The Couri Hatchery – A Great Place to Start a Business

I am currently working on my second Masters at Syracuse University.  My first one was at the Whitman business school in their entrepreneurial program.  While there I got to meet a great group of people at the Couri Hatchery.  They have the greatest mission in the world.  Their whole focus is the help students start new businesses.  This doesn’t just apply to Whitman students at Syracuse University.  All students across campus are welcome, and encouraged, to sign up with their ideas.

Sign Up for the Couri Hatchery

The office, recently renovated, contains work space for students to work on their companies and ideas.  The Couri Hatchery team bring in mentors to help students with start up issues.  Most Friday’s you can find a student meeting with a lawyer, accountant, marketing specialist or possibly a social media expert.  All mentors meetings are free but the times fill up quickly.

While many of the ideas a crazy and off the wall the Couri Hatchery team helps students work through the process of building out a business plan that could ultimately lead them to one of the business incubators in town.

James Shomar, the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), is responsible for most initial meetings.  He helps students walk through the Business Model Canvas (BMC) as the first step towards understand if your idea has legs.  After the BMC comes the Nuts and Bolts Business Plan.  If your business idea is still going after this a student may want to sign up for the Panasci Business Plan Competition where they could win $20,000 to help them start their business.

I have also started a business out of the Couri Hatchery.  The management team has been great at letting me work with undergraduate students to help me gain experience for my consulting company, 5 Things Consulting.  I highly recommend other Newhouse students take advantage of this great resource.

 

Update (11/4/15): In initial post James Shomar’s last name was incorrectly spelled.