The Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation encourages student and faculty creativity and equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue entrepreneurial ideas. The vision for the Flemming Center includes a full-time director, an endowed "entrepreneur-in-residence," and the establishment of a Tiger Venture Fund, which would support student entrepreneurs by enabling them to develop prototypes and explore the commercial viability of their ideas.
This vision also includes a "flex office" that will provide a professional base for visiting entrepreneurs who will be readily accessible to students and faculty, offering expertise, encouraging constructive creativity, and providing mentoring and support. The Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is located in the Brown Student Center.
The Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation strives to make Hampden-Sydney a place that inspires and empowers students to use the liberal arts foundation to become value creators and entrepreneurial market leaders. It develops programs that support a community of students with the interest and ability to be successful entrepreneurs and give them the experience, connections, and skills necessary to help them achieve their visions. Our goals are to increase awareness of entrepreneurship as a viable career option and to provide students opportunities for progressive development toward successful venture creation.
Hampden-Sydney’s education sets someone up very well for entrepreneurship, especially in small business. I have to wear many hats in a day: accountant, copywriter and marketing person.
Hunter Hopcroft ’10, entrepreneur
Tiger's Den Competition
The Tiger's Den Competition is an annual competition sponsored by the Flemming Center that provides student's and recent Alumni interested in starting their own business the opportunity to pitch their business ventures to a panel of judges for potential investment from the Hampden-Sydney Venture Fund. In order to participate students must submit a full business plan that lays out their idea, the potential market, legal and managerial structure, full financials, and revenue projections. The students then have 15 minutes to discuss their business plan and pitch the venture to potential investors during the Tiger's Den pitch sessions. The panel then questions the students on the viability of their plan, discusses terms for investment and provides constructive criticism on their plans and pitches.
The Hatteras Island Ocean Center (HIOC) and Hampden-Sydney College's Hatteras Island Internship Program (HIIP) offers qualified summer interns opportunity to participate in a collaborative effort to explore the relationships between non-profit enterprise, science education, and scientific research.
Students with the next big idea are getting ready to take the next big steps, thanks to the Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation's new entrepreneur-in-residence program.
