It takes a VILLAGE
Concept unites entrepreneurs, mentors in idea-rich climate
Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City, OK)
August 2, 2006
Author: Jim Stafford; Business Writer
Imagine a village in which all the residents are young entrepreneurs, where ideas bubble up daily and fledgling businesses are nurtured by a mentor.
Let's say the mentor is a Michael Dell or a Bill Gates, and he has eight or 10 interns helping to keep the ideas, like fresh produce in a market square, ripe for use throughout the village.
This vision of entrepreneurial paradise is brought to you by Skip Porter, the University of Oklahoma's vice president of technology development.
Porter is working to create a $50 million Entrepreneurial Village on the OU campus that will include office space, an incubator for fledgling companies, a coffee shop and housing for student interns, faculty and mentors-in-residence.
"The concept of the Village has emerged in my mind from the experience across Oklahoma from Ponca City to Ardmore to Oklahoma City and Tulsa, (where) everybody was looking for the formula," Porter said. "How was it done in Silicon Valley; how was it done on Route 128 (Massachusetts); how was it done in the Research Triangle Park?
"There was this concept that if we just had that formula, we could bring it here and plug it in and it would play."
Turns out, there is no one-size-fits-all formula, Porter said.
What Oklahoma needs is that Village to breathe life into technologies emerging from OU and other areas of the state, he said.
"You can come to campus and step into that space and it would be like going to the ballpark and you can get a feel for how the game is played," Porter said. "It is our intention that the rich mix of talent and technology and the process of nurturing it and evaluating it and transferring it will be going on 24/7. And we will be bringing in the top entrepreneurs from around the world to interact with us on technologies that at least initially are OU based."
It's all part of OU's new Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth, a concept designed to build Oklahoma businesses and develop business leaders and keep them in the state. OU graduate Daniel Pullin has been named executive director of the new Center, which will offer its first internships this fall.
About 30 students have expressed an interest in the six to eight internships that will launch the program formally, Pullin said.
"What is unique about these students, they are from across all disciplines at the university," Pullin said. "Most entrepreneurial programs nationwide are typically concentrated in one academic discipline: business or sometimes engineering. What's so great about the Center for Creation of Economic Wealth is we are pulling the best and the brightest from across the campus."
A location for the Entrepreneurial Village has yet to be determined, although Porter has identified a potential spot on the university's South Research Campus. It would draw funding from the private sector, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, federal grants and OU, according to the proposal.
OU already offers a major in entrepreneurship through the Entrepreneurship Center at the Price College of Business, but the program envisioned by Porter is separate from the university's academic mission.
"We're a pure academic unit, and I would characterize (OU's new wealth creation center) as more of an economic development unit that uses academic components," said Jim Wheeler, executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center.
The Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth would add some muscle to the state's efforts to mentor entrepreneurs, much of which is now accomplished through i2E, the non-profit corporation that manages the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center for the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
Greg Main, i2E's chief executive officer, said he doesn't consider OU's efforts as a duplication or even as a competitor.
"I see it as complementary," Main said. "As a state we face an enormous task of building an entrepreneurial culture, so I welcome this and other initiatives like it that share our vision for an Oklahoma that is generating new advanced technology startups at a much faster pace.
"There is plenty to do, and we can't do it all."
It's all about putting OU and the state in the "game," Porter said.
"Let me restate what I always state: It's hard work; it's not rocket science," Porter said. "This is 24/7 sweat and effort. You need to reserve the right to be lucky, but you won't get there if you don't play the game. You've got to get in the game."
Porter seems convinced the Entrepreneurial Village he envisions will turn Oklahoma into Ground Zero for nanotechnology research. It already has a running start with Norman-based SouthWest NanoTechnologies, which was spun off from discoveries by OU researcher Daniel Resasco.
"Somebody is going to change the world with this technology, and it ought to be Oklahoma," Porter said. "The message on the street in the nanotech field ought to be if you are in nanotechnology and you are not in Oklahoma, you are not on the 'A' team, because that is where it happened."
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