the future, but it’s hard to see the benefits in the short run.
We should talk more about the culture that creates this at some point. There are all kinds of startups around Stanford, so they in turn have students creating new businesses. The chicken creates the egg, and the egg creates the chicken. At MSOE (again an example I use because I go there), we’re working hard to create the chicken so that it can create eggs simply by being associated with the school. A culture of entrepreneurship.
If you go south of the border to IIT (not to be confused with ITT). They’re a mile down the road already and creating lots of businesses. Their culture is inspiring MSOE students though. Cooperation between the schools has been great so far.
What we need in the MKE/CHI corridor is one big win. Doesn’t even have to be Google sized, but something that really gets the idea going in people’s heads. Programs like KEEN are already helping to bridge the gaps between institutions so everyone doesn’t need a chicken to get eggs.
A side effect of a successful startup in a city is more startups. We just need that successful startup.
Originally posted as a comment by Jeramey Jannene on Ryan A Graves.com using Disqus.
