Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship

We are a dedicated institute for student entrepreneurs across campus and beyond. We aim to maximize your success by fostering your entrepreneurial mindset, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration and provide support for the creation and development of your new ventures. Jumpstart your ideas and get involved today!

Tune in for excitement!

Passion. Potential. Pitches. Don't miss any of the 2025 New Venture Challenge excitement.

Tune in Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m. for great ideas and fierce competition. Then, join the judges, mentors, spectators and teams as they see who is going home with thousands of dollars in venture financing. The awards broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. and one team will walk away as the overall best venture.

2025 NVC Competition Live Stream

2025 NVC Awards Live Stream

Start your entrepreneurial journey

Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration is the home of the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship and the first Department of Entrepreneurship in the state of Michigan. We are a student-centric hub where experiential, curricular, and external entrepreneurial opportunities intersect.

Our mission is to maximize student success by fostering a campus-wide entrepreneurial mindset that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new ventures.

We aim to create innovative programming, boost cross-campus and ecosystem collaboration and provide a comprehensive mentoring program.

Our institute provides extracurricular opportunities and is open to all undergraduate and graduate CMU students.

Student opportunities

Meet experienced alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other business and political leaders.
Learn practical skills, innovative thinking, and connect with mentors and entrepreneurial resources.
Attend skill-building workshops and compete in pitch competitions and Hackathons.
Take part in special scholarship programs and travel experiences.
Pitch your venture at our signature New Venture Challenge event and compete for up to $20,000 in cash awards.

Find your path

Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.

A student standing with a faculty member holding big winning checks from the New Venture Challenge 2024.

Start up

Build up your venture idea.

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A student smiling and standing in front of his venture display at the 2024 New Venture Challenge.

Family business

Explore the Alternative Entrepreneurial Pathways category at NVC.

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A close-up of the Prusa i3 MK3 printer in the entrepreneurship makerspace, the IDEA Den in Grawn Hall 166.

Product and prototype design

Create and patent your ideas.

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Innovation

Explore your ideas and build your skills.

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Senior places 1st in national sales competition

by Sanjna Jassi

CMU senior Josh Statly won first place in the Pi Sigma Epsilon National Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon and the Pi Sigma Epsilon Yearlong Sell-A-Thon.

mug-Josh-Statly-with-Award Central Michigan University senior Josh Statly won first place in the Pi Sigma Epsilon National Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon and the Pi Sigma Epsilon Yearlong Sell-A-Thon.

The online competition is centered around a video call and 12-minute business scenario role-play. Pi Sigma Epsilon is a national co-ed professional fraternity in sales, marketing and management.

Statly, a marketing major with a professional sales concentration, has served as the sales team captain at CMU for the past three years, taking on the responsibility of educating, training, motivating and incentivizing other student team members.

The focus on preparing others for sales competitions has led to great success for Statly over the past several years, including in the AT&T Sales Competition and the University of Florida's Selling with the Bulls Competition, both in 2019.

CMU's team performed well overall in the Pi Sigma Epsilon competition and placed as follows: