One of benefits the Idaho Small Business Development Center (SBDC) offers its clients in the Boise area, is its ability to leverage the resources provided through its partnership with Boise State. Many companies are looking for talented students to help them with projects and the SBDC encourages its clients to utilize Boise State for this purpose. Some of the programs the SBDC is involved in are formalized, like COBE’s Marketing 425 class and Human Resource Management 305 class, in which student teams work directly with SBDC clients to deliver a report or handbook as well as receive class credit.
Plus, there is also an organic network effect that happens because of the Boise State partnership. For example, an SBDC client called Predictable Ryde (real-time bus tracking for schools and parents) was encouraged by the SBDC to attend the Develop Idaho conference. Predictable Ryde applied to the conference and was selected to present their business. While there, the company met professor Bogdan Dit, and then applied, and was accepted as a 481 Computer Science Senior Design project. This means the company will have a team of six Boise State Computer Science seniors, working for two semesters to help the design and build an iPhone app.
Other SBDC clients utilize interns from local high schools. For example, every year Meridian Technical Charter High School tours the SBDC Nampa Business Accelerator to learn about technology startups. One of the SBDC clients, NSN technologies has gone on to hire six full-time employees that are graduates of the high-school, some of whom also attended Boise State. NSN currently has 4 Boise State interns working on site at the SBDC Nampa Business Accelerator.
The SBDC is proud of the relationship it has with Boise State and continues to look for ways in which to improve the contact between students and clients. This relationship is beneficial to the companies, as they get exposed to talented and energetic students; to the SBDC as the students provide direct value to the companies; and to Boise State as an avenue for students to get real-world experience. The SBDC continues to work hard to find ways, formal and organic, to integrate Boise State students to the Idaho economy and expects to have many more examples to share in the future.