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The University of New Hampshire serves local and statewide business by funding and training entrepreneurs who want to launch green startups. BY VENKY VENKATACHALAM STON E SU B /G ETTY I MAG ES S ome of today's most exciting new startups are built around sustainable products and green manufacturing, which have many advantages for businesses big and small. Sustainable businesses can be a source of job growth during a down economy; they can lower operating costs as well as environmental costs; and they can lessen our dependency on fossil fuels by diversifying the energy sources we use. But the green marketplace is challenging, and many new ventures have difficulty commercializing green technologies, developing new market niches, raising money, and finding staff. This is where business schools come in. They not only can train their students to work in green enterprises, they can help local entrepreneurs launch and commercialize their businesses, thereby improving local economies and strengthening the schools' ties to their communities. In 2010, the University of New Hampshire's Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics partnered with the state of New Hamp- shire to create Green Launching Pad (GLP), an initiative designed to stimulate activity in clean tech industries throughout the state. This green technology commercialization program, which is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, connects entrepreneurs and private industry with faculty, students, and state-level resources. Our goal is to have positive impact across five dimensions: environment, economy, energy, entrepreneurship, and education. The lessons we've learned can help other schools stimulate green tech in their own states. How It Works Operating annually as a competitive, two-stage grant program, GLP focuses on seed-stage enterprises with ideas that need to be commercialized. In the first phase, GLP invites entrepreneurs to submit two-page pre-proposals of 1,000 words or less. In these documents, entrepreneurs describe how their new ventures might increase energy efficiency or contribute to economic development, give technical specifics about the project, discuss market potential, and note the eneurs expertise the project will require. These pre-proposals are evaluated by members of the GLP Advisory Council, as well as experts from industry, government, academia, and the nonprofit sector. Entrepreneurs selected to go on to the second stage submit much more detailed proposals (see "Making the Proposal" on page 40) and make brief presentations to a panel of judges. Then, up to six teams are selected to receive up to US$100,000 in startup funding. They also are assigned mentor volunteers, all retired or semi-retired business leaders, as well as faculty advisors and interdisciplinary student teams. These outside advisors offer help in areas such as R&D, market research, website development, design and engineering, sales and marketing, and patent and trademark applications. Winning teams have six months to commercialize their inventions. During this time, they must develop a sales and marketing plan, secure new customers, protect their IPs, and raise new capital from angel investors and/or venture capital firms. Each team provides periodic updates on its progress so it can receive more assistance as needed. During GLP's first two years, most companies were able to achieve these milestones within six months. Others experienced delays—in two cases, because founding team members faced personal and health difficulties. In those instances, the advice of mentors and other industry experts helped the companies make up lost ground. BizEd November/December 2013 November/Decemb er 2013 b 37