When John Lorentzen graduated with a business degree from Drake University 40 years ago, he thought he had a pretty complete grounding in business topics. 

It wasn’t until after he was practicing corporate tax law in Chicago that he was exposed to entrepreneurial startup ventures for the first time. “So I was a little bit distraught that there was a whole universe of how value was created that I left Iowa not knowing about,” Lorentzen recalled. 

And having benefited from receiving a four-year, full-ride Drake Alumni Scholarship, he wanted to do something to give back to 
the university. 

In 2014, his vision for a startup incubator at Drake became a reality with the launch of the Lorentzen Hatchery. Lorentzen, who contributes $50,000 annually to provide student stipends and cover other costs of the program, visits Drake annually to hear the students’ presentations about what they’ve developed during the summerlong program. 

Among the ventures that have received mentoring from the program and are successfully operating are Opportunity on Deck, a Des Moines nonprofit organization that teaches youths the fundamentals of baseball. 

“One of the things I’m very pleased about is that we’re seeing students come from across the campus, from outside the business school,” said Tom Swartwood, assistant professor of practice in entrepreneurship, who runs the program. “That’s happened every year, even in the first year, which I think speaks to the mindset of young people today. This generation now may have had an entrepreneurship class in high school, but four years ago they didn’t. So what we’re seeing is real self-starters.”

One of the five ventures from this year’s cohort that caught my eye was Yoke, a communication platform for health care professionals being developed by Chintan Barot, a third-year pharmacy and MBA student. Barot had found that few pharmacy students or others majoring in health fields were using professional applications like LinkedIn, so he decided to develop an app tailored to health students, beginning with the pharmacy school. 

“I’m a pharmacy student, so it’s really easy for me to interact with my peers, listen to their advice and get constructive feedback,” he said. Among the features he’s tailoring to students are an on-demand business card, an instant-messaging capability, and tools for receiving industry newsletters and job postings. 

“We’re planning on releasing a bigger beta version early next year,” Barot said. “Depending on the feedback we receive, we can change the application accordingly. We’d like to see this as an actual thing on the app store within the next year.” 

Participating in the Hatchery helped him overcome probably the biggest challenge of starting a business — staying motivated and on track, Barot said. “The good thing here through the Hatchery is you have access to all these mentors and faculty. It’s a very empowering environment here — and the organization helps you turn your idea into reality. It helps you realize the questions you should be asking before you jump into this business.”