Shark Bait: BYU entrepreneurship programs help ideas become reality.

• Author: Kinder, Peri
• Position: Business Trends

Ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen. A customizable shelf for school lockers. A device that cleans cellphones. A nightlight for the toilet. While these bestselling products cover a range of consumer needs, each of the companies started in the same place: Brigham Young University.

Not only were these businesses created at BYU, they were all featured on ABC's Shark Tank, prompting celebrity investors on the popular reality show to wonder what the university is doing to encourage innovative, entrepreneurial thinking.

Start with vision

Part of the credit can be given to Scott Petersen, executive director at BYU's Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. With a passion for entrepreneurship, Petersen came to the university in 2010 and helped rebrand the department's mission. He wanted to create a hand-up, not a hand-out, system that developed character and taught students to put success in perspective.

Petersen says when men and women of faith and integrity tap into values learned in the predominant religious culture, including hard work, perseverance and dedication, they can create a business vision that leads to success.

"Once you have a vision, and the CEO carries that vision to the hearts and minds of its people, you're going to cross the River Jordan and get to the Promised Land ... It starts with having smart, motivated, talented, principled people. It takes the A team to create a successful company. The difference between A and B players is exceedingly wide."

Ditch the old ideas

One of the most controversial aspects of Petersen's method was to ditch the business plan competition, considering business plans to be useless and obstructive in producing results. Instead, the school teaches lean start-up, a method that involves a build-measure-learn process.

Petersen says lean start-up is more efficient, as business leaders don't waste time writing a business plan full of "contrived, nonsensical garbage."

Each year, the Rollins Center hosts the months-long Miller Competition Series, an entrepreneurial battleground where ideas are pitched, products are developed and young leaders are given the chance to create the company of their dreams.

Sponsored by the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation, phase one of the series is the Big Idea Pitch. Students are mentored, given feedback and judged in several categories including scalability, feasibility, problem identifying/solving and innovation. The top 25 ideas are given prize money...