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Excellence in Action

Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship

Crummer’s Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship provides a variety of practical experiences to promote successful entrepreneurship. Its mission is to educate and connect students and entrepreneurs for advanced entrepreneurial thought and action.

Meet Frank

Crummer Student Shares Entrepreneurial Journey

Xinrun “Frank” Zhuang ’18 ’20MBA reflects on his entrepreneurial journey upon completion of the Early Advantage MBA program.

Crummer Venture Plan Competition

The Orlando Region's Largest Business Plan Competition

The annual competition, hosted by Crummer every year since 2012, is Central Florida’s largest, most prestigious, and comprehensive business plan and pitch competition for startups. Open to all regionally headquartered startups, the annual competition is where teams battle for funding, exposure, and mentorship in front of the region’s top entrepreneurs, leaders, and venture capitalists. Participants compete for prize money before multiple distinguished judges panels, all of whom are successful investors and entrepreneurs. The competition continues to serve as the platform for Central Florida startup companies to gain exposure and funding.

Of the 34 companies that have been finalists for the competition since 2012, two of our past 1st place winners were successfully acquired in 2020 and 27 are still in business today. Together, they have generated over $55 million in revenue, raised over $36 million in investment capital, and employ over 374 people.

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2023 Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition
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Watch the 2023 Finals
Kismet Technologis - 2023 Crummer Venture Plan Competition Winner

Kismet Technologies Wins $50,000 Grand Prize at the 2023 Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition

The Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College has announced that Kismet Technologies, its revolutionary nontechnology – NanoRad – provides non-stop bacteria and virus protection for weeks and even months depending on the formulation; as a disinfectant or coating for medical devices, its applications for clean surfaces are endless, is the 2023 winner of its annual Crummer Venture Plan Competition, Central Florida’s largest and most comprehensive business plan and pitch competition for start-ups. Kismet will receive $50,000 in prize money. In total, the competition finalists vied for their share of a total prize package valued over $150,000.

Selected from over 80 submitted proposals and 16 semi-finalists, the finalists along with Kismet included 2nd place Soarce, a company that turns a novel seaweed formula into leathers and fibers that brands from sports apparel to automotive can use to meet their sustainable product goals without compromising on performance; and 3rd place Meta Humans, a company that is fostering the innate curiosity of children to help them achieve their own personal best destiny through its educational centers.

2023 Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition Finals

Video coming soon!

Entrepreneurial Growth Series

This workshop series provided by the Crummer Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship at Rollins College—Central Florida’s premier education and networking resource for growth-stage entrepreneurship—offers you the opportunity to expand your skills to help you shape and drive your business towards accelerated growth. Taught by experts and successful entrepreneurs, the series covers a wide range of topics from sales and operations to negotiation and marketing. These workshops are designed to provide you with the knowledge and tools that you will be able to immediately apply to your business. Offered in an a la carte format, we encourage you to choose the sessions most relevant to you and your needs.

Student Programming

The Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship connects students with advanced entrepreneurial thought leaders across a wide variety of industries through program opportunities, coaching and mentoring that build lasting, valuable relationships.

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Entrepreneurial Scholar of Distinction Program
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Crummer Mentor Program
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Entrepreneurial Courses
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Student Organizations
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Statewide Collegiate Venture Plan Competition
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Elevator Pitch Competition

Entrepreneurial Scholar of Distinction Program

 

The goal of the Entrepreneurial Scholar of Distinction (ESD) program is to provide select Crummer MBA students with an immersive entrepreneurial experience focused on the earlier stages of entrepreneurial start up, due diligence, finance, and social impact. The ESD program is a hands-on practica within a designated program partner organization for credit hours and supervised by a member of the Crummer entrepreneurship faculty. The scope, duration, and total number of positions available in the program varies by partner organization.

Students interested in the ESD program must apply and participate in a competitive selection process. The ESD designation carries with it significant prestige and recognition for those students who are selected. Partner organizations include DeepWork Capital and Rally, Central Florida’s Social Enterprise Accelerator.

