Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship From Learning to Launching Ideas When Jonathan York was hired in 2009 to build an entrepreneurship concentration in the Orfalea College of Business (OCOB), he knew that a program isolated from the campus community would not be beneficial to the college or the university. So he and Louis Tornatzky developed what two years later became the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), an interdisciplinary organization that serves as a dedicated campus vehicle for all Cal Poly students to tap into their inner entrepreneur. For those unfamiliar with the history of the CIE, it might come as a surprise that the center has only been in existence since 2010, likely because since its inception, innovation and entrepreneurship have nearly perfectly aligned with Cal Poly s mantra of Learn by Doing. The myriad examples in this book attest to the synergy that exists between Learn by Doing and an innovative entrepreneurial spirit whether launching a satellite, running an animal-centered enterprise, or developing a preschool learning lab. Yet few endeavors have been as wholly embraced by the campus and local community as that of the CIE. Perhaps that success stems from the fact that York and Tornatzky embraced the entrepreneurial mentality from the very beginning. We didn t wait. The university gave us some seed money to get started, and we used that seed money to create momentum and to launch, York explains. Once the plane was in the air, we called people saying, Hey, bring us some fuel, we re going to crash. And so we ve built momentum. We re still building! Indeed, the CIE is building, and at a rate that defies the torpid pace often synonymous with university growth patterns. A Simple Yet Effective Organizational Strategy Cal Poly students, staff and faculty clearly had a thirst for the support and resources that the CIE provides, but without a solid organizational structure, mission and leadership, the endeavor could easily have met the fate of many failed startups. The nuts and bolts of the CIE s success lies in the simplicity of its approach. An examination of that approach, and its alignment with Learn by Doing, provides a snapshot of why such a youthful organization seems like a venerable HIGHLIGHTS The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) is a multidisciplinary center that has taken the campus and San Luis Obispo community by storm, growing exponentially due primarily to the wealth of opportunities provided for budding entrepreneurs of all levels. This case study details the nearly perfect symmetry developed and forged between innovation, entrepreneurship and Cal Poly s Learn by Doing philosophy. CONTRIBUTORS Jonathan York, Lori Jordan (Recreation Administration, 97), Ashley Tovar (Liberal Studies, 16), Matt Maxwell (Business Administration, 17) and Jim Finwick York (top left) meets with the student team representing WhiteFox Defense Technologies, Inc., one of the many companies supported through the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 212 ~ More than a Motto Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ~ 213
yet modern institution. Matt Maxwell, founder and chief executive officer of BoltAbout, provides an example of the success the center has had in promoting entrepreneurship with Cal Poly students. BoltAbout is an electric bike rental company that empowers city commuters and students to use quick, sustainable transport. Maxwell describes what the center has meant to him and his company: The CIE has provided me with a comprehensive entrepreneurship experience. We started building our business from an idea devised in the Hatchery, and then we raised over $100,000 in funding through the HotHouse. This helped us grow our business to serve over 100 happy customers in San Luis Obispo, affording us the opportunity to grow our brand nationwide over the next several years. The extent to which the CIE aligns Learn by Doing and interdisciplinary education in an entrepreneurial setting positively impacts not only the lives and careers of Cal Poly students but also the San Luis Obispo community as a whole. The mission and organizational approach of the CIE is clear: to help students acquire the tools, develop the skills and cultivate the mindset of an entrepreneur so that they may create economic and social value everywhere they go. Services and programs like the Hackathon, the Hatchery and the HotHouse are some of the offerings designed to realize the organizational strategy of the CIE. Although bold in its breadth of offerings, the CIE is centered on three distinct but interrelated areas of entrepreneurship: Learn, Prepare, Launch. Learn. Within this segment, students develop an entrepreneurial mindset through a combination of class instruction and project-based learning opportunities. Each of Cal Poly s six colleges are represented by CIE Faculty Fellows who incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into their coursework, serve as CIE ambassadors within the college they represent, and help guide students through various entrepreneurial career paths. The Learn area also hosts the student Cal Poly Entrepreneurs (CPE) club, which brings together creative thinkers and doers to build world-changing ideas. One of the aims of CPE is to develop entrepreneurial thinking as a mindset that manifests itself across all majors and programs at Cal Poly. As well, the Learn area supports the Innovation Sandbox: a shared workspace for students to play with the latest prototyping/ideation tools, explore new subjects, develop technologies and share knowledge. Finally, the Entrepreneurship Forum Series of the Learn sector brings together panels of expert entrepreneurs to discuss widely diversified