Tech Launch Pad is an accelerated training program designed to power new business concepts to the next level.
You may already know about Lally’s exciting new Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) Challenge Scholarship program to support MBA applicants developing business concepts that apply technology for social good. As the next step in the process of bringing new technologies to market, we are introducing The Lally Tech Launch Pad program.
As its name implies, Tech Launch Pad is designed to power new business concepts to the next level by putting a ‘rocket booster pack’ of resources behind emerging entrepreneurs. Directed by Bill Dailey MBA ‘98, the Tech Launch Pad summer 2009 pilot program will assist selected innovators and inventors in taking their products to the next level of commercialization. Dailey, a credited inventor on 3 issued U.S. Patents, is an attorney with over 10 years of experience working in corporate startup environments, including companies working with fuel cells and other energy technologies.
Tech Launch Pad is an accelerated, 11-week “Entrepreneurship 101” training program, jetting through topics essential for venture success, such as preparing a business plan, overcoming obstacles, legal issues for start-ups, mentoring, and plan presentation strategies for approaching funders. Each participating innovator will be partnered with one or more business advisors, who will assist in both manufacturing and product development, as well as in business plan preparation. Practical lectures and real-world market examples will be presented by experts from the field, including leading executives, new product developers, local entrepreneurs, and ‘angel’ investors, including Don McMurtry ’86, who worked at Research in Motion on developing the Blackberry.
At the end of the Tech Launch Pad program, participants will have a business plan presentation to share with the entire group, and will be ready to present to potential funders or in entrepreneurship competitions. Lally anticipates that Tech Launch Pad will develop into a competitive, annual summer program for student entrepreneurs and business students interested in working with start-ups.
The Paul J. '69 and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship (SCTE), established in 1988, helps foster new generations of entrepreneurs through outreach programs, education and research. Centered in Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology, The Severino Center lies at the core of Lally’s commitment to Entrepreneurship. The mission of the SCTE is to integrate educational and research programs by exposing every Rensselaer student to the practices and principles of entrepreneurship, to infuse the fundamentals of entrepreneurship throughout the Rensselaer curriculum, and to extend Rensselaer’s leadership and national prominence in technological entrepreneurship.