Master's program aims to take student ideas to the market in 12 months, as they earn degree

By Anna B. Mitchell 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

GREENVILLE — Riley Csernica has at age 21 obtained a bioengineering degree, helped invent a patented shoulder brace and is a year away from launching her own company.

She is one of about 30 students taking part in Clemson University's new master's program in entrepreneurship, which pairs young people building business plans with the legal, financial, organizational and marketing expertise to get them off the ground.

"I was looking for jobs in bioengineering, and nothing was coming up," Csernica said. "Then I thought maybe I should start my own company."

To apply, students had to have an idea for a product or concept that they wanted to bring to the market.

Greg Pickett, the university's associate dean for its Greenville business campus, said he has assembled a team of instructors who have been building wealth and bringing products to the market for decades.

More than 100 business professionals in a range of fields from the Greenville area have also volunteered to serve as student mentors.

At the end of the program's 12 months, the students will also get a chance to present their ideas to investors in Greenville, Charleston and Atlanta.

One of the program's adjunct faculty members is Matt Klein, an account executive for Neustar, a data and market analysis company that does work for companies such as Disney and American Express.

"Who gets that kind of support when starting a business?" Klein said. "I wish I'd had that kind of help. It's a huge advantage, to connect and network and talk to these people."

Klein got his MBA at the Babson School of Business, a 20-minute drive from MIT and Harvard. Babson attracted some of the brightest engineers in the world, he said.

"Clemson is one of the best engineering schools in the country," Klein said. "It lends itself to help incubate and launch these engineering ideas."

Clemson's Research Foundation and its Office of Technology Transfer were created to take ideas from the classroom to the marketplace. Last year alone, faculty, students and staff disclosed 124 new technologies. Still, he said, too many ideas gather dust on a shelf.

"This will be a huge spark for Clemson," Klein said. "It just makes sense."

Student business plans include farm-to-market and poster websites, scientific devices and novelty items for corporate gifts. The students' ages range from 21 to 50.

While working with mentors and developing their products, students will also be expected to finished 36 hours of classroom curriculum in 12 months.

"We are trying to blend the entrepreneurial community with traditional curriculum," Pickett said. "We hope to have the best of both worlds."

In a five-week course this summer, Klein had students divide into teams to run marketplace simulations of make-believe companies.

"You have to make sure you have someone who is different from you on your team," Klein said. "Four bioengineering students will get slaughtered. You need sales, marketing and logistics expertise."

Klein is teaching students basic concepts such as how to read balance sheets and cash-flow statements, and he's also guiding them through strategies for their businesses.

"That's the meat and potatoes of the course," he said. "They are working on a project that essentially looks at the strategy of their idea and whether it will succeed."

McNair Law Firm's Doug Kim is doing an eight-week course on intellectual property law for the program.

"It's not just how to file a patent," Kim said. "That's the technical stuff. I want to understand your business. Is your goal to sell it in five years or to build a company you want your children to run?"

Leighton Cubbage, co-owner of Serrus Partners real estate company in Greenville, said he's tried to impart positive thinking to students in the program. Cubbage has launched dozens of companies and was named the state's entrepreneur of the year in 1993.

"A lot of these business plans will be changed, morphed and redone," Cubbage said. "An entrepreneur has to learn to adjust."

Csernica, a Mount Pleasant native, was part of an undergraduate engineering team that came up with a shoulder brace after speaking with physical therapists and athletes frustrated with existing options.

When someone's shoulder pops out of socket, its ligaments are compromised, making it tend to pop out again, she said.

"Our device provides enough support to stay in position while allowing a range of motion so you can still play a sport," Csernica said. "You can have it on during practice or in a game situation."

Klein said a dislocated shoulder ended his basketball career at the College of Charleston.

"She could be funded tomorrow," he said. "That's how strongly I feel about her idea. It's blue ocean. No one is doing it and there's a huge need."

Still, he said, Csernica has a few decisions to make. Does she license her idea to a major manufacturer? Does she set up her own shop? If she strikes out on her own, who does she need to pair up with?

Part of Csernica's MBA curriculum this summer was to intern with a computer software firm that is developing an application for event planners. The company is operating temporarily in the Next Building on Church Street in Greenville.

"When I first got this, I wondered what does making an app have to do with making a brace?" Csernica said. "But all startups have the same problems: dividing up equity, contacting lawyers for filing paperwork, creating pitches to investors. On and on, you see parallels."

Csernica said the program will keep her in South Carolina,"There are a lot of great resources — manufacturing, the entrepreneurial environment, lower cost of living and office space," she said. "There really is no need to go out of state."

Cubbage called the program "one of the most practical things I've ever been involved with.

"In a world where people are scrambling for jobs, here's an absolute epitome of a great institution trying to help people meet people and learn lessons before they go out and do it," Cubbage said. "It's a whole new way of thinking."