topics in areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. Held quarterly, the series invites students and all members of the San Luis Obispo community to engage in an interactive session where they dig deep, personally and professionally, in a safe environment. Although not sequential in orientation, the structure of CIE promotes growth and development, so once students have engaged in learning, they also can move forward in preparing their ideas if they so choose. Learn by Doing in Action Generate business ideas designed to fulfill a community or societal need Work collaboratively in teams to enhance shared visions and build industry partnerships Develop business plans and strategies that foster economic growth and social well-being throughout the region Opposite: At the Design and Dev Hackathon, student teams gather together to design, code and develop apps with the support of experienced mentors in a fast-paced marathon weekend competition. 214 ~ More than a Motto Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ~ 215
Prepare. The focus here is to prepare students to become emerging leaders and career-ready entrepreneurs who generate innovative solutions to real-world problems, research promising technologies, and develop viable business plans. There are five distinct programs offered through the Prepare segment of the CIE. The Elevator Pitch Competition allows both undergraduate and graduate students from across the curriculum to pitch product ideas, new services or startup plans at any stage of development. Through the Prepare area, students also can engage in a Startup Weekend during which participants form teams around selected startup ideas and embark on a frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing and market validation. The 54-hour event culminates with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with an opportunity for critical feedback. Located in the Cotchett Education Building, Room 206, the Hatchery is an on-campus program offered through the Prepare area of the CIE. The Hatchery is open to all Cal Poly students interested in learning how to take a business from idea generation to launch. Innovation Quest (iq), another program offered through the Prepare area, empowers and supports student innovators and entrepreneurs to build interdisciplinary teams to showcase what they have built, coded, designed or prototyped throughout their efforts at Cal Poly and then shift from ideas to prototypes to companies. Finally, the Design and Dev Hackathon highlights the best of Cal Poly s Learn by Doing motto, giving students the opportunity to create, code, design and build with fellow students and experienced mentors in a fast-paced marathon weekend competition. As any successful entrepreneur knows, beyond preparation, the most difficult and time-consuming aspect of the process is setting their ideas into motion, and the CIE is firmly attuned to and supportive of students taking that next step. Launch. The three programs that compose the Launch area of the CIE allow students to experience highly customized paths for launching their startups and becoming entrepreneurial leaders who create great economic and social value everywhere. Housed in downtown San Luis Obispo, the SLO HotHouse Accelerator is a 13-week program that provides students or recent alumni with the tools, the funding and the space to launch their businesses. In addition to hands-on mentorship and weekly workshops, startup companies in the Accelerator program have access to $10,000 in seed funding to start building Opposite left: York wears a virtual reality headset while interacting with a student team in the newly expanded SLO HotHouse space in downtown San Luis Obispo. Middle: The HotHouse offers work space, mentoring and funding to startup companies accepted into the 13-week Accelerator and 24-month Incubator programs. Above: Three CIE-supported company products on display at the SLO HotHouse. 216 ~ More than a Motto Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ~ 217
a wide variety of Launch services for both startups and established companies, including no-charge expert counseling, low-cost training, information resources, events and seminars. The Value of Space and Design Dedicated spaces for such rich and positive socialization experiences to occur are critical to the success of CIE and the Learn by Doing work it supports. As space is dedicated primarily to companies accepted into the Accelerator and Incubator programs and also serves as a meeting space for other CIE programs and services as well as the SBDC. In addition to those spaces, Cal Poly Housing and the CIE partnered to open Cal Poly Lofts, a beautiful set of downtown condominiums across from the HotHouse offices. At the lofts, students not only have the opportunity to engage with the CIE, but they also have the ability to live, breathe, The Hatchery serves as a central hub on campus for students at all levels in the program. The HotHouse space is dedicated primarily to companies accepted into the Accelerator and Incubator programs but also serves as a meeting space for other CIE programs and services as well as the SBDC. detailed above, the Hatchery and the HotHouse are eat and sleep the CIE. If that sentiment sounds famil- two such spaces on campus and in the community, iar, it is likely because countless people on Cal Poly s and a Cal Poly alumna, We tell students all the time respectively. Ashley Tovar, founder of Gatherologie campus have been quoted as saying, Learn by Doing that the strongest network you have is your peers. A (dubbed the future AirBnB of event planning ), re- is simply a part of who we are, our DNA, our very dedicated and rather large network of peers across all calls her introduction