Robots and Coffee; Dating and Glue: Array of Startups Represented at the Third Annual California Program for Entrepreneurship
Deborah Lohse
SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 27, 2012 — The third annual California Program for Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University hopes to be a fresh launching pad for 32 entrepreneurs involved in startups ranging from a flying-robot retrieval system; a mobile-phone dating service; a cutting-edge surgical-glue venture, and a travel and safety app for hikers.
CAPE is a program provided and sponsored by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. It was created to help new or growing California businesses get to the next level as employers and contributors to California’s economy.
This year’s class of entrepreneurs, who were accepted to the competitive and partially subsidized program in early July, recently began their six months of specialized training and mentoring from Santa Clara University faculty and coaches.
Much of the work is “virtual,” but they also will attend five rounds of classes on-site at SCU’s Silicon Valley campus: four on weekends and one over a week in September. Each will also compete in a $5,000 business-plan competition in November.
“Each year we help more entrepreneurs turn their innovative ideas into businesses that create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity in California,” said S. Andrew Starbird, dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. “We are especially proud that this year's cohort— our largest ever —includes a contingent of recent SCU engineering grads who are already at work turning their senior design projects into business ventures.”
The CAPE program has helped dozens of companies who attended in prior years reach the next stage of their growth plans. All 41 entrepreneurs of the previous cohorts are still actively pursuing CAPE ventures, with some securing next-round funding, others reaching sales milestones, and others receiving buyout offers.
Other businesses being undertaken by this year’s CAPE participants include apps and cloud projects; a coffee roasting business; an Internet advertising and market research firm; a bio-nutritional soil treatment project; and small-home-care for seniors.
More on the program is available at http://www.scu.edu/business/cie/About-CAPE.cfm.
About the Santa Clara University School of Business
The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University began in 1923, and was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. Its undergraduate business, MBA, and Executive MBA programs are consistently ranked among the top in the nation by BusinessWeek, U.S. News, Princeton Review, and others. The curriculum at all levels emphasizes the leadership role of business in creating prosperity within an ethical framework, as well as business responsibilities for social justice and sustainability in the global marketplace. The School opened its $49 million building for undergraduate, graduate, and professional business education in Fall 2008. For more information, see www.scu.edu/business/
Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Relations | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121