U.S. universities make big bets on start-ups to find new Facebook

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Just before graduating from the University of Michigan, Calvin Schemanski began his start-up.

With two classmates, he got free office space on campus and $7,500 in funding from the university’s student startup accelerator, TechArb.

The project, a restaurant recommendation app called MyFab5 using a “favorites” formula, is now preparing a national launch.

The project is among dozens at Michigan and thousands across the United States getting help from “incubators” at U.S. colleges and universities, often with a dream of launching the new Facebook or Google.

“There’s a real spark of entrepreneurship on campus,” said Schemanski, who graduated in 2012 with a business degree.

“There are a lot of entrepreneur clubs and programs and events every couple of weeks,” he told AFP.

The 23-year-old, who had begun his own pedicab service as a freshman, acknowledged that “it’s definitely a sacrifice” to work nights and weekends on these projects while other students attend parties and football games.

But he said “there is a good support network” of professors and mentors to help students and new graduates get their startups going.

Hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities have created incubators, aiming to provide a different kind of educational experience, and a chance for a successful company.

“I see this as an extension of education which provides practical training,” says Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur with affiliations at Stanford, Emory and Duke universities.

Wadhwa is also vice president for innovation at Silicon Valley-based Singularity University, which focuses on new technologies and entrepreneurship.

“The likelihood of another Google or Facebook is one in 10,000, but it doesn’t matter. Students gain lots of good experience. They come out much smarter,” he said.

According to the National Business Incubation Association, a third of the 1,195 incubation programs in North America had a college or university as their primary sponsor in 2012, compared with 20 percent in 2006.

In some cases, this can mean hefty payouts for the schools from patents and copyrights.

According to the Association of University Technology Managers, higher educational institutions earned $2.6 billion in license income, and helped launch 705 startups in 2012, bringing the total number of companies in operation to 4,002.

A lot of that money has filtered to Stanford, which helped launch Google, its most financially successful investment.

A 2010 Stanford report said its Office of Technology Licensing had helped lead to 8,000 inventions and earned about $1.3 billion in royalties over 40 years.

At Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, students make pitches for $60,000 awards as part of an “entrepreneurial boot camp.”

The school has launched some 300 companies and created more than 9,000 jobs in the region.

The University of Michigan reported venture licensing revenues increased from $13.8 million to $14.4 million last year on 98 new companies launched in the last 10 years.

Even outside the large, prestigious schools, incubators are taking their place on campus alongside the football team and fraternity parties.

Community colleges, often getting funds from foundations, have launched dozens of incubators, as have schools around the country from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the University of Southern California.

Stanford stands out, however, because of its location in Silicon Valley and its association with some of the region’s most prominent tech firms.