Kevin Gadd believes there should be a way to give entrepreneurs and business schools resources that can work together for the benefit of new and emerging companies.
That's the thinking behind
Venture Highway, a web-based service Gadd launched Dec. 31.
Venture Highway combines educational courses with tools gathered from Gadd's years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and former director of information technology commercialization at
TechColumbus. The new company is backed by
NCT Ventures, founded by fellow
Digital Storage alum Rich Langdale, Gadd says.
Venture Highway's educational component hinges on curriculum developed by Sharon Alvarez at Ohio State University's
Center for Entrepreneurship. Students will soon be able to access Business 290 online.
"Students will be able to sign into our website and see a weekly syllabus of what they're going to go through, and then they'll have readings -- content from Sharon Alvarez that she wants them to understand. The idea is that at the end of Business 290 the students will prepare an executive summary" of how they would establish a new business.
Gadd adds that he hopes "professors who are teaching entrepreneurism will see this as a novel, creative, fun way to teach entrepreneurism."
Students who have completed the course -- or non-students who are interested only in the other tools on the site -- can then tap site resources related to innovation, viability, planning, operations and exit.
"The final product from each of the modules is geared specifically toward sending it out to investment, or coaching, or somebody to get on your team," Gadd says.
Users currently can use the venture innovation tool and viability module; the others will be built out later, Gadd says. The innovation tool is free, while Venture Highway will charge between $100 and $200 for the other modules, as well as a fee for taking Business 290.
Source: Kevin Gadd, Venture Highway
Writer: Gene Monteith