Participation
Partners •••• Job
Opportunities Volunteering
Looking for an Idea
The Michigan Tech Enterprise SmartZone was established through the tireless efforts of a number of people in the community. Michigan Technological University, the cities of Hancock and Houghton, the Keweenaw Industrial Council and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (State of Michigan) all worked together to create a SmartZone that would become a model of partnership and collaboration.
Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO) and its parent company Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) provided a generous initial grant to jump-start the SmartZone.
Pasty.net is committed to providing wireless service thoroughout the U.P. and has taken the lead in partnering with the SmartZone as well as other community organizations in offering fast, low-cost internet services.
Miners State Bank of Iron River and Houghton has generously provided a grant of conference room furnishings at our Portage Campus Building incubator. This gift demonstrates the bank's active role in helping to support the formation and growth of high-tech businesses in the region.
Other service providers and companies have offered reduced rates services to SmartZone Tenants and Affiliates and will be listed in this section along with contact phone numbers and links to their websites. Contact the SmartZone for additional information.
Entrepreneurs and start-up companies may wish to participate in the SmartZone services and utilize the conference facilities, copyiers and other equipment but not become a tenant of an incubator. Such SmartZone Affiliates will be charged a small yearly fee. Already companies across the U.P. are working with the SmartZone, seeking business and technical advice. If you wuld like to become a SmartZone Affiliate, please contact the SmartZone for information.
SmartZone companies are in the early growth stage and will be hiring engineers, technicians and support staff. If no jobs are currently listed in this section, check each website for possibile openings.
If you would like to work with the SmartZone to assist entrepreneurs and high-tech companies in the U.P., please contact us as there are many ways you might help. Volunteers are needed to help manage the business incubators and to assist with activities such as bookeeping, scheduling meetings and forums, writing and reviewing reports, grants, & business plans, and other SmartZone activities. Additionally, Business Mentors assist entrepreneurs and small companies by serving as advisors, helping companies with strategic plans and fundraising or with better understanding a particular market sector. If you have some time to spare and a desire to help see the U.P. high-tech economy grow, please contact us.
There are numerous opportunities to start high-tech companies here in the U.P. If you consider yourself to be entrepreneurial and would like to review technologies and product ideas that might form the basis for an exciting new company, please contact us. The SmartZone can introduce you to inventors and researchers within Michigan Tech and the U.P. who have inventions, ideas and concepts that need an entrepreneur to take to the next level. We can also help you with business plan development, grant writing and/or fundraising, and other hurdles faced getting the product developed or to market, including the availability of inexpensive space and internet connections. Click on Uncle Sam above to learn more about how the SmartZone can introduce you to exciting new ideas.
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