Focus will include alliances between colleges and business

Kelley School of Business students might receive a hand-up when it comes to starting a business of their own. Monday's unveiling of the Indiana Venture Center, a nonprofit business organization, means greater opportunities for students to expand their ideas and experiences through internships and hands-on support.\nStarted by Kelley School of Business-Indianapolis alum Michael Hatfield, the IVC will provide the opportunity for a federation of Indiana schools to develop and assist innovative companies and businesspeople. \nAlthough it will not provide the funding that is needed to actually initiate a business plan, the IVC will provide entrepreneurs with the help that they need to fully establish their ideas for a business. \nThe center will help aspiring business founders go through the necessary steps leading up to an ultimate business proposal to a venture capital firm. The IVC help to put together a business plan, deal with legal and tax matters, put together a managerial staff and allows them to draw from the expertise of the various Indiana schools. \nBy establishing a board that consists of all major Indiana schools, the IVC allows entrepreneurs to receive professional advice and guidance from experts in all fields. Businessmen that are looking to start a biotech firm can receive information from entrepreneurship experts at IU, while a person looking to start an engineering firm can talk to experts from Purdue University. \n"It will take an idea from promise to the promise land," said Dan Dalton, dean of the Kelley School of Business.\nJohannes Denekamp, Management Professor and Faculty Advisor to the Young Entrepreneurs Club at IU, said that the venture center will provide the infrastructure and resources that have been missing in Indiana. By assisting entrepreneurs with their business models, the center will attempt to stop Indiana's "brain drain," a term given to the trend of Indiana college graduates leaving the state for higher-paying and more prestigious job opportunities.\nThe IVC also provides an opportunity for student internships and a forum for them to present their ideas to a group of experts for development. Students will have an opportunity to intern at the venture center and will work with representatives of the Indiana schools as they help aspiring businesspersons develop their ideas and plans. \nThe center is also open to students with entrepreneurial aspirations. It will allow students to present their ideas and receive the same opportunities as any professional businesspeople that come to the center. \nTodd Petersen, an MBA student at the Kelley School of Business-Indianapolis sees the IVC as "exciting from (many) aspects." \nThe center offers an opportunity for student interns to apply their classroom and textbook knowledge to help develop real-world entrepreneurial ideas as well as providing a jump start for budding student ideas, Petersen said. \nThe services and opportunities that the IVC provides will be open to any and all aspiring entrepreneurs when the center opens this October.\n-- Contact Business editor Dan Lines at dmlines@indiana.edu.