By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 30, 2002; Page E01

For a certain period in the 1990s, dorm-room dot-coms were all the rage. The most prominent examples, Yahoo and Google, both started by Stanford University students in dormitories and campus trailers, rocketed to stardom and riches, fueling the dreams of many others.

When the technology boom went bust, those dreams seemed to die, too. But rather than disregard the ambitions of its entrepreneurial students, the University of Maryland is encouraging them with the kind of amenities that earlier students could only dream about.

For 100 promising undergraduate students intent on creating successful companies, the school customized two floors in one of its ritziest dorms with a grand cherry-wood conference table and leather chairs, wireless connectivity, whiteboards, and a phone system designed to simultaneously ring home and cellular phones so calls are never missed.

The goal is "to try to create within the state of Maryland a culture for entrepreneurship that is comparable to that in Silicon Valley," said William W. Destler, the U-Md. provost who suggested the residential program to College Park alumnus and tech entrepreneur Brian L. Hinman. "I came up with this because these start-up firms are sort of famous for being live-in experiences. They are sort of 24-hour-a-day enterprises while they are getting going, and I thought it would be kind of interesting to see that in a dormitory setting."

The school's Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEO) program is designed to mirror the all-consuming environs of a start-up firm. The 73 male and 27 female students housed there pay nothing extra but must commit to living in the dorm for at least half their college careers. Sharing living space with budding business leaders who speak of market share and price-to-earnings ratios may not appeal to every college kid, but twice as many applied as were accepted.

To be considered for the Hinman program, students must have a 3.0 grade-point average and write an essay. Just under half the students are in majors such as engineering and computer science, while an additional 39 percent are studying business. "I had always kind of thought about [entrepreneurship], but it wasn't until after I joined the program that I started taking it seriously," said Lei Gong, a senior majoring in computer science and founder of Concept Developers, a technology consulting firm. "There is so much energy here, you can't help but get caught up in this. Lately I've been putting more hours in my business than my schoolwork."

Hinman, 41, pledged $1.7 million to fund the venture's training tools, computer equipment, administrative bills and incidental costs. The U-Md. engineering student graduated in 1982 and left for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he started the first of his three technology companies: PictureTel Corp., Polycom Inc. and 2Wire Inc.

Hinman, on a tour of the building recently, said he might have planted stronger roots in Maryland and headquartered his firms there had entrepreneurship been encouraged while he was an undergraduate.

The Hinman CEO program is a joint venture of the engineering and business schools. Large investments in U-Md.'s Robert H. Smith School of Business have boosted its image as an academic force in recent years. The school is home to the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, which provides support to start-ups throughout the state. More students are applying for its undergraduate and graduate programs. Its research and development grants have doubled to $7.2 million this year. Next week the school will dedicate a $38 million wing that will double the school's physical size.

The three-year-old Hinman CEO program is one of only two programs of its kind in the nation (the other is at Stanford), and last week it was given the Price Institute Innovative Entrepreneurship Educators Award, bestowed on schools to further entrepreneurial education.

"When we were giving this award we were looking for real innovations in entrepreneurship studies. This is one of the only programs like it around," said Tina Seelig, executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, which chose the Price award winner. "The thing about the Hinman program is that it's faculty-sponsored, it's not student-driven. It's really quite remarkable to say, 'We're not only going to teach classes, but we're going to get these kids to live together,' and it's often over those late-night pizzas where the best ideas are born."

If company creation is a measure of success, the program seems to be working. Twenty of the students have created their own start-up firms, and six are already generating revenue. One example: Manny Herrmann, a sophomore political science major, who said his textbook-sales business has already generated more than $300,000 in revenue this year.

Venture capitalists, lawyers and serial entrepreneurs drop by weekly to impart wisdom and to mentor. Hinman scholars must attend a number of these sessions each semester, but are otherwise untaxed by specific requirements.

When it launched in 2000, the program was housed in a typical U-Md. dorm called Garrett Hall. The construction of a $14.7 million building was already in the works, so the university and the developer, Capstone Properties, agreed to design the space with executive-bound students in mind. It cost about $100,000 to customize the dorm, about half of which was paid for through a donation by the school's telecom provider, Avaya Inc.

But the new quarters were going to cost the students $575 per month, significantly more than they paid at Garrett Hall. So Hinman increased his donation to $2.5 million to help offset that price hike. South Campus Commons, the Hinman program's new home, more closely resembles the glossy headquarters of a well-established company than a dormitory. With sparkling floors and whitewashed walls, it might feel sterile if not for the rush of backpack-toting students.

Students live in fully-furnished apartments that could easily double for extended-stay executive suites. Upperclassmen with good grades are on waiting lists to live in the upper floors of the building and in a similar dorm.

The idea was to create a completely professional environment, according to Karen Thornton, associate director of the program.

"Anyone who comes in to talk tells them how lucky they are . . . that they have things most start-up companies wait years for," Thornton said. "We just tried to think of anything a student entrepreneur might need."

Jason Volk does not think his firm, Alertus Technologies, would exist without the Hinman program. The Potomac native came to U-Md. as an accounting major and could probably sign on with a big firm that would offer a decent salary and steady work when he graduates next year. But the 20-year-old college junior is already a chief executive, and that title reduces the appeal of entry-level work.

Volk was shopping around for business school activities when he first heard of the Hinman program. He considered enrolling in the school's six-class entrepreneurship citation program, and heard about Hinman; he liked it because it was less structured and more social than taking formal classes.

Volk said he found himself looking at new innovations as business opportunities after living in the CEO dorm for six months.

"I just started paying attention to the technologies that were around me, wondering 'Why isn't this being optimized more than it is?' I was thinking about potential applications and potential commercializations," Volk said.

With Thornton's help, Volk was admitted to an upper-level technology course that allowed him to test a hypothesis and make contact with engineering students who could develop a radio-wave-based emergency alert system. The company was formed and, less than a year later, Alertus Technologies was awarded a $70,000 research grant through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program.

Volk, who joked that his bed in the new dorm is as large as an average room on campus, believes it would be incredibly difficult to run a company without the Hinman program. Alertus holds meetings in the board room and works on programs in the computer lab. It was an old roommate who mentioned the MIPS grant to Volk and Thornton who helped him set up the business. He might not have thought about setting up a company if everyone around him wasn't doing the same.

"A lot of it really is the community," Volk said. "Being around people in the program inspires one to think about other opportunities and what else could be out there. What I've learned here is how to plan, how to make a business actually work."

Hinman students also learn about networking, funding, ethics and marketing. A magazine rack filled with titles such as the Economist, MacroMedia and Teradata is another source of knowledge, but the students say their most important resources are each other.

"Everything I need to know, I can find out from some of the people who live around here. You have to utilize the environment. All of us want to be entrepreneurs, know we want to be entrepreneurs, and will always be entrepreneurs," said Amandeep Lamba, a sophomore majoring in computer science who has slept only two or three hours a night for the past few weeks while launching a medical software business.

The students, undeterred by the technology bust of the past few years and the corporate scandals of the past year, realize there is more to running a business than having a bright idea.

"I had thought it was only about the technology. You're not going to catch us doing the same thing that's already been done," said Lei Gong. "Part of this program is that we get to take risks and fail here first, before we're 28 or 29 and have kids to think about."