Crummer Mentor Program

Crummer Mentor Program

The Crummer Mentor Program affords every Crummer student who has completed their core curriculum, access to a mentor who is a leader of an entrepreneurial venture, a family business, or a corporate enterprise, with the intention of creating effective dialog and interaction that accelerates the professional development of the student. The program is a Student Success initiative and offered through a collaborative effort between the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship, the Center for Leadership Development, and Alumni Relations.

Crummer Students

Entrepreneurial Courses

The Crummer curriculum contains a host of entrepreneurial-focused courses that are designed to prepare students for entrepreneurial ventures and for leading entrepreneurial teams.

Net Impact Event

Student Organizations

Students organizations enable entrepreneurial-minded MBA students the opportunities to learn, develop skills, and build their networks outside of the classroom. Student organizations that work closely with the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship include the Crummer Entrepreneurship Association, Rollins Moving Services, and Net Impact.

Students Working in a Group

Statewide Collegiate Venture Plan Competition

The Statewide Collegiate Venture Plan Competition is a joint-venture initiative between the Florida Venture Forum and universities and colleges within the state who promote new venture creation on their campuses and in their communities. The CFAE is a founding participant in this event which engages students from all regions of Florida, providing a showcase opportunity for the top student team that participates in the Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition.

Elevator Pitch Competitoin

Elevator Pitch Competition

The Elevator Pitch Competition is only open to Rollins students. Participants present a 90-second pitch for a new venture idea in front of a panel of judges comprised of experienced investors and entrepreneurs. The Elevator Pitch Competition, held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, provides an excellent opportunity to receive feedback on the viability of a new idea and challenges participants to expand on their ideas for future participation in the Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition. The Elevator Pitch Competition awards a pool of cash prizes.

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Connecting Entrepreneurs
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ATHENAPowerLink
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CEO Forums
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1 Million Cups
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CEO Roundtables

Connecting Entrepreneurs

The Center for Advanced Entrepreneurs works with local organizations to create meaningful opportunities for entrepreneurs to engage, network, and connect with one other.

If you would like more information on any of these programs, please complete the Entrepreneur Engagement Survey.

ATHENAPowerLink®

ATHENAPowerLink is a program of ATHENA International, dedicated to creating leadership opportunities for women. ATHENAPowerLink guides women business owners in defining and achieving tangible goals by providing them with access to a panel of business advisors.

Each advisory panel is hand-selected based upon each woman business owner’s individual needs. These volunteer panelists serve as mentors and advisors for a 12-month period at no charge to the woman business owner and, ultimately, strive to help the woman business owner achieve growth and profitability.

ATHENAPowerLink operates through the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship in conjunction with several partners in the Central Florida community.

CEO Forums

CEO Forums are quarterly programs that brings together leaders of established second-stage businesses in a confidential setting to meet and learn from CEO peers who have significantly grown their companies into more advanced stages. CEO Forums are a collaborative initiative of the CFAE, GrowFL, and CEO Nexus with generous support from The Corridor, Withum, Cresa Orlando, Acquivest Financial Group, and FloridaMakes.

If you would like more information on CEO Forums, please complete our Entrepreneur Engagement Survey.

1 Millions Cups

1 Million Cups (1MC) is a program of the Kauffman Foundation that takes place in communities around the world. Each week, 1MC offers two local entrepreneurs in Central Florida an opportunity to present their startups to a diverse audience of mentors, advisors, and entrepreneurs. Presenters prepare a 6 minute educational presentation and engage in 20 minutes of feedback and questioning after they present.

Entrepreneurs gain insight into possible ways they can improve their businesses, gather real-time feedback, connect with a community that truly cares about their progress, and walk away feeling like they have advanced their business. The audience also learns a great deal from the presentations by listening, asking questions and providing feedback.

The program takes place every Wednesday morning from 9:00-10:00am at Rollins College and is hosted by the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship.

For additional information and to apply to pitch, click the button.

