Entrepreneurial students now have a new set of resources on the University's behalf to develop business ideas.
DUhatch, the Duke University Student Business Incubator, is a resource center providing students office and meeting space, on-call business coaches and mentors and possibly "seed money" to cover initial business operating costs, among other things.
Approximately 50 people gathered in the Nello L. Teer Building Thursday evening for an opening ceremony to learn about what the program offers and how students can take advantage of it.
"We know [where] students are working on their businesses typically. They're working in dorm rooms and libraries," Lawrence Boyd, DUhatch faculty advisor, told The Chronicle. "We give them an area where they can come together that's really made for [business], to give them a place for faculty like myself and outside advisors to come and meet with them and to give them a way to interact with each other."
At the ceremony were George McLendon, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences and dean of Trinity College, Tom Katsouleas, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering, Bruce Kuniholm, director of the Sanford Institute for Public Policy and Blair Sheppard, dean of the Fuqua School of Business-all of whom played a significant role in developing DUhatch.
Administrators said they hope DUhatch will bring an interdisciplinary learning environment for entrepreneurial students.
"By sharing these resources across schools I think we can combine them fruitfully," Kuniholm said in a speech.
As an example of how students could benefit from the cross-school partnership, Kuniholm said students in DUhatch will be able to learn from mentors and faculty advisors in Sanford, regardless of in which undergraduate school they are currently enrolled.
"We're specifically interested in ensuring that this covers for-profit and social-enterprise companies," he said.
Five student-run companies have already started using DUhatch's resources. Senior Zach Cancio, who is working on Fooala, a Web site concept to connect restaurants with their customers, said that using DUhatch's meeting spaces has added to his company's credibility.
The incubator had to go through an incubation process of its own before it got off the ground, Boyd said, noting that officials have been developing it since 2007.
Unlike most business incubators-which are centered in business schools and often not accessible to non-business students-DUhatch is unique in that it is focused on undergraduates, said Boyd, who is also associate director of Duke's Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization.
Despite the fact that University resources are used in the development of businesses in DUhatch, Duke does not take a financial stake in any incubator company.
"Our focus is really, primarily educational so the University does not have a stake in these businesses per say. These are the students' concepts they're going ahead with," Boyd said.
He explained that any student business venture that goes through the Duke Student Ventures program will be able to take advantage of DUhatch facilities and services. The Duke Student Ventures program, created through the Office of Student Activities and Facilities, helps students in starting up companies.
DUhatch has room for six businesses in three shared offices, which the businesses can configure however they like, as well as ample meeting space and equipment.
Already of help to students, DUhatch is prepared to help more businesses grow in these difficult economic times, Katsouleas said in a speech at the ceremony.
"It is a time in a world where everyone is looking for entrepreneurs to innovate our way out of our recession," he said.
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