Newswise — The Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University’s Couri Hatchery, located within the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship, recently achieved a major milestone – 100 student businesses are now part of the incubator, a student-centered, supportive co-working space and mentorship program that helps student ventures at any level, from idea through start-up, development and growth. “Through collaboration with organizations across the Syracuse University campus, including the leadership of IDEA and Stacey Keefe, we’ve been able to exponentially grow the Couri Hatchery at Whitman,” said Terry Brown, executive director of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship. “We help all kinds of business start-ups for which our students seek support from those who are trying to provide technology that will be disruptive to the market to those who simply have a unique idea. No business concept is too crazy and nothing is impossible for the Couri Hatchery.” Promoting and supporting business development among entrepreneurial students across the Syracuse University campus, the Couri Hatchery is named for John Couri '63 BA (A&S), co-founder of Duty Free International and president of the Couri Foundation. Focused on streamlining innovative, emerging student ventures, the Hatchery provides a broad scope of services including on-campus office space and support, product realization and development services, and business consultation through community mentors and alumni entrepreneurs. It provides SU student entrepreneurs with real-world experience in business innovation and creation, while stimulating interaction between student entrepreneurs and our faculty, students, administrators, staff and community mentors. “The Couri Hatchery is one of our best success stories at Whitman,” said Alex McKelvie, chair of the entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises department at the Whitman School. “The 100 companies we have now have collectively raised more than $2.4 million in external capital over the past year, which is amazing.” Businesses that have initiated within the Couri Hatchery include, Golden Gear, ThunderCakes, Funk 'n Waffles, Wholesale Jewelry Liquidators, as well as including Brand-Yourself and Dream Water, which were featured on ABC’s Shark Tank. Two past tenants, Solstice Power and Azeer, were recently awarded $25,000 each from the Grants for Growth program through CenterState CEO. The Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE) program is a flagship program at the Whitman School at Syracuse University. Consistently ranked as one of the top programs in the nation, Whitman’s entrepreneurship program helps undergraduate, masters and Ph.D. students discover their innate entrepreneurial potential, giving them a set of tools and perspective to capitalize on that potential and help launch their careers. The underlying philosophy of the EEE program is experiential learning. The entire program is dedicated to providing hands-on opportunities for students to live entrepreneurship, and offers teaching tracks in new venture creation, corporate entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and family business. Syracuse University has made a major commitment to entrepreneurship, led by the Whitman School. In the 2013-14 academic year, the EEE department at Whitman taught over 1,800 undergraduates, including 779 in the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course alone. Approximately 80 percent of the students in that course are from outside of Whitman. The EEE Department also taught over 400 graduate students and currently has five full-time entrepreneurship doctoral students. The Whitman School heavily emphasizes experiential learning, and the entrepreneurship department is committed to providing a myriad of opportunities for students to gain and apply real-world perspective and skills. The Falcone Center of Entrepreneurship at Whitman makes connections with the community and supports the entrepreneurship program’s outreach efforts. Through outreach programs at Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (WISE) Symposium, WISE Women's Business Center and South Side Innovation Center, Whitman’s Falcone Center serves more than 2,000 clients annually who have grossed over $10 million in revenue. The EEE program is also the originator of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), which is now offered at seven other institutions around the United States. The EBV program, and its partner programs, provides the skills, resources and infrastructure for entrepreneurship and small business management for service-connected disabilities and military family members who serve in a caregiver role to a veteran with a service-connected disability. More than 700 veterans have graduated from EBV universities since 2007.

About the Martin J. Whitman School of ManagementThe Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University educates students to become successful entrepreneurial leaders in a rapidly changing global economy. The Whitman School offers BS, MBA, MS and PhD programs in accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, management, marketing, real estate, retail management and supply chain management, all accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The school's faculty includes internationally known scholars and researchers, as well as successful entrepreneurs and business leaders. In any given year, the Whitman School is home to nearly 2,000 doctoral, graduate and undergraduate students. For more information about the Whitman School, visit http://whitman.syr.edu and follow us on social media at http://whitman.syr.edu/follow.

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