MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics is hoping the new Vantage Ventures program on campus is the first step in creating a new Mountain State economy driven by entrepreneurship and innovation.
Now the spotlight is in four areas: healthy, security, energy and sensory. The entrpreurs and companies are supported by mentors, executives, and funding networks, through Vantage Ventures that West Virginia has never had.
Executive director Sarah Biller says one goal of the program is to plug the “brain drain.”
Biller said,”It’s an initaitive across all of West Virginia to help us engage our deep pools of talent, our entreprenuers and visionaries.”
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin said,”This is what we’ve been missing because it was hard to connect the dots, people would get a good education and get opportunities and offers and think they would have to leave and think they had to leave- you don’t have to now. This is going to basically give you the chance to work and learn at the same time.”
The idea of Vantage Ventures began in March with a meeting between leaders from WVU, a delegation of West Virginians and John Chambers, former Executive Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems and current Founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, to discuss the potential for the newly renamed College of Business and Economics. Vantage Ventures came out of that meeting.
“Through investments in skills training and digitization, we will help the people of West Virginia prepare for a digital-first future that will be fueled by startups and entrepreneurship,” Chambers said. “I’m incredibly excited to partner with my alma mater to help the great state of West Virginia fulfill its potential to be a leader in entrepreneurship and innovation.”
U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito says Homecoming is the perfect time to unveil the center because there are opportuinties for alumni.
Capito said,”Bring our national alums from WVU who have been very successful, have start up ideas, bring those ideas to the university and let our students develop them and then spin them off into private ventures that will employ more people.
Javier Reyes, Milan Puskar Dean of the Chambers College and Vice President of Startup West Virginia, was at the meeting and has been directed by WVU President Gordon Gee to coordinate the resources to reinvent West Virginia’s economy.
“West Virginia is a place with tremendous resources and opportunities, but we have to think differently about job creation to move into the future,” Reyes said. “Vantage Ventures is the way to provide the infrastructure and resources needed to fuel start-ups and support the entrepreneurs with bold ideas that can transform our economy.”
The 8,000-square Vantage Ventures facility is in University Place.