Gigot Center Opens Business Incubator

South Bend's Robinson Community Learning Center, which opened in February, features a business incubator sponsored by the Gigot Center. The incubator pairs aspiring entrepreneurs in the community with undergraduate and MBA student mentors. The Robinson Center has already launched its first business: a bike repair shop owned by previously unemployed South Bend residents.

The business will eventually include a bike rental service for Notre Dame students. The idea came about when members of the ND Entrepreneurship Club noticed ND students only got a few months' use out of their bikes before the winter weather set in. The club plans to rent bikes to students during the fall, store and service them at the repair shop over the winter, then rent them to students again in the spring. For more information, contact Jim Falkiner: (219) 631-4126 or Falkiner.1@nd.edu.

Left to right: Jim Falkiner (EMBA, '01), director, Gigot Entrepreneur Intern Program, James Keller ('01), Jim Davis, director, Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.