to the Hatchery: In studying to being! It s further support for Learn by Doing and colleges is one thing that sets the CIE apart from other be a teacher, I take a lot of my classes in the Cotchett the CIE as a perfect match. Learn by Doing initiatives. When more experienced Education Building and walked by the Hatchery many peers provide mentorship for less experienced peers, times and thought What is this space? It s such a beau- A Winning Mix of Socialization and Mentorship learning for both is enhanced. And, an interdisciplinary tifully built space. I went online and realized all of the The CIE recognizes that learning does not take place model of mentorship only furthers the positive effects services and opportunities available for people wanting in isolation, so programs are structured to provide of such scaffolding, as students simultaneously bring to build their own businesses. Naturally, since I had an students with positive socialization influences that their own content knowledge and skills to the prover- York interacts with a student at the SLO HotHouse. The mission of the SLO HotHouse is to support students and community members as they work to create new innovations and start business ventures. their business. At the conclusion of each Accelerator program, a select group of companies are invited to remain at the SLO HotHouse for the 24-month SLO HotHouse Incubator program to continue developing their business while continuing to utilize all of the resources of the HotHouse: office space, internet, mentorship, conference rooms and an invaluable peer network. In addition to the two HotHouse programs, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) offers idea to start a business, I walked in the next day. At a university with a top-notch architecture school, the Cal Poly community understands the value of beautifully built spaces, as Tovar put it, and the commitment to these spaces for the CIE is evident in the Hatchery on campus, the refurbished and expanded downtown HotHouse, and the recently completed Cal Poly Lofts in downtown San Luis Obispo. The Hatchery serves as a central hub on campus for students at all levels in the program. The HotHouse serve to enhance motivation, spark creativity, develop confidence and share ideas for success. Such stalwarts in a Learn by Doing-centered environment are evident to anyone who happens to drop by the Hatchery or the HotHouse. Conversations between students at the Hatchery, for example, do not typically include normal college banter. Instead, they are often centered on business ideas, with one student essentially serving as a mentor to the other. According to Lori Jordan, director of Student Innovation Programs for the CIE bial table and break out of their discipline-specific silos to learn from one another. The CIE is firmly attuned to this notion both from a peer and mentor perspective. In addition to peer socialization and peer mentorship serving vital roles for the success of the center, CIE leadership has recognized the value of inviting faculty, alumni and community members to serve as professionals advisors. The CIE Faculty Fellows program is one such means, but alumni and local community members with experience starting and 218 ~ More than a Motto Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ~ 219
Above and opposite: Both the Hatchery and the SLO HotHouse feature dedicated space for student teams to congregate and discuss ideas. running businesses also serve as role models and consultants to Cal Poly s burgeoning cadre of young entrepreneurs. CIE brings in speakers for weekly and quarterly workshops or panels, for example, that are designed for maximum interaction among students and presenters. Tovar discusses the impact of informal mentoring through her time attending such events at the Hatchery: We ve been able to meet with people successful entrepreneurs who help us build business plans, and we are actually out there talking to people. It s not just a sit-down type of workshop. You are moving and talking and being forced to present, and it s good for you. It gets you comfortable. The CIE also believes strongly in formal mentoring and has a program that pairs elite entrepreneurs with groups of students working to build upon an idea. Many Cal Poly alumni serve as mentors. One central theme pops up with every Cal Poly alumnus mentor. Jim Finwick, president of Camelot Consulting, Cal Poly alumnus and one of the lead mentors for the HotHouse, expresses it perfectly: I wish this program existed when I was in school! Without having the same opportunities that current students have with the CIE, one might think these alumni would be less inclined to volunteer to serve as mentors for the CIE, but the opposite is true. The draw is their bond with Cal Poly s Learn by Doing pedagogy and their clear understanding of how well the CIE enacts it. Cal Poly is committed to encouraging its students to be lifelong learners, learners who help solve the world s problems in local and global contexts, and the CIE is playing an important role in the achievement of that goal. As York suggests, Learn by Doing does not occur in a vacuum. We ve had nothing but support from the community, and we ve supported the community right back. It s a great partnership, and we re building economic growth, York says. Jordan concurs and adds that students get zero credit for participating in CIE programs. This is something they re doing because they love it, and they want to do it, she says. In the spirit of hatching ideas into action and positively impacting our communities, the CIE is yet another excellent example of the power of Learn by Doing at Cal Poly. 220 ~ More than a Motto Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ~ 221