Steps to Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan

Introduction

The University of Michigan has proven to be a fertile environment for innovation, supporting students who have gone on to build billion dollar corporations, from Google to Duo Security. This entrepreneurial ecosystem is supported by the many organizations, venture funds, and accelerators that Michigan offers its aspiring student start up founders. However, having so many options can be overwhelming and hard to navigate.

In this post, we look at breaking down these entrepreneurial resources and why you might want to explore each of them. To do so, it will draw on the greatest resource which the University offers, its students, and provide firsthand insight into the experiences of previous student founders to best help you on your journey.

The Student Founders

The following student founders have all engaged extensively in the entrepreneurial journey at Michigan. Through interviewing each of them, we looked to uncover specific entrepreneurial opportunities and advice that would best translate to your own journeys. Their advice is echoed through the article itself and also through quotations that are spread throughout the article.

Stephanie Shoo (Founding Member and Executive Board of MProduct): Stephanie (BBA/COE Class of 2021) is a co-founder of Kare, a wellness mobile app that provides anonymous support communities to college students within the same institution. Kare strives to bridge the gap in the university support system by providing an accessible and immediate peer to peer platform.

Yash Ramchandani (MProduct Cohort 2019): Yash (BBA/COE Class of 2022) is one of the co-founders of Wander, a social media network for the intellectually curious. Wander strives to help its users to source, engage with, prioritize, and retain high-quality, network-sourced articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos.

Leo Luo: Leo (BBA/SI Class of 2021) started the Consumer Startups Newsletter during the summer of 2020 with hopes of helping people stay up to date on stories, trends, and recent developments in the consumer space through sharing insider stories on early-stage consumer startups, fun articles, and random entrepreneurship ideas.

Varun Madan & Amulya Parmar: Varun (BBA/LSA Class of 2021) and Amulya (BBA/COE Class of 2022) are the co-founders of LeaseMagnets, a company that helps property owners transform the renting process bringing the leasing team’s persona alive on their website, making it easier to show renters around, answer questions, and close leases 24/7.

1. Getting Started

Many entrepreneurs start off wanting to do it all themselves, but in reality, expanding your team and utilizing external resources is beneficial for the growth of your business. Whether you’ve taken the first steps into building your startup or are yet to conceptualize an idea, take advantage of the following resources to expand your entrepreneurial skill set or find inspiration.

“Always remember that you don’t have to find every single solution. In fact, take advantage of third party services as soon as you get started! Whether you are learning anything from Webflow to Zapier, be resourceful.” — Amulya Parmar, Co-founder & CEO of LeaseMagnets, BBA/CoE Class of 2022

Student Entrepreneurship Communities

The people that comprise your team are those that will define the culture of your start up. Building a team that complements each other’s skills and personalities will make those late nights and unexpected setbacks so much easier to overcome. Here is a list of groups on campus that can help connect you with like minded individuals.

”Any business solution or core problem can iterate over time, but no matter what the obstacle you’re facing is the one thing that stays constant is the people you’re working with because of your passion for working with them.” — Varun Madan, Co-founder of LeaseMagnets, BBA/LSA Class of 2021

• MProduct — MProduct is a community for students passionate about building great products. Members explore the challenges of ideating, developing, and launching successful products — whether at a large company or small startup — through diverse discussions about product management concepts, consulting for local tech startups, fireside chats with industry product leaders, and mentorship from senior members and alumni.
• Shift Creator Space — Shift is a creator space home to a community of artists, designers, developers and makers who want to bring their ideas to life. It is a great space for University of Michigan students who want to pursue their passions outside of the classroom and discover a community of motivated doers.
• UpRound VC — UpRound Ventures is the first full service student run venture capital firm at the University of Michigan. They source student and alumni ventures, fund them through their own capital, provide consultation services through their accelerator, and connect them to their network of 30+ VC firms across the country for further funding and growth.
• SEPi — Sigma Eta Pi is the pre-professional co-ed Entrepreneurship Fraternity on campus, home to a diverse brotherhood all united by a singular passion for entrepreneurship and creating innovative solutions.
• optiMize — optiMize is dedicated to uniting students passionate about social change in order to turn ideas into tangible solutions. Individual students and/or student teams can participate in their Social Innovation Challenge (their co-curricular project incubator that provides workshops, mentorship, and resources to help ideas take shape). optiMize is a great platform to meet students passionate about tackling social issues with innovative solutions.
• MPowered — MPowered is Michigan’s oldest entrepreneurship organization that works to bring distinguished companies and students together to lead initiatives across campus. These consist of anything from pitch competitions to makeathons.

Software Development Opportunities / Student Organizations

If you want to hone your technical skill set before beginning your entrepreneurial journey, checkout the list of software development organizations and opportunities on campus below. Let’s get those fingers in shape for some programming.

“Although technical expertise can strengthen your ability to lead product development, what matters more is your ability to navigate the challenges of building a product end to end by speaking like a developer. You will learn many things through the process itself — don’t let a lack of technical experience intimidate you!” — Stephanie Shoo, Co-founder of Kare and founding member of MProduct, BBA/COE Class of 2021

• Michigan Hackers — Michigan Hackers looks to provide high quality resources for students to contribute to society through computer science. From weekly hack nights to informative talks with established companies, there are lots of opportunities for growth around software development.
• MHacks — MHacks is a 36 hour hackathon run by Michigan students. You’re welcome to bring a team or come alone and you’ll have the freedom to learn and create whilst working on a project with other passionate creators. It provides a great opportunity to network with other creators and professionals.
• ArborHacks — ArborHacks is a teaching organization which promotes the learning of computer science. It focuses on the facilitation of hackathons, competitions and workshops and utilizes these platforms in order to help individuals become creators.
• Code-M — Formerly known as CSE Scholars, Code-M looks to organize corporate events, workshops and project teams, and hosts a day long tech event called “Code:Blue” that functions much like a developer conference/ted talk.
• Shift Creator Space — Listed under Student Entrepreneur Communities.

Design-Centric Organizations

From software to hardware and from the way your product functions to the way it interacts with the user, design encapsulates so many facets of entrepreneurship. Leverage these organizations to further your own design experience or to gain expertise from veterans of the field.

• UMSI Design Consulting — UMSI Design Consulting is led by School of Information graduate students and provides user experience design methods and consulting services to student entrepreneurs and local start ups. Use and learn user-centered design methods for your own future pursuits!
• Design Clinic — The Design Clinic is another UMSI program that seeks innovative solutions to information challenges. Here, students can build a design portfolio through client-driven portfolios and learn more about design in the real world.
• CHISL Design — CHISL Design is a branding group of designers and strategists who offer branding strategy consultancy to local businesses.

University Organizations

The University also manages entrepreneurial programs that consist of course offerings, funding opportunities, entrepreneurial hubs, and more. These programs are generally affiliated with specific departments or schools but are usually available to any Michigan student and are definitely worth your time.

• Center for Entrepreneurship — The Center for Entrepreneurship is run by the College of Engineering. It provides courses, a speaker series, abroad programs, and much more all centered around entrepreneurship. No matter your passions or ambitions, the resources it provides will expose you to new ways of thinking to support your unique goals!
• Entrepreneurs Leadership Program — The Entrepreneurs Leadership Program is a year long program run by the Center for Entrepreneurship for a select cohort of students that provides training and mentorship across two three credit entrepreneurial courses, exclusive access to meetings with founders or investors, as well as a summer internship at a growing start up.
• Zell Lurie Institute — The Zell Lurie Institute is Ross’s department of entrepreneurship dedicated to advancing the knowledge and practice of entrepreneurship through academic programs, symposium, competitions, and global community outreach. ZLI also runs a number of fantastic opportunities and funds that will be useful in the later stages of running a startup.

“ZLI is home to an amazing team of advisors. One of them, Rashi Menon, was the director of product management at Yahoo. In thirty minutes she taught us to think about so many different facets of our product that we hadn’t even considered before.” — Yash Ramchandani, Co-founder of Wander, BBA/COE Class of 2022

• Innovate Blue — Innovate Blue is the University’s hub for entrepreneurship and innovation, home to over 15 programs and centers in entrepreneurship and more than 30 entrepreneurial student organizations. It is a great resource to understand what Michigan has to offer regarding entrepreneurship!

Course Offerings

The University of Michigan also offers many courses that will help develop your entrepreneurial mindset. These courses, as listed below, cover anything from patents to UI development and are a great way to further the skills or knowledge you desire.

Entrepreneurship Minor — This is a 15 credit minor for any background or area of study which covers everything and anything entrepreneur related! Checkout some of the classes offered below.

• ENTR 390 — Intro to Entrepreneurial Design: Build foundational knowledge in entrepreneurial design and learn to apply these skills in a hands-on lab setting.
• ENTR 407 — Entrepreneurship Hour: Engage in a weekly speaker series and learn from the successes and failures of entrepreneurial pioneers.
• ENTR 408 — Patent Law: Learn about intellectual property law with a focus on patent law. You’ll gain an understanding of the fundamentals and be able to identify patentable ideas and infringement issues.
• ENTR 410 — Finding Your Venture: Simplify the business creation process and learn to both identify good opportunities and walk away from bad ones.

EECS Courses

• EECS 441 — Mobile App Development: Delve into entrepreneurship, team management, product design, project management, and much more within the context of mobile app development. In this course you will identify an innovative mobile app idea and design and develop the app for product launch by the end of the term.
• EECS 485 — Web Systems: Learn about modern web systems and technologies, covering both front end and back end. In this course, you will build an Instagram and Google clone, developing skills that will help get your business off the ground.
• EECS 493 — User Interface Development: Develop your understanding of designing computer system user interfaces that will help improve the functionality, interaction design, and usability of your products.

2. Startup Creation

With the foundation laid, not only is it time to start thinking about building the actual product, but you should also start to explore the resources Michigan offers growing startups, from funding opportunities to legal assistance.

