Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Ross: Our selection is a rigorous process. We are trying to get the more serious people because we have invest a lot time and energy and resources into these folks, so we want to get in people who are really serious about it.

Irina: From all sources, how many applications do you usually get?

Ross: We typically get about 200 applications and let about 15 people in. But those who are not selected can always come back and apply again. Our capacity is about 15 entrepreneurs [per location each year]. There is no limit how many times they can apply.

We start our application process in the spring, we go until August and then we make our decisions. We are accepting applications for Bizdom U Detroit now, but for Cleveland we are still working on finalizing the details.

What they can do [for Cleveland now] is go to the link and say they are interested, and when we are all set and start accepting applications, we will send them an e-mail and let them know.

Irina: So, once the 15 entrepreneurs are selected, what is their next step?

Ross: They go through the four-month program and we go through those various stages that we talked about. They brainstorm ideas, we go deeper into the chosen idea, we figure out if that idea is monetizeable, we do a feasibility analysis – market feasibility, financial feasibility, and economic feasibility. We do sales and marketing plans.

We do all the financials associated with the business, such as the cash flow, and we help them to develop a pitch and then they pitch it to our committee, which decides whether they are going to invest in the business, whether there is a business or not. So, that is the four-month process and they are doing a lot of research and diving deeper into the idea during that four-month process.

Irina: Do you require them to work 9 to 5, or more than that?

Ross: More. They have assignments on the nights and weekends, and there is a business research that they have to do. It is a fully immersive experience and we made it that way because we believe entrepreneurship is fully immersive and you need to be immersed if you are going to be successful.

Our training is 9 to 5, and there are tasks they have to do, but we don’t put requirements in terms of hours. It is just a fully immersive experience. They have to get the job done and see how they do that while also handling personal demands in their life. We don’t say you have to be in the office 80 hours or 40 hours or whatever it is, but I can tell you, it is a fully immersive experience, so they are really busy.

Irina: I understand. You probably give them some milestones and they just go and get things done.

Ross: Absolutely! After they research on a topic, they come back and report on research. Then they research on another topic,  come back and report on that research, go to their focus group, come back tell us what their focus group said, those types of things.

Irina: What do you use to accomplish your mission?

Ross: We have a leadership team here. We have somebody who is involved with the recruiting who goes out and finds the entrepreneurs. We have somebody who is involved with the training who works with the entrepreneurs in the training room. And we have people who are involved with the entrepreneurs after they launch the businesses and oversee those businesses. So, we have all those different folks involved. We do get a ton of assistance from Dan Gilbert’s family of companies as well.

We also try to involve people outside of Dan’s family of companies because we are trying to expose them to different types of entrepreneurs.

So, we rely on the community here within Detroit to help us. For example, there is a woman who opened a bakery in the city of Detroit. She opened that bakery maybe 10 years ago. She has been very successful and is very well known now. So, we would have her come in and talk about life as a startup and about some of the hurdles she overcame. We try to involve different people.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U - Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio
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