UW, CWC collaborate to offer Entrepreneur Essentials course

A six-week program offered by Central Wyoming College (CWC) and the University of Wyoming beginning Jan. 29, will provide Wyoming residents with knowledge and tools to be successful entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur Essentials (e2), with face-to-face and virtual components, is an intensive education program in which participants will learn the key frameworks and tools, and answer essential questions, to effectively launch or grow their businesses. This program can help entrepreneurs move from the idea stage to working on a prototype or selling a completed product or service.

The program is a collaboration involving CWC and UW’s College of Business and College of Engineering and Applied Science. It’s based on the highly successful Start-Up Intensive (SUI), a 10-week program hosted in Jackson, which has trained more than 140 Wyoming entrepreneurs over the last six years.

In the last year, 28 entrepreneurs participated in e2 from all corners of Wyoming, including Sundance, Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie, Lander and Jackson — 93% of whom would recommend the course to a friend. The hybrid format of the course offers bookended on-site instruction the weekends of Jan. 29, and March 12, in Riverton and Casper, with intervening virtual components. This format encourages participants to connect face to face at the beginning and the end of the course, and allows for participation across Wyoming. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and unpredictable nature of Wyoming’s winters, entrepreneurs have the option to join 100% virtually.

“I’m thrilled to be making good use of the years of investment and refinement made to SUI and e2 and look forward to offering the e2 course across Wyoming,” CWC President Brad Tyndall said.

“The partnership between UW and CWC has developed over the last year and has the opportunity to really serve Wyoming entrepreneurs as they look to start new businesses.” said David Sprott, dean of the UW College of Business.

Some 77% of the SUI program’s graduates are still operating their businesses after three years, and 20% of those graduates have raised significant private investment capital. Additionally, 82% of last year’s e2 participants made demonstrable progress and moved from the idea stage to working on a prototype or selling a completed product. To read about one of last year’s participants and her company, Juliet, click here.

“The topics covered in e2, including business models, market research, financials, legal and communicating the story, will really help entrepreneurs move the needle on their startups,” Cameron Wright, dean of UW’s College of Engineering and Applied Science said.

The deadline to register is Wednesday, Jan. 27. More detailed information regarding the course and registration is available at www.cwc.edu/essentials/. For more information, email Lynne McAuliffe at lmcaulif@cwc.edu or Peter Scott at pscott5@uwyo.edu.