WPI Journal - The Magazine for WPI Alumni

SPRING 2014

The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)

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50 Spring 2014 if... campaign "pre-seed" money available for prototypes, market research, business plan development, and proof-of-principle work. Neil, now president and CEO of FLEXcon, said his father was a chemist who gave up a job with a small adhesives company to go into business for himself. He broke the news to his wife while she was in the hospital, giving birth to Neil's older brother, Mark. "I quit my job today," Myles told his wife, "and we're going to start that company we've always talked about." Though he had been living in Natick, in the sales territory of his old job, McDonough launched his business in Spencer, where the rent for the garage was cheap – $30 a month – and skilled labor was available as the shoe industry declined. Many of those early employ- ees became leaders of the company for many years. Products made by FLEXcon are everywhere: in labels on beverage and shampoo bottles, graphics on the sides of buses, and screen pro- tectors on smartphones. The company makes labels on cars that need to stand up to harsh environments, unit price and bar code labels on supermarket shelves, those metallic-like labels on computers—even labels on cell phone batteries that change colors when submerged in water (proof to the manufacturer that a warranty should be voided). Myles McDonough, who died in 2012 at 82, became a trustee at WPI in 1989, serving on several committees and receiving the WPI Alumni Association's Award for Distinguished Service in 2003. He was named trustee emeritus in 1999. Neil McDonough followed in his father's footsteps, both at FLEX- con and at WPI, where he became a trustee three years ago. He and his mother were at the 2012 WPI Innovator of the Year celebration when they overheard Rice describing plans for the innovation studio and business incubator in Alumni Gym. The McDonoughs decided that sponsoring the incubator would be a ftting way to pay tribute to Myles's business spirit and his ties to the school. Neil hadn't been asked for a contribution, Rice points out. "He just stood up and said he'd give $1 million." McDonough said the incubator will help WPI students take an idea and make it a reality—with help from people who know the ropes. Students who successfully make that leap can create opportunities for themselves and jobs for others—and spur further innovation, in McDonough's view, just like his father did. And while the incubator can smooth the way, it can also provide a reality check, he said. "The innovator lab should be able to help them commercialize or understand why something's not working." —David Greenslit Mark Rice likes to say that the mission of WPI's School of Business to "develop innovative and entrepreneurial leaders for a global technological world" is a natural extension of the WPI Plan and project-based learning. "I've been in this space for most of my life," says Rice, vice provost of innovation and entre- preneurship. Rice came to WPI in 2010, and has been lead- ing the transition of the Department of Manage- ment into the School of Business. He has done research on innovation, entrepreneurship, tech- nology strategy, and business incubation; he ran a technology business incubator and co-founded a start-up solar energy company. He also co-wrote Growing New Ventures, Creating New Jobs—the bestselling book on the topic of business incubation—and was the director of the business incubator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before coming to WPI. The RPI Incubator Program received the Randall Whaley Incubator of the Year Award from the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), and Rice, who served as an NBIA director and chairman of the board, was recognized for his leadership in the industry with one of NBIA's 14 inaugural Founders Awards. Rice sees the McDonough Business Incubator as a place where students will take their project- based learning to the next level by commercial- izing their project outcomes. But even before the incubator is completed, he says that the Tech Ad- visers Network, a group of about 50 professionals, has been working to provide advice, networking, and connections to resources at WPI and beyond. Those resources can include links to potential cus- tomers and employees, partnering organizations, and fnancial resources, according to Rice. In the frst quarter of 2014, WPI has been launching the Accelerator Fund to "pre-seed" money to help budding entrepreneurs. Rice says initial funding has been committed, and a trustee who is an investment professional will put together an independent investment decision-making committee and establish due diligence processes. All of this is part of what Rice calls WPI's entrepreneurship ecosystem. "Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking are becoming key to success in the global innovation economy, and in many aspects of life," he says. "The McDonough Business Incubator, WPI Accelerator Fund, Tech Advisers Network, and a number of other activities are coalescing in the new Alumni Gym to enable us to prepare our students to be as successful as possible after they graduate." WPI'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP ECOSYSTEM WPI_spring14_Advancement.indd 50 3/9/14 2:16 PM

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