The Magazine for Alumni & Friend of the College of Bu at the University of
Spring 2012
The Magazine for Alumni & Friend of the College of Bu at the University of
Student Profile | Dominic Blank, Fulbright Scholar, MBA ’12
The Magazine for Alumni & Friend of the College of Bu at the University of
you have to go back to Germany and give back to your country for two years,” he says. When he leaves, Blank may have some unfinished business with a few of the projects he started, but he is excited about the opportunity to strengthen Germany’s entrepreneurship scene with the experiences he has gathered in Chicago. Helping to accelerate startup companies or assisting people in launching their own businesses are two of the possibilities Blank is weighing when he returns to Germany. “The entrepreneurship scene in Germany is both different and the same as the U.S.,” he explains. “Like the U.S., it makes up a large part of the GDP in Germany, but the German mentality is different. They are more focused on innovation at the corporate level,” says Blank who worked at Siemens before coming to UIC. “Germans tend to seek security. Coming out of university, it is more secure to join the corporate world, but in the U.S. people are more willing to reinvent themselves.” Working as a graduate assistant at the CBA’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, Blank saw firsthand the American desire to reinvent oneself. “I saw people in their 40s and 50s who wanted to start over or change jobs or fields,” he recalls. “Americans are more willing to try and fail.” At IES, Blank had the opportunity to work with clients, current or aspiring small business owners, and coordinate the Entrepreneurial Student Teams program. He saw up close the challenges that entrepreneurs face and it only fueled his desire to be one himself. He found plenty of opportunities to put that passion to use as an MBA student, starting with student organizations, where he immediately took on a leadership role with the MBAA. One of his first priorities was launching some new programs. The first was Innovation Incubator, which he started with fellow MBA candidate Thomas Riordan. Innovation Incubator is an interdisciplinary undertaking that seeks to connect budding entrepreneurs with talent and resources across the UIC campus. It saw great success in its first year, and Blank and Riordan have already transferred leadership to a new team, so that its growth will continue with a new crop of students. Blank also launched the Liautaud Peer Mentoring program, which is the first of its kind at the graduate school. The program matches second-year students to first-year students to guide them as to what classes to take and what student organizations will most benefit them and their career path. “I wish I had had this
my first year,” says Blank. “It eases your way into grad school and helps creates ties among students.”
The Magazine for Alumni & Friend of the College of Bu at the University of
While injecting his entrepreneurial spirit into student clubs, Blank also got the opportunity to launch his own real technology business, NovoView Diagnostics, as part of the Technology Ventures course. The technology Blank and his teammates chose is called EyeFlow, a patent-pending technology developed by UIC researcher Mahnaz Shahidi, PhD, Morton F. Goldberg Professor in Ophthalmology. Blank and his team used Technology Ventures to create NovoView as an early-stage medical device company focused on safely and effectively assessing the risk for ischemic stroke. After success at the CBA’s own Concept2Venture Business Plan Competition, where Blank and his teammates Michele Lynn Shah and Joseph Sheahan, took home First Place in the Graduate Competition as well as Best Elevator Speech, they moved on to wins in competitions across the country, including invitations to compete at the Rice Business Plan and the Venture Labs Competitions (formerly Moot Corp). It is the success of NovoView that has Blank digging his heels at the thought of returning to his home country. “I will likely extend my stay for another 18 months to raise seed-funding for NovoView and pass it off to a more experienced, seasoned leadership team,” he says. “We have gained some traction on these competitions, which are a good way to get yourself out there and show people that you credible and talented with a great investment opportunity at hand.” Blank has hopes that entrepreneurship can move forward in Germany, especially with people like himself who have the passion, drive, and now—a little insight into that “entrepreneurial mindset.” He packed his two years at UIC full of entrepreneurial activities and he plans to put this experience to good use once he returns to Germany. “I would like to start a company over there. That is why I came to the U.S. I wanted to do it, live entrepreneurship and go through the entire process. What separates many people from being an entrepreneur and not being one is one thing only: getting off the couch and make the first step,” Blank says. “When I applied to UIC, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Due to differences in mentality it’s tougher starting a company in Germany, but if I went back, that is something I would like to change.” 15