UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research
"Removing barriers and creating gateways for those who seek the entrepreneurial path..."
Our Mission
To create a world-class center for entrepreneurship education, research, and service. Provide a forum to educate students who seek to create jobs rather than just have one. Advocate creating economic value through new venture creation.
Founded in 1997, the Entrepreneurship Center's vision and mission is to provide a state-of-the-art entrepreneurship curriculum and research base not only for potential student entrepreneurs and scholars, but also for people in the many organizations that interact with small, entrepreneurial and family owned businesses on a daily basis. The Entrepreneurship Center seeks collaborative efforts between students and faculty from across the University to remove barriers and create gateways to entrepreneurism. Under the leadership of the Center's Founder/Director, Dr. Charles H. Matthews, the University of Cincinnati was ranked as one of the top 50 programs for Entrepreneurship in the U.S. in 2001 (Success Magazine) and one of top 100 programs in the U.S. (Entrepreneur Magazine) in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
In September 2008, UC's entrepreneurship program was ranked 21st by Entrepreneur Magazine and the Princeton Review in their sixth annual ranking of the top graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation.
The UC MBA New Venture Business Plan Competition provides an internal forum while the UC Spirit of Enterprise Graduate Business Plan Competition (intercollegiate) provides an external forum for students to “road test” their venture concepts. The Bearcat Bridge Fund provides seed capital for new student ventures and the Bearcat Launch Pad is a strategic alliance with local companies and organizations to provide low-cost office space for student and faculty ventures.
Charles H. Matthews, (entrepreneurship, e-commerce, international), Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Executive Director. Faculty include: Sidney L. Barton (family business); Tom Dalziel (entrep. and corporate entrep.), Rajan Kamath (competitive advantage), Ilse Hawkins and Peter Burell, (legal aspects of entrepreneurship), Ralph Brueggemann (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), Ron Meyers (New Venture Finance), and Trevor Stansbury (Corporate Entrepreneurship). The Entrepreneurship Center works in concert with a 14-member advisory board, including venture capitalists, technology executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, accountants, and attorneys.
Student Start Ups and Success
Deck Techs, David Behrman (MBA 1993). Full service deck treatment and product line. Instant Refund Tax Service, Fesum Ogbazion (BBA 1996). Started full service tax preparation service while still a student in 1993, grew to 26 stores in the Midwest and sold business to Jackson-Hewitt for $3.0 million three years later.
Robert Ratterman and Christopher Downie, both BBA 1995, founders of Up4Sale.com (sold to Ebay in 2001).
UC teams successfully compete in numerous business plan competitions including U. of Oregon New Venture Championship, U. of Manitoba's Stuart Clark Venture Challenge, and others. Also in 2002 and 2006, UC teams made the finals of the MBA Jungle Business Plan Challenge in New York and San Francisco.
