AC 2007-2797: IMPROVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP TEAM PERFORMANCE THROUGH MARKET FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS, EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS, AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SUPPORT

Choosing the wrong technology—due to insurmountable technical hurdles, market limitations, or resource constraints—can be devastating to a start-up company. Either the company deftly changes directions or it ceases to exist. While experiencing these realities may provide invaluable entrepreneurial life lessons, because of structured academic calendars, course commitments, the requirement for grades, and other factors, it is very difficult to drop a technology or disband a company staffed by students fulfilling university educational requirements. Many university-based entrepreneurial education centers provide real-world projects for participating students. The University of Florida Integrated Technology Ventures (ITV) program, launched in Fall 2003, is designed to provide engineering, business and law students with an intense, immersive entrepreneurial experience. Participating students are members of a virtual company led by a serial entrepreneur who acts as a volunteer CEO. The focus of the company is to commercialize university intellectual property. To improve the chances of successfully adopting a new technological innovation and boosting entrepreneurial team performance, we propose an improved way to select suitable technologies, better timing for delivering market-driven requirements to product designers, and enhanced understanding of the implications of business and technical decisions with regards to impact on intellectual property.