About the Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship

By combining entrepreneurship with innovation, the Edward Jones Center will provide individuals inside existing corporations with tools to continually refresh and reinvent their organizations as markets and business environments change.

The Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship was made possible by the generous contribution of John and Crystal Beuerlein and Edward Jones, Inc. All parties feel passionately about entrepreneurship and believe in the idea of helping people create new businesses.

They are also eager to provide employees of existing corporations with tools to continually refresh and reinvent their organizations as markets and business environments change. Their vision for the center is to arm entrepreneurs from many sectors with the acumen to create new, innovative ventures.

There were a number of other individuals who graciously served on the Blue Ribbon Task Force, guiding the center in its infancy. Those individuals were Tom Cray, Tom Dapp, Tom McAlear, Larry O'Reilly, Patti Penny, Robert Plaster, Earl Pool, Lyle Reed, Jack Shewmaker, Jack Stack, Tom Slaight, Tom Stout and Tom Warren.

Start Up Drury 2013!

The competition is open to current Drury undergraduates or December 2012 graduates. Teams will be made up of one-to-four students and each team will be assigned a mentor from the community and the teams will be required to meet with the mentor at least three times as they develop their business models.

Besides the $1,000 cash prize for the winning team, that group will also have the opportunity to attend the College Entrepreneurship Organization’s National Conference and compete in the Elevator Pitch competition. The second and third place teams will win $500 and $250 respectively. Additionally, the idea with the best chance of starting up quickly will have an opportunity to present to the Springfield Angel Investors Network. The idea with the broadest appeal will have an opportunity to raise capital on Crowd-It, and the top “green” business idea will attend the Missouri Environmental Initiative.

Download the application (PDF)
Download the participant guide (PDF)

Contact:
Dr. Kelley Still
Executive Director
Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship
Lay Hall 302
Office: (417) 873-7458
kstill@drury.edu

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