PLANTING A SEED: Sandra Kauanui presents FGCU student MaKenzie Morgan with seed funding for her company, MaKenzie Morgan, LLC, which creates children’s books to help kids navigate challenges of various diseases. | PHOTO Courtesy of FGCU
It may be hard to believe, considering all the ambitious startups millennials create these days, but 18-to 29-year-olds make up only 4% of small-business owners in America, according to Guidant Financial and Lending Club’s 2019 State of Small Business survey.
That small percentage is not for lack of interest. 35% of millennials who participated in the survey say what’s stopping them from small-business ownership is funding; 20% aren’t sure of where to start.
FGCU’s Institute for Entrepreneurship helps students develop their ideas while still in school, preparing them for real-life success early on.
The institute offers a few methods of support, including an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship degree so students can learn about more entrepreneurship as it relates to their fields of interest.
“You’re not just teaching entrepreneurship, you are teaching a combination of entrepreneurship that allows students to bring something unique to the table,” Dr. Sandra Kauanui, the institute’s director, says.
It’s become a prevalent option among students.
“Our program has gotten so large, we have had 400 students in the major after two years,” Kauanui adds.
Then there is Runway Program incubator for students and alumni. The Runway Program has achieved such success in its nearly four years that a $4 million anonymous donor has already pledged to help expand it from its Emergent Technologies Institute location to a 27,000-square-foot building in the center of campus. FGCU is in the process of raising another $4 million.
“We named it the Runway Program because we are helping students get started—getting them off the ground,” Kauanui says.
At the end of the semester-long program, students accepted into the Runway Program can apply to pitch for seed funding. Tamiami Angel Fund Chairman Timothy J. Cartwright assembles the judging panel to dish out the equity-free funds donated to the university each year, Kauanui says.
The FGCU Institute for Entrepreneurship offers other opportunities as well, including mentorship programs, speaker events and workshops, and support in competitions like the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge.
RELATED: Two Florida Gulf Coast University entrepreneurs shine in an undergraduate competition.