CEO Roundtables

Top executives of growing companies often need to make tough, sometimes pivotal decisions alone, and rarely have all the facts and time to arrive at the best solution. CEO Roundtables bring together qualified entrepreneurs for collaborative sessions that address important business issues.

Owners, CEOs and presidents share their management challenges and problem-solving ideas through confidential and structured roundtables led by a trained facilitator. Peer members are business owners or executives of companies that generate between $1 and $50 million in revenue or have that range of working capital in place from investors or grants. Peer members discuss ways to overcome growth obstacles in areas such as finance, employee relations, legal compliance, marketing and advertising.

If you would like more information on CEO Roundtables, please complete our Entrepreneur Engagement Survey.

Resources for Entrepreneurs

The Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship assists growth-stage entrepreneurs with work space options, interns, and consulting project partners.

To receive notifications about relevant programs for you, please complete our brief Entrepreneur Engagement Survey.

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Co.World Coworking Winter Park
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Rally: Central Florida's Social Enterprise Accelerator
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Student Interns
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Student Consulting Projects
Co world winter park

Co.World Coworking Winter Park

Co.World offers an upscale shared work space in the heart of Winter Park, Florida across the street from the train station and just one block from Park Avenue. The space includes both private offices and individual desks in our open area, and both shared conference rooms and casual meeting areas. Co.World membership includes second stage startups, remote workers, and established small businesses. Co.World also hosts educational events and meetups for members and supporters. A satellite location of the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship is also housed at Co.World, and the space is available to select Rollins and Crummer students.

Rally: Central Florida's Social Enterprise Accelerator

Rally’s mission is to create positive social change by propelling qualified social entrepreneurs to build their ideas into self-sustainable ventures within our community. Housed at Rollins, the accelerator works with social entrepreneurs in the early stages of developing their product or business who are looking for help or guidance.

Rally is one of the few accelerators in the nation with the education, mentorship, resources, community, networking and funding to help early stage social entrepreneurs develop their ideas and build sustainable ventures that make a difference.

Student Interns

The CFAE connects entrepreneurial-minded students with local entrepreneurs who have a need for student talent by working through the Career Resource Center at the Crummer Graduate School of Business.

If you would like more information on student internships, contact the Career Resource Center.

Also, please complete our Entrepreneur Engagement Survey to let us learn more about your company and your needs.

Student Consulting Projects

Student Consulting Projects offers confidential business assistance to qualified entrepreneurial companies. Teams of up to five MBA students are assigned to entrepreneurial companies, both domestic and international, to solve problems related to a variety of business issues.

The relationship between your company and the student consultants will be mutually beneficial. Your company will receive business counsel from talented MBA students. In exchange, students will receive “real world” business exposure that cannot be simulated in a classroom setting.

Consulting projects are offered at no cost to the sponsoring organization, providing services with a market value of up to $50,000.

If you would like more information on entrepreneurial consulting projects, please complete our Entrepreneur Engagement Survey.

About Us

Vision: To be a catalyst and thought leader in the acceleration of successful entrepreneurship.

Mission: The mission of the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College is to develop global business leaders and innovators through a high quality, integrated, experiential education that prepares them to add significant value to their organizations and communities.

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About Us
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History
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Meet the Team

The Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship (CFAE) is located within the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. The CFAE provides Rollins students, alumni, and business owners of growth stage companies with a variety of practical experiences, both in and out of the classroom, that promote successful entrepreneurship. The center is aligned with Rollins College’s mission and guiding principles of responsible leadership, excellence, innovation, and community in addition to the Crummer Graduate School of Business’ mission which is “to prepare students to be both managers and leaders who will add significant value to their organizations and communities.” The Crummer Entrepreneurship program has historically been ranked in the top 25 nationally by Entrepreneur magazine and the Princeton Review and in 2015, Rollins College was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 11th Most Entrepreneurial College in America.

The CFAE ensures that Crummer students are prepared for entrepreneurial thought and action, able to apply what they’ve learned in a business setting and engage in the critical, creative thinking essential to entrepreneurial success. The CFAE Equation for Success is Advanced Students + Advanced Entrepreneurs = Advanced Action Learning.

