Vision for the Entrepreneurial Center

There are a multitude of avenues for student and community start-ups at Portland State, but resources are spread across the campus, and knowledge of events and programs is limited to students and faculty in specific programs. In an effort to make one cohesive conglomerate of resources, PSU is creating the Entrepreneurial Center.

The center is about six weeks away from opening, according to Brian Ruder, who advises students in entrepreneurial endeavors.

“The University of Utah started this six or seven years ago. Last year they turned out 21 companies, which is right up there with [statistics from] MIT,” Ruder said. “Over time, we want to create a center where students can come in and work with start-ups and find jobs.”

Though the center doesn’t yet have a director or a physical building, the long-term plan is to expand the School of Business Administration, which has raised between $6 million and $7 million. In the interim, the center will operate for six to nine months with an office, a director and an assistant.

There are three finalists for the position of director, but their names and affiliations have not been made public.

Ruder describes the entrepreneurial center as a “center of connection,” and Dean of the School of Business Administration Scott Dawson echoes that sentiment.

“The goal is to provide resources and structure that will help our students and faculty be successful in realizing their entrepreneurial operations,” Dawson said. “Right now we have little pieces, but we don’t have a whole.”

The center is largely a result of the efforts of Ruder and Dawson, as well as those of Melissa Appleyard, an Ames professor of Management of Innovation and Technology who teaches entrepreneurship and strategy.

“There’s lots of interesting stuff going on in various pockets of the school, but none of them are joined together,” Ruder said. “The Entrepreneurial Center will host a website that tries to address the entire community, connecting the [business] accelerator with the mentors and the money.”

According to Ruder, another part of the center’s mission is to be there for good student ideas that look like they have real-world legs.

Speed mentoring, special events and classes from different programs can, through the center, be organized in one place that students can check in with and rely on to remain up-to-date.

Right now, “you have to fight through fences,” Ruder said. “It will take awhile to tear those fences down, but the center will give a pass, and it show you the opportunities you have.”

Ruder is keeping his feet on the ground and his eyes on the goal. “Our center should provide significant value to our students and faculty,” he said. “It shouldn’t exist just for the sake of saying we want to be more entrepreneurial.”