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UNH Entrepreneurship Center Annual Impact Report 2019-2020

University of New Hampshire Entrepreneurship Center (ECenter) annual report retrospective for 2019-2020.

University of New Hampshire Entrepreneurship Center (ECenter) annual report retrospective for 2019-2020.

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week program, each awardee

in 2020 received$4,000.The

Summer Seed Grant is a unique

program that pays students to

work on their early-stage ideas/

start-ups over the summer

without having to find a summer

job. The students typically work

out of UNHInnovation’s CubeX

Coworking Space, but this

summer, due toCOVID-19, all

students were working remote.

They also received weekly oneon-one

mentorship via Zoom

from seasoned entrepreneur

Mike McClurken and ECenter

Executive Director Ian Grant.

Many thanks to Mike for

spending his summer on this

with us!

Ten start-ups applied and went

through a first round of judging.

After the finalists presented in

front of the final round judges,

we were thrilled to award $4,000

each to Nathaniel Hunt ‘22

(COLA), Brady Esmaili ‘23 (CEPS),

Joey Neleber ‘22 (CEPS), and

Nicolas Camara ‘21 (CEPS) for

Spaitr and Alhussein Al-Jawad ‘22

(CEPS) for Valetan.

Spaitr is a two-fold venture

consisting of a diagnostic tracker

attachment to a lacrosse stick

and an app to serve as a way

for coaches to track the team’s

results, growth, and diagnostics.

Valetan is an online service that

allows people to have their cars

parked and delivered to them

with worry-free convenience.

Thank you to our lead sponsor,

Pierce Atwood!

The Idea + Innovation Society

launched in 2018, and after

that amazing inaugural cohort,

11

The ECenter welcomed the second cohort of the Idea & Innovation Society in fall of 2019.

Seen here is half of the group at the induction meeting.

expectations were high for the

2019-2020 group of innovative

students.

The Society is only for incoming

first year students who have

already started a company, nonprofit,

or been actively engaged

in innovation in high school.

The Society provides mentors,

$250+ of seed funding for the

next idea, and an immediate

peer group for collaboration

and encouragement. ECenter

Executive Director Ian Grant runs

the program.

The program, in partnership

with UNH Admissions,

invites students to submit an

application for consideration.

From over 60 applications, the

ECenter accepted 17 impressive

students who met the challenge.

Students from all over the US

and from most of the colleges

on campus provide an essential

diversity of thought.

Monthly group meetings

centered around skill building

activities, exploration of

“Customer Discovery” and the

always fun “Idea Jams” where

students shared their ideas and

received impactful feedback

and support. Society students

go on to work on their ideas,

enter competitions, and take

leadership roles around campus.

The Student Idea Fund helps

students bring their ideas to life!

With the rapid success of the

ECenter, we have seen a high

number of student ideas and

ventures move to the true

development stage. The hurdle

of paying for initial launch

items including domain names,

web hosting costs, prototype

development, etc. is limiting

students’ ability to reach that

next level.

The Student Idea Fund,

sponsored by the Patten Family

Foundation, provides microgrants

of up to $250 to help

students pursue their ideas or

start-ups. Over the 2019-2020

academic year, the Student Idea

Fund provided approximately

$1,500 to student applications.

This year’s funding helped

students: submit 501(c)3 filing

fees; attend the Forbes Under

30 summit; purchase web

domains; purchase a gyroscope

accelerometer, and much more!

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