History

  • Fall 2003: The Center for Entrepreneurship is established.
  • Spring 2004: The Rollins chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO) is formed.
  • March 2004: The Crummer faculty is presented with a proposal to create the first new concentration in more than a decade: Entrepreneurship.
  • Fall 2004: Entrepreneurship becomes an official concentration offered at the Crummer.
  • Fall 2008: Entrepreneurship program is ranked 24th in the nation by Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review.
  • Summer 2009: The Center’s name was changed to Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship to better reflect its strategic focus.
  • Fall 2009: Entrepreneurship program ranked first in Florida and 22nd in the nation by Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review.
  • Fall 2009: The Rollins chapter of Net Impact is formed.
  • Fall 2010: The Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Initiative (SESi) is launched and holds its inaugural SESi Speaker Series program.
  • Spring 2012: The Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Initiative becomes its own campus wide center of excellence.
  • Fall 2012: Rollins College is designated a Changemaker Campus by Ashoka U, a global leader in social entrepreneurship.
  • Summer 2013: Dr. Pete McAlindon is named as the Crummer Graduate School of Business’ 1st full-time Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
  • Fall 2013: The Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship celebrates its 10th anniversary.
  • Fall 2015: Rollins College is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 11th Most Entrepreneurial College in America.
  • Fall 2016: Social entrepreneurship becomes an official concentration offered by Crummer.
  • Fall 2017: Rally, Central Florida’s Social Enterprise Accelerator, launches its inaugaral class of social entrepreneurs.

Contact Us With Any Questions

Contact us at 407-646-2446

Staff

Daniel F. Perez, MBA
Assistant Director
dfperez@rollins.edu
Schedule a Meeting >>

Faculty

Pete McAlindon, Ph.D.
Executive Director & Entrepreneur-in-Residence
pmcalindon@rollins.edu

William Grimm, J.D., M.B.A.
Executive-in-Residence for Entrepreneurship
wgrimm@rollins.edu

Board of Advisors

Since the founding of the CFAE, we have worked diligently to bring together a world class group of entrepreneurial minds to serve as faculty members, administrators, and advisors. The success we have enjoyed to date is a direct result of their invaluable contributions.

Crummer Student Opportunities: The Entrepreneurial Scholar of Distinction Program
In the ESD program, students spend 6 months at a venture capital firm and 6 months at a start-up. Hear from this year's participants and get their insights about the program.
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: ATHENAPowerLink Orlando and Crummer’s Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship
In light of Women's History Month, learn how one Orlando organization is working with Crummer to guide women business owners to success.
Looking to Win Big: Announcing the Finalists for the 2024 Crummer Venture Plan Competition
Learn the four finalists for the 2024 Crummer Venture Plan Competition.
Crummer-founded venVelo II Invests in ecoSPEARS, a Florida-based Cleantech Developer
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Crummer’s Dr. Pete Wants to Help You Find Your Life’s Purpose
For Crummer Entrepreneur-in-Residence Pete McAlindon, helping connect people with their purpose and others is his ikigai.
Venture Plan Competition Winner Ostrich Looks to Gamify the Personal Finance Industry
Ostrich, founded by William Glass ’14 and Andrew Holliday ’13, leverages social networks and gamification to teach users good money habits.
Getting to Know the 2022 Crummer Venture Plan Competition Semifinalists
The annual Venture Plan Competition, hosted by Crummer every year since 2015, is Central Florida’s largest, most comprehensive, and most prestigious business plan and pitch competition for startups.
VenVelo Launches New Fund to Support the Local Start-up Community
Co-founded by Crummer faculty, venVelo II hopes to build on the success of the first fund.
Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition Serves as Launchpad for Local Startups
Former Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition winners go on to generate millions in revenue and employ hundreds of people.
Crummer Student Entrepreneur Team Launches Company from Capstone Project
Exhalence is looking to take a NASA-patented nanosensor technology to market, creating a breathalyzer for monitoring glucose levels.
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