In a queer twist of fate, I've been selected as an Eller Center Entrepreneurial Fellow at the University of Arizona. (My business partner calls me an "Eller Feller.")This honor allows me to mentor students who want to start their own businesses. Yesterday I went to Tucson to see the finals of the Center's student business plan competition and to be introduced as a Fellow.
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The message about my selection happened to arrive when I was in New Zealand, and the Eller Center people couldn't understand why I didn't respond to their request for a bio to include in the advance materials for the ceremony. I must have been the least timely Fellow they've ever had.

But when I finally checked my voicemail and snail mail and found out I had been selected, I was really excited. After all, not only did I begin my career teaching college students, but I consort with entrepreneurs all day long, and I wanted to see if there was any difference between the crazies I see on a daily basis and people who go through an entrepreneurship program in a highly rated business school.

In addition, Karl and Stevie Eller are long-time friends of mine, and although they were as surprised as I was by the selecton committee's choices, they were enthusiastic and supportive as I received my award.

So I sat through the finals of the Business Plan Competition, listening to the ideas and the presentations of both graduates and undergrads. Among the finalists were a mortarless block company, a proposal to build USA-style truck stops at border crossings in Mexico, an all-natural pasta sauce company, and a social venture, Casas sin Fronteras, to build affordable housing in Mexico.

The judges were all experienced businesspeople, from Karl Eller himself to Anne Mariucci, who runs the Del Webb division of Pulte Homes. As the students got up and made their presentations for funding, I was struck by their professionalism. Clearly, they are well-trained by the program in making those Powerpoints and speaking about their competition, their marketing strategies, and the experience of their teams. As finalists doing student projects, they were far better prepared than most of the "real" entrepreneurs looking for "real" money.

But there were some down sides.

Sadly, all the women entrepreneurial teams wore matching suits, which made them look like flight attendants. (I'll give them a little mentoring on this subject next year :-)) Yes, I know in the Internet era all the entrepreneurial teams wore matching logo'ed golf shirts, but that's really over.

More disappointing the business ideas that reached the finals were not high tech; they were largely improvements on existing concepts. The background of the student presenters was *business*, rather than innovation, and I missed the piece about revolutionizing the world of telecommunications or bioscience or information technology that I am used to hearing from Stealthmode clients. Here, as at ASU, there seems to be a disconnect between the engineering school and the business school.

Last, it seemed as though the students had come to the program with ideas they wanted to take back to their home towns -- largely outside of Arizona. Not one of the presentations I saw (I didn't see all of them, however), planned to start a business in Arizona.

What was really cool was the skill sets these students have developed in running a business -- understanding the financial models and presenting how they will make money.

WHat was even more exciting was that Anne Mariucci told me that she could help the women who wanted to build affordable housing in Mexico achieve their dream, since Pulte Homes is the biggest builder in Mexico. With Anne as a strategic partner, that project will surely come to fruition.

And that's how the world of entrepreneurship works: someone with an idea presents it to someone with resources, and as a team they make it happen.

The Eller School's program is a model of how to draw the community into the university, too; there are now more than sixty Fellows who offer their expertise to the program by reading business plans, judging competitions, speaking to classes, and mentoring students. I can�t wait to be one of them.

Namaste,

Francine