As a school with a business accelerator, Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation is a new approach to developing the next generation of high-growth firms. Tapping the Kauffman Foundation's vast entrepreneurship knowledge and networks, the program seeks to accelerate the number and success of new firms by offering a new method for teaching and training founders of dynamic high-growth, scalable businesses in a lab setting, while studying the “science of startups” in the process.

Based in Kansas City, Mo., the Kauffman Labs Education Ventures Program is looking for a select group of aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start fast-growth companies serving the education market. Those selected will participate in an intensive, hands-on training program over the course of several months.

This practical, hands-on program consists of highly customized education, training, tools, and mentoring to transform the aspiring entrepreneur into a full-fledged founder. Selected education entrepreneurs will be matched with entrepreneur mentors and experts in the finance, legal, and business communities to teach them how to take their innovative ideas to market. The program includes intensive educational training on every aspect of running a business, including establishing a brand, developing negotiation and presentation skills, going to scale, building financial models, validating the market, performing customer diligence, finding funding, building a management team, and developing a board of directors.

Who is a Candidate?

Kauffman Labs is seeking innovators of the top twenty entrepreneurial concepts for the education market. The candidate pool is as vast as the education industry itself, but the selection process will be competitive and open only to those education business concepts that show promise to be high-growth, scalable, and sustainable. Eligible candidates will be at least eighteen years old, be U.S. citizens or in the U.S. legally, and commit up to six months of full-time study, training, and business development to the program.

Beyond these key parameters, the education entrepreneur may:

• Be an individual entrepreneur or a team of up to three people
• Offer educational products, services or resources, technology innovations, or new learning models
• Exist in any form, from a business concept to a young startup (incorporated less than eighteen months as of September 20, 2010)

To best evaluate and support each applicant, we will ask questions about your innovation, professional, and entrepreneurial experiences. As you'll see when you get to that portion of the application, lack of experience in a particular area will not disqualify you.

Kauffman Labs will consider applicants at virtually any stage in the startup process: You may have no more than an idea, a concept, or an initial plan to change the world. Or you may have an existing firm, as long as it has been incorporated for less than eighteen months. No stage has an advantage over another. However, if your venture has received more than $1 million in financing or grant funding, you may be too far along in the process to fit in this program.

Still Interested? Or Maybe Not So Much?

If what we've described so far sounds like it's for you, read on. If it doesn't seem like a fit but you still have entrepreneurial dreams, check out the “Find Your Path” link to the left of this page for a listing of entrepreneurial resources that may be the best road for you to take.

Deadlines

The application deadline is September 20, 2010. Selection, workshops, and training run from November 2010 through May 2011.

Questions?

Kauffman Labs has scheduled two calls to walk through the program and answer questions for interested applicants. As an applicant, you will be notified of the call schedule in the next few weeks. If you have questions about the application itself, send an email to info@kauffmanlabs.org.

Next Steps

If you are ready to apply yourself, read the application thoroughly. Gather your information. Then, startup!