Hank Veeneman and Brayden Shepard graduated with more than four-year degrees. They left the University of Dayton with a startup company and a path to $400,000 in funding.
Their success highlights UD’s “Walk, Run, Fly, Soar” model — a four-year roadmap that supports students as they turn interests into real-world ventures. It’s one of the reasons The Princeton Review named UD among the best entrepreneurship programs in the nation for 20 consecutive years, including the current No. 1 ranking in Ohio.
“Entrepreneurship includes taking risks and failing, which is why this progression is so important,” says Vince Lewis, associate vice president for UD’s entrepreneurial initiatives. “Students walk by building foundational skills in the career flight plan. They run when we hand them $5,000 their sophomore year to launch a micro-business. They fly when they enter pitch competitions to win funding for their ideas, and they soar like Hank and Brayden when they take what they developed in their senior capstone and apply for state funds to make that startup their full-time career.”
Walk: Finding a lane
Before students run a business, they have to find their confidence. In the entrepreneurial mindsets course, first-year students learn to treat failure as a data point rather than a dead end.
“We’re focused on developing entrepreneurial skills because whether they form a startup in college or not, students will have to act entrepreneurially every day,” says Willie Morris IV, course lecturer and the L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership associate director.
Running with real-world risk
The transition from theory to practice happens quickly. Olivia Harwood, a junior entrepreneurship major, came to UD knowing she wanted to be a restaurateur. During her sophomore year micro-company experience, Rudy’s Popcorn was born.
“The opportunity to establish a business is extremely valuable because now is the time where you can make mistakes and have that network to help you fill in those gaps,” said Harwood, who is graduating early this spring to work full-time with Northstar Cafe.
Taking flight in the Flyer Nest
By their senior year, students enter the Flyer Nest venture studio. This is where the foundation of the first three years is applied to create companies that can survive post-graduation.
“The sophomore micro-business class gives students the first step, and Flyer Nest is where they apply what they’ve learned to create something,” Lewis said. “When they graduate in May, they’re going to focus on this business and create an opportunity for themselves.”
Students expand these ideas by competing in the Flyer Pitch competition, interacting with community entrepreneurs at The Hub Powered by PNC Bank and pitching to student organizations like the Flyer Angels angel investing group.
“Roughly 20% of all UD graduates end up starting something within 10 years,” Lewis said. “We are creating a fully rounded ecosystem for our students — not just entrepreneurship students, but any students interested in plugging in.”
Soaring
Veeneman and Shepard found Air Force technology in the Flyer Nest class that can help solve the problem of athletes injured by loose helmets. Their smart chin strap system won the largest prize in Flyer Pitch history and funding from the state of Ohio.
“This idea we’re working on may take off and be a huge success, and it may not,” Veeneman said. “But the lessons we’re learning right now are phenomenal. I can’t see myself doing anything other than creating my own business now.”