This is always one of my favorite times in the semester—when the DIVE project teams meet with their ventures to kick off projects. What is DIVE? DIVE is an acronym for the Discovery, Innovation, and Ventures Enterprise. It is made up of students in our Evening MBA program with an interest in venturing in some way —which might include starting their own company, joining a high-growth venture, or working with investors and entrepreneurs as a service provider (e.g., attorney, banking, consulting, etc.). The Evening MBA program of the IU Kelley School also has enterprises in supply chain management (gSCIE) and finance (FIND). The enterprises are key components of our graduate experience. Projects typically run from January through May/June.
As Director of DIVE (though I prefer “DIVE Master”) I accept about 20 folks each year who have gotten through most of the core classes—strategy, accounting, finance, economics, marketing, and operations—and are prepared to lend their expertise and training to a venture. DIVErs get real-world exposure to venture challenges such as funding, market focus, and operations with lean resources. It is a big step from the classroom to the venture world. Through the DIVE experience, these folks learn a lot more about the world of venturing, and if they really want to join that world! Of course, our DIVErs are the best of our top MBA students—which is saying a lot. DIVE is also a key differentiator in our entrepreneurship program.
What do the ventures get out of it? Well, these founders typically have limited managerial “bench strength” and face a variety of barriers to launch and/or growth. Our DIVE students not only have strong training in core functional areas, but also great experience in industry—including current active connections and a network. That is one advantage of the Kelley School locating its Evening MBA program in Indy—great access to the business and venture community and associated network.
We have connected with DeveloperTown this year for a number of DIVE projects. DeveloperTown (DT) is a really cool IT and software development company based in Broad Ripple. By partnering with clients, often young high potential start-ups, DT helps develop a robust technology infrastructure necessary for growth—but takes an equity position so it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. DT also has a unique and really interesting structure. Each Developer has his or her own “house” in DeveloperTown to decorate and call home. When projects require collaboration, the developers can literally roll their houses together. Of course, having our DIVErs work with serial entrepreneurs like Michael Cloran and John Wechsler (partners at DT) is a big bonus.
As usual, we have a great range of projects and ventures to work with this year. We have some pre-revenue true start-ups like:
- Musical DNA, who is developing a new approach combining 3D graphics and gaming elements for music education
- uFlavor, a customized beverage company
- TransitionU, a venture helping students bridge the transition from high school to college successfully
- FAST Biotech, taking a revolutionary technology for assessing kidney function real-time to market.
Rounding out the mix is a social venture in the Dominican Republic called EcoBricks, for which the students will help develop a sustainable business model to transform waste into building materials.
In coming weeks I hope to share more about each of these projects—in the meantime, I love hearing about the cool things going on in our local venture community, and learning more about our DIVErs and how they plan to help these ventures. These companies will do great things, and we hope DIVE can play a part. So DIVErs down—and game on!
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