NURTURING
STARTUPS VISIONARIES GET SUPPORT FOR FLEDGLING VENTURES
AT UC'S ENTREPRENEURIAL CENTER
Publication:
THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 04/27/2004
Page: 1D
Headline: NURTURING STARTUPS VISIONARIES GET SUPPORT FOR
FLEDGLING VENTURES AT UC'S ENTREPRENEURIAL CENTER
Byline: JIM BALOW
balow@wvgazette.com
Julie Mobayed and Natalie Tappe had a great idea for a business.
The sisters had returned to Charleston from the Washington,
D.C., area several years ago to run clinical drug trials
for Charleston Area Medical Center. Armed with master's
degrees, the two nurses were ready to strike out on their
own.
"We went from one computer to $1 million in contracts,"
Tappe said.
There was just one problem. The women knew nothing about
running a business.
They knew all about clinical trials - how to recruit patients,
how to collect data and submit it to the pharmaceutical
companies. They had contacts with local doctors and all
the big drug companies - Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline. But they
had never even heard of a business plan.
"That's when we got involved with Tim McClung at the
entrepreneurial center and Andy at Adena," Mobayed
said.
McClung left the state Development Office two years ago
to establish the Entrepreneurship Center at the University
of Charleston. He was joined later that year by Andy Zulauf,
who doubles as the West Virginia partner of Athens, Ohio-based
venture capital firm Adena Ventures.
The center was created to help folks just like Mobayed and
Tappe. Adena invests in fledgling companies - four so far
in a four-state region. It also set up an Operational Assistance
program that provides free consulting services to start-up
and growing companies.
Zulauf and Nora Myers, who was hired a year ago as director
of the three-person Entrepreneurship Center, explained how
the OA program works.
"Companies that have critical needs, we'll take students
and, with guidance, put them inside a business," Zulauf
said.
Entrepreneurs can get help with business planning, Web site
and software development, marketing and legal advice.
Zulauf, Myers and McClung tap the entire UC community -
students, faculty, staff, even alumni, depending on the
needs of a company.
If professional help is needed, four Charleston-area firms
have donated in-kind services to the program - public relations
firms Maple Creative and Charles Ryan Associates, and law
firms Spilman, Thomas & Battle and Jackson Kelly.
"It's one thing to offer a company money," Myers
said. "It's another to offer them assistance.
"On the business plan, they have it up here,"
she said, pointing to her head, "but you have to extract
it. Product development, marketing, is all part of it."
"When a company has a product and wants to brand it
- make it a Xerox or Kleenex - we can tap Nora or Skip Lineberg
[at Maple Creative]," Zulauf said.
Myers, a graduate of South Charleston High School, first
worked as an investment banker near Washington. After earning
an MBA, she moved to Dallas and joined EDS as a corporate
consultant. She returned to the Mountain State to work as
a commercialization manager at the W.Va. High Technology
Consortium.
"Another thing we do well is Web design and content
design. Everyone needs an Internet presence, but not everyone
can do it well or afford it.
"These services can be delivered pre-investment for
Adena. They can be used to develop projects we feel are
promising to get them investment-ready."
Not every project leads to a capital investment by Adena.
In fact, most do not. Since Adena was founded in April 2002,
the company has provided OA services valued at nearly $1.5
million to 28 firms while investing in just four. Some are
able to find financing from other sources.
"On the post-investment side, we have projects like
executive recruiting," Zulauf said. "We can help
identify CEO candidates, chief financial officer, chief
technology officer or chief information officer, or senior
sales executives. We can help build out the company.
"We've also used the program to identify good board
candidates - active people. Like Vested Health. We required
the company to have an industry representative."
Besides an infusion of cash from Adena and other venture
capital firms, Vested Health, a new Charleston firm that
offers alternative health-care plans, has received a smorgasbord
of OA services. Zulauf sits on the board of directors.
"We did employee handbooks, Web-based sales demos,
HIPAA work," Zulauf said. "They've got Jackson
Kelly
doing patent work, we've got someone in Columbus identifying
a sales executive and Charles Ryan is doing
public relations and media training."
Many entrepreneurs need help with patent research and intellectual
property questions, he said. They often have mistaken impressions
about what intellectual property is.
"With Vested Health, they feel they are developing
a methodology that gives them a competitive advantage."
Students who are used to traditional summer internships
like the program, Myers said. "This is a way to get
some experience without a 12-week commitment. A few hours
here, a few hours there, and it's on the timeline of the
client.
"Let's say a student has a chance to do some sales
research; it has a real impact on the business. The CEO
might have direct contact with the student. These are real
small businesses."
Students get paid for their work, Zulauf said. "Once
you're being paid, that heightens the quality of your work.
"And on the business side, the reason they're so excited,
their services are free to them. Granted, they do have to
invest some time in making themselves available, but that
component - they don't have to invest any money - that drives
their motivation."
The program is financed by public and private contributions.
The state Development Office and American Electric Power
each provided $25,000 grants, UC is investing hundreds of
thousands of dollars over the next five years, and the U.S.
Small Business Administration made a grant through its New
Markets Venture Capital program.
At Hyperion, Tappe and Mobayed have nothing but praise for
the OA program. "They helped us with accounting,"
Mobayed said. "They developed our brochure, our logo.
Some students developed the logo. They developed our Web
page."
"It's been a wonderful process, because we didn't know
it was out there," Tappe said. "They gave us direction
and support, and it was all basically free of charge."
"They provided the moral support, too," Mobayed
said. "They believed in us."
To contact staff writer Jim Balow, use e-mail or call 348-5102.
