Eric Menkhus
Greetings from the Innovation Advancement Program, formerly Technology Ventures Services Group, at Arizona State University, and the inaugural edition of The Catalyst. This newsletter provides interesting information about our efforts to support entrepreneurship and technology commercialization at ASU and in the state of Arizona.
Over the summer, the name was changed in response to an expansion of the scope of the program’s clients and services. For the past two years, the program focused solely on working with entrepreneurial ventures, working exclusively with entrepreneurs and innovators starting new technology businesses. Recently, the possibility of re-engaging with Arizona Technology Enterprises – the technology transfer office for ASU – was presented, and the expanded educational opportunities for students were too good to pass up. Consequently, the old name, which focused on technology ventures, was no longer appropriate, and Innovation Advancement Program was chosen as a more representative title.
We have just begun a new semester with the largest group of students we’ve ever had. We plan to significantly impact technology entrepreneurship and technology commercialization activities in Arizona, while graduating students with education and experiences not found at other universities.
To learn more about the program, visit our website at http://law.asu.edu/iap and become a fan of our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IAPatASU. I hope you’ll choose to follow our exciting progress this year.
- Eric Menkhus, Director, Innovation Advancement Program
A multidisciplinary program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University that trains students to provide legal and business consulting services to cash-strapped entrepreneurs in Arizona has been renamed to reflect its expanded client base and service offerings.
The old Technology Ventures Services Group, a for-credit course for ASU graduate students in law, business, and engineering, plus some undergraduate programs, now is called the Innovation Advancement Program (IAP).
Noah Albertus
Law students Noah Albertus and Todd Farnsworth aren’t waiting until they graduate in 2011 to test the legal waters and figure out their true jurisprudence calling. Instead, they participated in a new program that gave them unique experiences in the field of health-care law.
Todd Farnsworth
Albertus and Farnsworth were the first students in the Healthcare Entrepreneurship Program, a part of the College of Law’s Innovation Advancement Program (IAP).
The students had class with Eric Menkhus, a Clinical Professor and Director of the IAP, and met weekly with Dr. John Shufeldt, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of NextCare Urgent Care.
Shufeldt, a 2005 alumnus of the College of Law, said he wants law students to gain practical experience to bolster their skills and resume, and also to learn to think outside the box when it comes to problem solving.
Randall Sorensen
An innovative tax-return scoring system that could help some of the estimated 54 million Americans who are “unscorable” under traditional credit-scoring methods and the lenders who are trying to assist them has been developed by a Phoenix entrepreneur.
The 4506-T Deluxe Tax Return Score is the brainchild of EZ Doc Corporation, whose president, Randall Sorensen, launched the software with help from a transdisciplinary program at ASU. Students in the Innovation Advancement Program, formerly called the Technology Ventures Services Group, consulted with Sorensen, under the tutelage of IAP Director Eric Menkhus, a Clinical Professor of Law.
Megan Fox
By the time they graduate from law school, students are well versed in contracts, constitutional law and criminal procedure, they have participated in oral arguments and attended many lectures. Fewer of them have navigated the complex IRS regulations on non-profit organizations, or written and filed for articles of incorporation on their behalf.
But Megan Fox has. Fox was enrolled in the legal clinic of the Innovation Advancement Program, formerly the Technology Ventures Services Group, and worked with ASU law, business and engineering students to provide legal and business consulting services to Arizona entrepreneurs.
Jon Coury
Have you ever received the following text message from a client: “Is this deal 2G2BT?” Have you ever received a text message from a client at all? What in the world does “2G2BT?” mean? (In text message lingo, it means “too good to be true.”) What did my client mean when he texted me to “911 immed”? Was I supposed to know that he wanted me to “call him immediately”?
We live in the digital age, and we can’t escape contact with the digital world in our personal and professional everyday lives. We communicate with our friends and loved ones on Facebook, and with other professionals through LinkedIn. We have constant interaction with our clients, colleagues, superiors and assistants by e-mail.
Tom Fulcher
Branding for Emerging Entrepreneurs – Why Should You Care?
What is branding and why should an entrepreneur care? Branding is a part of the marketing strategy. Marketing itself is a strategic process requiring effort and commitment. The dictionary defines marketing as “an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.” Looking closely at this definition, there are two key concepts. One is the idea of a customer-centric relationship. The other is the concept of value. It is therefore important to also define value. Many think of value as “getting a good deal” or a discount. I prefer to define value as “getting something you want at a price you are willing to pay for it.” In this sense, value is more all encompassing of price as well as other factors involved in the exchange.
CLIENTS
24 in the Innovation Advancement Legal Clinic
29 in the Innovation Advancement Consulting
COMPANIES
38 new companies were assisted by the Innovation Advancement Legal Clinic with formation arrangements.
STUDENTS
32 including 24 graduate students in law, business administration, plant biology, mechanical engineering and bioengineering, and eight undergraduate students, including seven in Barrett, The Honors College, studying biology, marketing, economics, computer information, entrepreneurship, political science, finance, chemistry and biochemistry.
501(c)(3) Status Awarded
Africa Health New Horizons Inc. was awarded 501(c)(3) non-profit status by the Internal Revenue Service. This was the first Form 1023 drafted and submitted on behalf of a client by the legal clinic and, therefore, also the first time a client has successfully been recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Congratulations are in order for Africa Health New Horizons, Inc. and the student team that drafted the application and successfully worked the application through the IRS process!
9th Annual Transactional Clinical Conference
The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s Innovation Advancement Program hosted a national conference for transactional clinical programs in April at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. Nearly 50 attendees participated in the conference, representing more than 30 schools from across the country. The conference panel discussion topics included client selection, counseling non-profits through the Form 1023 process, use of technology to foster efficient collaboration, and many other topics that transactional clinicians face when running their programs.
In addition to being the best attended conference, to date, it also marked the first time a university west of the Rocky Mountains hosted the event. While hosting the conference took great effort from many people, the event was successful and, we believe, painted ASU in a very positive light to our colleagues across the country.
IAP Facebook
Are you a fan of the IAP’s facebook page? If not, check it out: www.facebook.com/IAPatASU. You can follow news about our students, alumni, and clients and obtain links to articles and blogs of interest.
Alumni
We want to wish the best to all of our new alumni from the 2009-2010 academic year. Please keep in touch by contacting Eric Menkhus at eric.menkhus@asu.edu. We want to hear from you!