Five startups receive $5K from new class at SMU
Five new startups comprising students at Southern Methodist University have been granted $5,000 each to build their businesses.
Danielle Abril
Staff Writer
Dallas Business Journal
Five new startups comprising students at Southern Methodist University have been granted $5,000 each to build their businesses.
The funding is part of a new class the Meadows School of the Arts launched this semester called “Accelerate Your Startup: Taking a business from idea to implementation.” The class is run by SMU adjunct professor Trey Bowles, who is also the CEO of The Dallas Entrepreneur Center, and aims at encouraging entrepreneurship of students across all disciplines.
On Thursday, all five companies pitched their companies to a room of entrepreneurship advocates including investors Trailblazer Capital and board members of the DAN Fund.
This semester the class accepted five of 25 company ideas, comprising a total of 10 students. The Meadows School of Arts and Lyle School of Engineering provided the $25,000 that students received at the end of the course. The students are also invited to incubate at The DEC during the summer for free, using the center’s mentors and programs to bolster their businesses.
“We thought, ‘what if we actually gave them some money and let them start their business?’” said Bowles about the new class and its structure, which came together with help from Dean Jose Bowen of Meadows and Marc Christensen, the engineering school’s department chair. “The hope is that the success rate of these startups are normal than those of regular startups.”
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