Professional Resource Network

As needed...

In the medical profession, the initials "prn" stand for pro re nata, or "as needed." At the Technology Entrepreneur Center, "PRN" stands for "Professional Resource Network" – one of our most important support programs.

In your field, you know how important it is to have a community with ample resources for the aspiring entrepreneur or new business owner; one whose members have expertise in subject matter, operations, and the capital market infrastructure. We believe that relationships between young companies and more experienced advisors are best built one at a time. The purpose of our Professional Resource Network is to facilitate these relationships.

The PRN is TEC’s ever-growing group of current and former entrepreneurs, industry executives, and experts in accounting, finance, marketing, law and other critical disciplines. These individuals volunteer to be "on call" for students, faculty, aspiring business owners and start-up companies from the University of Illinois. University of Illinois alumni and friends play a pivotal role in this Network.

PRN members mentor students in the V. Dale Cozad Business Plan Competition and other TEC programs, guest lecture in entrepreneurial courses, and speak at events hosted by groups like CEO. They have helped identify ideas with commercial potential that have become student projects in TEC courses and the SELL lab. Ideas generated by those with industry experience are often more viable than student ideas, and the presence of an outside stakeholder spurs student enthusiasm and commitment.

Our goal here at the Technology Entrepreneur Center is to continue to expand our PRN, and to be able to assure our young innovators here that, no matter what their needs, we can introduce them to an advisor, a mentor, or a consultant whose skills, interests and experience make a suitable match.

But being a participating member of our Professional Resource Network is not merely philanthropy. The University of Illinois is among a small handful of flagship institutions in the United States consistently generating the kinds of technological innovations that can become high-value, high barrier-to-entry enterprises. The opportunity to help uncover, develop and mature these technologies, and to network with others engaged in the same endeavor can pay dividends now - and in the future.

If you would like to become a member of TEC’s Professional Resource Network, please click on Join the Network to fill out an information form. We will then post your profile (sans contact information) in our searchable database that students and faculty can use to identify possible PRN members they would like to work with. They can then work through our office to set up an initial meeting (in person or over the phone) to get the process started. If you have questions, please e-mail Rhiannon Clifton at rclifton@uiuc.edu.

Thank you for your continuing support of the Technology Entrepreneur Center, and the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.