The Daily Titan’s Cesar Gamboa has published a nice piece about our new center called the Center for Innovation. Spearheaded by Director John Bradley Jackson and Chairman of the Board Mike Ames, the Center for Innovation (CFI) will serve as a business incubator to the extended CSUF community. The first outpost for the CFI will be in Placentia thanks to our partnership with that city.
The way the CFI will work is that once a business has been accepted they will be able to utilize the business services at the physical location, get access to the CFI’s network of mentors and receive customized help from the CFI. From acceptance to launch each business will “incubate” for approximately six months and then they will have hopefully created a strong enough foundation for themselves (maybe through funding or through enough sales) that they will be able to flourish on their own.
Here’s a bit from Gamboa’s piece titled “Center for Innovation to help Future Entrepreneurs“:
In addition to the resources provided by the incubator, Jackson plans to help students develop their ideas by providing guidance from veteran coaches and helping them to set milestones for the developing concepts.
The incubator has already begun attracting attention, Jackson said.
“We already have people knocking on our door”, he said. “We’ve had a faculty member come forward with an interesting application. We have an engineering student who has a device.”
The center’s steering committee will be composed of Center for Entrepreneurship board members, community members and CSUF alumni. The committee will include alumnus Dan Black, a 1967 graduate and major donor.
As part of the center’s efforts to reflect the entrepreneurial spirit, each idea will receive a customized process to help it get off the ground, Jackson said.
“We’re looking for entrepreneurs with character and ethics because that’s consistent with the goals of the university,” Jackson said. “We’ll do a detailed interview that helps us determine, not only the fit within the incubator, but his or her needs and how we might help them. So it’s like a custom support structure.”
If you are interested in learning more about the Center for Innovation (including how to apply) please contact John Bradley Jackson at jjackson@fullerton.edu or at (657) 278-8413.
[Picture Credits: CSUF Center for Innovation Founders Tour
The group that toured the CSUF Center for Innovation’s first location in Placentia poses for a picture while Director John Bradley Jackson holds up the signed lease.
From L to R: Dr. Robert Kovacev (Professor, CSUF Entrepreneurship), Robert Koch (Dean, College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics), Jeff Longshaw (Professor, CSUF Entrepreneurship), John Bradley Jackson (Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Center for Innovation & Professor, CSUF Entrepreneurship), Bob Godlasky (Business Advisor, SCORE), Wally Hicks (President, Affluent Target Marketing), France Helfer (Entrepreneur), Tom Miller (Professor, CSUF Entrepreneurship), Raj Manek (VP International Sales, Vesuki, Inc.), Phillip Stinis (Director of Business Development, Skytypers), Ken Guchereau (Owner, Guchereau Company), Zack Dafaallah (Professor, CSUF Entrepreneurship) & Dr. Mike Ames (Chairman of the Board, CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship).]