Greater Hartford power couple, the Cantors, help fund new UConn entrepreneurship program

Shari Cantor

Write a Comment

By Sean Teehan

One of Hartford’s most well-known lawyers and the mayor of West Hartford are helping fund a new entrepreneurship course at UConn, which will include working to solve actual problems faced by startup companies in Greater Hartford.

UConn will debut its Build Hartford course through the university's Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation next spring, the university said.

The course was made possible by a donation from West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor and Michael Cantor, co-managing partner at intellectual property law firm Cantor Colburn LLP, and chair of the board at Connecticut's quasi-public venture fund Connecticut Innovations.

The size of the donation wasn’t immediately available.

“I care deeply about keeping young people that graduate from our universities here in the state,” Michael Cantor said. “A key way to do that is to have a vibrant start-up community where they all want to work.”

Students enrolled in the program will work with mentors from the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI), and will be tasked with solving real problems current startups in the Hartford area face, according to UConn.

Werth Institute Managing Director David Noble said the course will help the region develop a more robust startup scene.

“It creates a framework for helping to build the entrepreneurial community of Hartford, helping support the talent needs of startups in Hartford,” Noble said.

The course will start a semester after the Werth Institute started a pilot program at UConn's Stamford campus aimed at training students interested in entrepreneurship how to develop new products, while hopefully creating intellectual property like prototypes and patents.