The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) will be launching their new entrepreneurial program this September in hopes of supporting start-up businesses by Carleton students.
The program, called Hatch, will run during the school year and will assist six teams of Carleton entrepreneurs build their businesses, according to Fahd Alhattab and Renee Tavares, directors of the new program.
“In Canada today, start-ups and small businesses are what really drive the economy,” said Tavares, a fourth-year commerce student and former president of the Carleton Entrepreneurial Association. “Hatch will allow students to graduate with something more than just a degree. They will be able to leave university with something really tangible.”
The program will mentor the teams of student entrepreneurs throughout the school year by monitoring their progress, offering advice, bringing in speakers, having networking events, as well as connecting them to entrepreneurial opportunities outside of the school.
“The idea is it’s a full package,” said Alhattab, a fourth-year political science and economics student at Carleton. “It takes you from a point and takes you to another point, and there are clear skill sets we want to develop on the way.”
The program, which has been in planning since October 2013, will be funded by CUSA, receiving $25,000 of CUSA’s 2014-15 budget. In addition, it will also receive funding from Tony Bailetti, a professor at the Sprott School of Business, who is planning to match the money received by CUSA over the next two years.
The program will be situated throughout the spacious 1125@Carleton, a living lab that resides on the fourth and fifth floor of Carleton’s Human Computer Interaction Building.
A living lab is essentially a place where researchers and innovators, mainly outside of Carleton, come to work on their projects collaboratively, and since 1125@Carleton already has a few start-up companies working in the space, it makes for a perfect environment for students to begin their start-ups, according to Alhattab and Tavares.
“We chose 1125 because it’s a living lab,” Tavares said. “This environment naturally creates idea creation. Ideas are being bounced around with people who are actually doing it. It’s going to be more than just a space.”
Alhattab and Tavares will choose which students will be admitted into the program by having a pitch night, similar to the format seen on the CBC show, Dragons’ Den.
The pitch night, which has yet to have a date, will involve teams of Carleton students pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges including Alhattab and Tavares. The six teams who appear to be the best fit for the program will then be chosen.
These teams will then take part in the Hatch program for this upcoming school year, with the whole process then being repeated the following year with fresh students and new ideas. However, as Alhattab understands, a lot of the planning is still up in the air and capable of change.
“We’re still ‘hatching’ ourselves,” Alhattab said with a laugh. “We’re like a start-up ourselves. We need to be flexible and ready for changes ahead.”
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