Harrisburg, Pa. – The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship(CIE) powered by Harrisburg University of Science and Technology will officially open in its new space, the Entrepreneurship Center in Strawberry Square, during a ribbon cutting celebration set for 3 p.m. on March 15.
The center is home to 11 startup founders enrolled in its business incubator program, which is comprised of 80 percent Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)-owned and 50 percent women-owned businesses. The new space offers founders—the entrepreneurs who are invited into the incubator—residency to develop their business ideas for up to 18 months, financial assistance, coaching, and student interns.
“Economic development and support for businesses have always been part of HU’s mission,” said Dr. Eric Darr, Harrisburg University President. “The center is accessible and for anyone who has an idea. It can be anybody who just has a concept but doesn’t know where to start. We hope, by having founders come to the Entrepreneurship Center, it creates new companies and jobs throughout the Harrisburg region and beyond,”
CIE Executive Director Jay Jayamohan and his network of entrepreneurs and innovators mentor the incubator’s founders in the center. They help them form corporations and connect them with funding resources. They help them find pro-bono attorneys for their intellectual property and help them flesh out ideas. They provide support staff. They connect them with technology and software development partners, and more.
“The multi-faceted goal of CIE is not only flipping the script on what you must “look like” to be an innovator, but to build a replicable model to create a positive economic change in small cities and towns,” Jayamohan said. “This will not happen without the support of the larger community and so we are excited for our new space and have entrepreneurs and innovators from the community continue to be an evangelist for the work we do.”
To learn more about the CIE and the Entrepreneurship Center, please visit https://cie.harrisburgu.edu/.
ABOUT CIE
The Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s (CIE) mission is to empower innovators to build successful ventures by providing the infrastructure and resources, with a special focus on serving the underrepresented minority. Unlike other programs focusing on pie-in-the sky pitches delivered over an accelerator program, we provide the support and infrastructure to build his/her idea in a thoughtful way with the guidance of the right kind of experienced entrepreneurs.
