Venture School Des Moines Kicks Off
Venture School, a nationally recognized program for entrepreneurs developed by the University of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC), will begin Sept. 1 at the UI Pappajohn Education Center at 1200 Grand in Des Moines. Venture School increases the chances of a startup or new product launch’s success by helping teams align their businesses with the critical needs of their customers.
Teams participating:
Stickshift
HR Consulting for Start Up Companies
IASourceLink
Local Shop Hop
Campus ‘Bites
CityGrown Farms
Consulting Resources
CLenz Designs
Stone Bone Wood Cloth
UI Venture School Teaching Team:
Kurt Heiar, Lead Instructor, University of Iowa Venture School
Wade Steenhoek, Lecturer, University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center
Jennifer Ott, JPEC Training and Engagement Liaison
Katriece Ray, JPEC Event Coordinator
Elizabeth Caven, UpCraft Club
Justin Schoen, Ecomegy
UI Venture School Mentors:
Greg Barcus – Business and Corporate Development Professional
Sheree Clark – Fort in the Road
Sally Cooper-Smith – Cooper Smith & Company
Chris Draper – EMERGE
Jo Eckert – West Des Moines Incubator
Vada Grantham – DMACC Entrepreneurship Program
Paul Kinghorn – UNI Regional Business Center & Entrepreneurial Outreach
John LaMarche – VentureNet Iowa
Matt McKinney – Brown Winnick
Milt Milloy – Springboard Consulting & Capital
Matt Moore – Saturday Mfg. Inc.
Trent Murphy – CJM Financial
The curriculum for UI Venture School was developed by the National Science Foundation at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. It allows entrepreneurs to evaluate their business model with real world engagement. By building customer relationships which test the strength of the Venture School team’s product or service, entrepreneurs can modify their business models before the investment stage.
“Our goal is to bring the expertise of the University of Iowa’s award-winning John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC) to people across the state of Iowa,” said Jennifer Ott, training and engagement liaison for UI JPEC. “By creating a partnership with entrepreneurs, we can offer budding entrepreneurs and small business owners a wide variety of resources including prototyping, business strategies and industry specific mentoring.”
The University of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC) is committed to being a national leader in teaching and supporting innovation and entrepreneurial development. JPEC is proud to play an important role in the development of Iowa-based technology and high-growth start-up companies. JPEC and its Venture School program help entrepreneurs by accelerating the startup process and increasing their odds of success. UI Venture School is the state of Iowa’s only National Science Foundation I-Corps Site.
UI Venture School information can be found at: http://www.iowajpec.org/
Venture School Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Jennifer Ott, JPEC Training and Engagement Liaison, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center