Choosing your Technology Stack

Choosing a tech stack is one of the first decisions you will make regarding the development of your product. Inexperienced creators will often get caught up in the endless options they have at their disposal, delaying development until each and every alternative has been explored extensively. While choosing the right stack can make things simpler in the long run, oftentimes it is better to put your team’s knowledge base before the technology itself. This way, you remove any learning curves and allow the startup process to truly begin.

“Don’t spend too much time deciding what languages to use, it doesn’t make too much of a difference. Just use what you are familiar with and start from there.” Yash Ramchandani, Co-founder of Wander, BBA/COE Class of 2022

Free Tools to Help Accelerate Growth

There are many third-party tools that can help accelerate the growth of your business, assisting with things from prototyping to maintaining team communication and structure. Through the University, a lot of these resources, which are commonly paywalled, can be accessed for free and are definitely impactful in running a startup

• Figma — Collaboratively create highly interactive prototypes
• Slack — Communicate in this collaboration hub that can help your new startup team work together seamlessly
• Zoom — Remotely connect with your team and utilize modern communication methods such as breakout rooms, video recording, and much more
• Google Calendar Appointments — Google Calendar has many under-utilized functions to help arrange group meetings and is incredibly useful in scheduling customer discovery.
• Notion — An all-in-one workspace that can help organize sprints, debugging, and so much more.

Funding Opportunities

Having access to funds helps with product development and market research, whether you need access to certain technologies or paywalled resources. Utilize the following competitions, grants, and funds to acquire additional capital that can make all the difference in the early development of your start up.

• Intercollegiate Competitions — Intercollegiate competitions are a great opportunity to pit yourself against students from other universities, expanding your network whilst teaching you more about business ventures. If you place well, depending on the competition you could also receive considerable funding. Check the link for a list of upcoming competition dates provided by the Zell Lurie Institute.
• Michigan Business Challenge — MBC is a campus-wide, multi-round business plan competition which provides students the opportunity to win cash prizes totalling over $100,000. Through the competition, you will also receive feedback from leaders and veterans in the business community.
• Zell Funds and Programs — The Zell Lurie Institute offers many opportunities for funding through funds and programs. The Eugene Applebaum Dare to Dream grant program puts University of Michigan students through the business creation process by offering business development seminars and awarding $300–5,000 in grants to selected individuals or teams. To determine the best choice for your startup, visit ZLI office hours and discuss with a counselor.

Legal Assistance

As a student founder, you will likely be inexperienced in dealing with the legal matters your startup will face as it grows. It is therefore incredibly important that you connect with the right resources and people to help you when you need legal advice or assistance.

“Once you have clearly defined roles and responsibilities within your team, you should sign a founder’s agreement early in the process and make the equity split very clear. This is important to avoid future disagreements and to provide clarity over expectations.” — Stephanie Shoo, Co-founder of Kare and founding member of MProduct, BBA/COE class of 2021

“One website I really like for legal purposes is Avodocs — it has a lot of free resources in terms of founder’s agreement, IP, onboarding, privacy, terms of use, etc. If students want to quickly incorporate a company, they should look into Stripe Atlas. You only have to fill out a bit of information and they can help you create a legal framework in 10 or so minutes.” — Leo Luo, Founder of Consumer Startups Newsletter, BBA/SI class of 2021

The above quotations reflect advice from previous student founders and generally, should be extremely helpful. However, legal issues or advice often differs on a case by case basis, and if you are making important legal decisions, professional legal counsel should be consulted.

• Michigan Law Entrepreneurship Clinic — The Entrepreneurship Clinic provides no-cost legal services to student-led startups. With legal representation, office hours, workshops, and blog posts on entrepreneurial legal issues, it is a great resource to utilize for any sort of legal assistance.
• Michigan Student Legal Services — Michigan Student Legal Services (SLS) is a division of Student Life that assists currently enrolled students regarding their legal rights. In a case where they are unable to assist you, they can connect you with an established lawyer for a no-cost 90-minute consultation regarding the issue.

Wrapping Up

With so many resources at your disposal, it is important to first focus on developing a foundational understanding of your business and product ideas. This is so you understand what you are looking to achieve in order to help identify the right people or organizations to approach and provide the answers you need.

As mentioned earlier, it is also extremely easy to feel overwhelmed by Michigan’s many entrepreneurial opportunities, but if you want to learn more about specific organizations, don’t be afraid to reach out!

MProduct Links

Medium: https://medium.com/mproduct

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mproduct

Website: https://www.mproduct.org/

If you are interested in MProduct check out the above links to learn more about who we are, what we do, and how to get involved. Fill out the interest form to stay up to date with MProduct events and learn more about being a part of our next cohort!

This article was written by Erik Wihlborn, with help from the MProduct Executive Board and the supporting Creators.

Erik is a Sophomore at the University of Michigan College of Engineering studying Industrial Engineering with a possible minor in Computer Science. He enjoys reading, hiking, listening to podcasts and soccer.