Clark, an exercise, sport and health education major, came to Jordan last fall because he had ideas. Lots of them. And he didn’t know what to do with them. Jordan listened, then gave him Gates’ phone number.

Gates’ suggestion to Clark and Josh Brown, another student Jordan had pinpointed, was that they start a club, “and they slugged it out of the park,” says Gates.

Soon a group of what Clark calls “10 good students” were putting their heads together. Their goal: to develop ideas that would work with minimal expenses.

Collegiate Entrepreneurs became an official university organization, endorsed by President Douglas Covington and backed by the Business Industry Council. By November it had achieved 501(c)3 status, becoming a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Service code.

The organization’s structure is based on a corporate model. Individual members hold specific corporate roles and seek alumni entrepreneurs in matching roles who can be their mentors.

Before an enterprise can get going, says Gates, the real nugget of an idea needs to be tested and validated to determine its viability. “That’s where the learning comes in — figuring out how to frugally get an idea off the ground.”

I started my first company with $3,000 and a few years later it had surpassed $3 million in business. I want students to know how to do that.

Mason Gates

There are two ways an organization like Collegiate Entrepreneurs can fund ideas, he says. One is “bootstrapping” — getting the money wherever it can be found, through club dues for example, and making ideas work with it. Students bring ideas to the table and choose what they think will work. As those ventures bring in money, they can fund other ideas. A second method is to bring in funds from the outside — from donors or grant organizations.

Alumni contributed about $500 to help the group get started. “I know of another university that just established an $11 million entrepreneurial studies center,” says Gates. “I told Kathryn Jordan the easiest thing in the world would be to go out and get money to throw at this, but the point is to make an idea work with what you have. I started my first company with $3,000 and a few years later it had surpassed $3 million in business. I want students to know how to do that.”

The club has taken a few knocks, but the learning is worth it, says Clark. Their most promising enterprise is Valã Parking. They looked into contracting with venues for valet parking services but found more success in talking with caterers. They now have a contract with Baker’s Best, a private catering service located in RU’s Business Technology Park and owned by Linda and Doug Eads, who both earned master’s degrees from Radford. Another venture the group is exploring is to test and validate outside entrepreneurs’ ideas.

“A series of small successes is all it takes for someone to gain the confidence to continue,” says Gates.

“I don’t see any other model like this one in other universities,” he says. “RU is unique because there is no existing entrepreneurial studies program. The key element of success is student activity. The students stepped up and took it on.

A piece of Gates and Jordan’s plan was still missing. What was the best way to find and place students in meaningful internships with real entrepreneurs?

Gates got a brilliant idea.

“A lot of the time I’m working out of my car,” he says, not in an office where he can oversee or get help from an intern, and when he needs something done he usually needs it quickly. What he needs is a virtual intern.

He calls his brilliant idea InternDirect, and Collegiate Entrepreneurs will conduct validation this spring.

It will work sort of like OnStar. Say you need information, a task completed, a problem solved. You call InternDirect, whose entrepreneurial student interns are on call. A student, who will be paid for his or her services, takes your call and, bringing in a team if needed, takes care of the job. Your work gets done, the student is richer in finances and experience, and with any luck, he or she will deal with you more than once. Perhaps you’ll offer some encouragement and advice. Perhaps you’ll be a mentor.

Students who commit to the service will need a strong work ethic, independence and motivation. They’ll need to be entrepreneurs.