Steve Franks

Mr. Franks began working with the Innovation Center in 2004, coaching NIIC entrepreneurs who were entering business plan competitions, all of which were won by NIIC clients during the four years the competition existed. He was then appointed to manage the NIIC Gateways program, a stage gate product development program that graduated such clients as Schwartz Biomedical and TrustBearer Labs – both of whom achieved sizeable angel investment and developed significant technology products and platforms. Mr. Franks was then appointed to manage the Innovation Center’s student entrepreneurship programs, including NIIC’s Student Venture Lab program, NIIC’s BizWiz Student Entrepreneur Meetup, and NIIC’s Youth Entrepreneurship Symposium (YES!). He is currently responsible for all NIIC programs, including NIIC residential programs as well as services for 1) Lean Startup techniques for validating a business model, 2) preparing to Pitch investors, and 3) corporate in-house incubation.

Prior to joining NIIC, Mr. Franks worked in innovation consulting with the Design Consortium where he led or participated in numerous innovation projects to define next generation products, services, or strategic business concepts. He founded a Fort Wayne custom software development company, and later grew his technology experience with local technology product development company Adaptive Micro-Ware.

Mr. Franks is an adjunct faculty member at IPFW. He co-teaches Foundations of Organizational Context in the Organizational Leadership and Supervision’s graduate program together with Chris Pelz, NIIC’s Vice President and CFO. He has written or co-written three books: The Craft of Innovation, Creating a Successful Business Plan, and The Visible Business, and he writes about innovation and entrepreneurship at stevefranksinnovation.com.