It’s been back to school over the past year for Jim Cobb, founder of The Bloodhound Group. He spent two semesters sharing his expertise as an executive in residence (EIR) for the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Certificate Program at North Carolina State University (NCSU). The TEC Program is part of the University’s Jenkins Graduate School of Management, offering graduate students the opportunity to engage in all stages of a technology company’s formation and growth. The course typically comprises MBA and STEM students from across NCSU’s master’s and Ph.D. programs.
Participants are divided into teams, each of which evaluates three technologies over the course of the school year. With guidance from their EIRs, the students research all the kinds of products that could be created from the technologies, narrowing the process down to one technology-product pairing with the greatest startup potential.
Cobb and two other EIRs worked with their assigned students to launch Terso, a chronic wound care company. The executives brought their expertise and guidance to each step in the process, assisting with assessing technologies, conceptualizing products, evaluating potential markets and developing market-entry and expansion strategies, as well as the final presentation.
The students aren’t the only ones benefiting from the TEC Program. Many EIRs take learning from their mentoring experiences and apply it to their own businesses. “The teaching and coaching process is most definitely a two-way street,” says Cobb. “Watching our team explore the process of connecting technology to product features and market benefits has been both enlightening and rewarding.”
Read more at the NCSU TEC program