The Hatch™ Takes Flight Across the Globe

With the huge success of BGSU’s unique entrepreneurial program The Hatch^™, other universities across the globe have contacted our Dallas-Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership about assistance in starting up a similar program at their institutions. As a result of the high interest, the Dallas-Hamilton Center is beta testing a Hatch licensing program with ten other universities - two in Asia, two in Europe, four in the U.S. and two local community colleges.

The Hatch^™ gives students the opportunity to work with alumni mentors to prepare their business presentations to pitch to alumni investors at a live event each spring, hoping to get funding to launch their ventures. Over 3,500 people attended The Hatch™ at BGSU last spring and over the past three years more than $450,000 in alumni investments have been committed for 16 student ventures.

Kirk Kern, the director of the Dallas-Hamilton Center, explains the interest in our entrepreneurial program. “It was obvious after fellow BGSU Professor Gene Poor and I presented The Hatch™ co-curricular program at the 2014 GCEC (Global Consortium of Entrepreneurial Centers) conference in London last October that it was unique. Many of our colleagues inquired about using our footprint to start a similar program.  We decided to be entrepreneurial and license The Hatch™ to other institutions.  Now, other schools will have a turnkey program, which includes a comprehensive package beginning with student idea application processes to the ending live Hatch™ presentation event.”

Through the fee-based licensing program, universities and colleges receive assistance in recruitment of students, mentors, and investors; student and mentor workbooks; promotional materials; and event planning strategies. The ten universities testing the licensing program are giving their feedback to the Dallas-Hamilton Center before BGSU offers The Hatch™ to other universities and colleges across the world. It is expected The Hatch™ licensing program will generate a revenue flow to the Center and to the College of Business.

This is another example of how BGSU’s College of Business differentiates itself from other business schools, going beyond business as usual.