Spotlight
USF System: Gazelle Lab
| USF St. Petersburg
With the work of USF St. Petersburg entrepreneurship students assisting them along the way, the 14 entrepreneurs selected for the inaugural Gazelle Lab capped their mentor-driven program on Nov. 17 with funding pitches to investors from around the country.
The entrepreneurs had three months to fulfill their charge — absorb all the training, guidance and support provided by USFSP students and more than 60 community mentors to then successfully pitch an expansion plan for their recently launched businesses. Local investors provided early-stage seed money and the undergraduate students vetted the investor documentation and models developed by the business founders.
"The students involved that are truly motivated toward self-venturing developed skills that will give them more than a leg up in starting their own venture," says Bill Jackson, the Gazelle Lab director and professor of entrepreneurship and innovation in the College of Business at USFSP. "This worked because the students and community mentors are committed to the concept underlying Gazelle Lab — to advance sustainable entrepreneurship in the Tampa Bay area."
Part of the national TechStars Network, the Gazelle Lab is an initiative of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SEI) Alliance in the College of Business at USFSP. The term "gazelle" refers to the entrepreneurial companies creating most of the private-sector jobs and revenue growth in the U.S. economy.
"We're raising capital and generating jobs without any cost to anybody and with great benefit to the university's students," says Daniel James Scott, another Gazelle Lab founder and assistant director of the SEI Alliance. "The company founders put everything on the line for their business ideas and the students have a say in the future of those companies."