UM Awards $40K To Student Entrepreneurs
The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Tuesday announced the recipients of the Fall 2010 Dare to Dream Grant Program, where students apply for funding to advance their business concepts toward launch.
Grant recipients were awarded funding totaling $40,000 based on business concepts and feasibility studies submitted to panels of judges made up of Dare to Dream alumni and other members of the entrepreneurial and venture capital communities.
In addition to the financial awards, 12 companies received tenancy at TechArb, the student accelerator co-managed by the Zell Lurie Institute and the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship.
"Dare to Dream and TechArb are two prime examples of our action-based learning approach in practice," said Zell-Lurie Institute executive director Tom Kinnear. "These programs provide the funding, support, and access students need to develop their own businesses while earning their degrees. The depth of the innovations and the breadth of the industries represented by this year's teams reflect the unique, environment the university offers to aspiring entrepreneurs."
The Dare to Dream program distributes up to $100,000 per academic year to students at the Ross School and their teammates from around the university. It has awarded more than $700,000 to more than 1,000 student entrepreneurs since the program's inception in 2002.
Grants are administered in two funding levels. Assessment grants of $1,500 enable recipients to conduct a feasibility study and Integration grants of up to $10,000 to complete a full business plan and develop an investor pitch.
The following student teams received grants in October:
Integration Grants
* AME Outdoors ($5,000) - Collective reservation services for sport fishing industry
* Bebaroo ($10,000) - Subscription-based rental service for infant and toddler clothes
* OWN ($10,000) - Point of sale system for coffee houses and related targeted businesses
Assessment Grants ($1,500 each)
* @Fingertips - Smart phone accessories to allow visually impaired users access to modern technologies
* Briese Capital Management - Proprietary approach to managing financial portfolios, focusing on futures trading
* Chinese American Institute - Provides underserved Chinese youth with opportunities to study at U.S. colleges and universities
* Finasic - Hardware-based solution for simulating risk profiles for financial institutions
* Impact Secret - Comprehensive resource center for social and public sector career opportunities
* Morph Innovations – Novel sole for shoes that can transform between flat and high heel profiles
* PPX Solutions - Piezoelectric treatment for deep vein thrombosis
* Specialized Designs - Designs toys that engage and appeal to visually impaired and sighted children
* Stigma Free - Designs device for private, in-home testing for sexually transmitted diseases
* Syncronizer - Provides social media platform that congregates users around topics of interest
TechArb, which is funded by the Zell Lurie Institute, the Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Engineering and the Office for Vice President for Research, offers businesses associated with the University a place to launch and grow their businesses. Teams that received tenancy include:
* Get Fresh Detroit – Provides fresh produce to underserved markets in Detroit
* Heart Graffiti - Silver commemorative jewelry for female college students
* June Energy - Portable solar energy products for electricity and lighting in rural Africa and Asia
* Node Out - Smart-phone applications that utilize crowd-sourced decision engine
* Sentient Wings - Adds intelligence and functionality to unmanned aerial vehicles
* SurveyBroker - Online brokerage to match professional marketing surveyors with small- to medium-sized business clients
* terraOS - Mobile geo-location services to integrate with smart vehicles and infrastructure
* WebWise - Service that enables customers to maintain contact relevancy across any number of communication channels
The next application cycle for Dare to Dream Grants and TechArb tenancy will be January 2011. For application materials, please see www.zli.bus.umich.edu.
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