Illini Entrepreneurship Network (IEN)

A group of very motivated students and myself are undertaking arguably the most difficult task at UIUC: put students of different ideas, majors, and backgrounds in a room and build the next bread of startups. 

I’ve noticed the only difference between UIUC and some of the Universities near Silicon Valley is the atmosphere.  Silicon Valley allows for ideas to flow and develop; we need that at UIUC.  Too many students (myself included) have ideas or skills to support those ideas.  The trick is finding those students and getting them to meet; that is what IEN is for.

Our goals seem relatively simple: provide an atmosphere where students can network and create startups. We’ve modeled ideas after MPowered and SEN started at University of Michigan and Stanford respectively. We will bring students from ACES, The College of Business, Computer Science, Engineering, and Law together and allow these students to work together with other students, Alumni, and VC firms.  We’ve received amazing support of various University groups and colleges to promote our soon to be Registered Student Organization (RSO).

Right now we are in our development stages.  We have settled on the name; now its time to organize our agenda, ideas, and plans for the Fall 2008 semester.  

Links:

http://ien.uiuc.edu

http://mpowered.web.itd.umich.edu/

http://www.stanford.edu/group/eship/