Start Yer Engines Find out how these four recent graduates are helping college students realize their dreams of entrepreneurship.

David Huang, Justin Segool, Brad Minsley, John Quintiliani andMatthew Weiss are futurists, even though they just graduated fromcollege. But these Duke University grads aren't thesit-back-and-pontificate kind of futurists. They make their visionshappen-and help others with theirs.

That's precisely what they want for the next generation ofnetpreneurs: the ability to turn their ideas into reality. "Weare confident that student entrepreneurs are going to produce thenext wave of e-businesses nationally and internationally,"says Weiss. They're so confident, in fact, that they'vecreated a "dorm-room" accelerator of high-tech studentventures in Durham, North Carolina, StartEmUp.com. Featuring theJumpStart2K Student Start-Up Challenge, StartEmUp allows studentsfrom 50 geographically juxtaposed campuses to compete for a spot inan off-campus incubator-or, as StartEmUp puts it, to go from dormroom to boardroom.

What's the StartEmUp advantage? "Giving onlyentry-level capital is a disservice to a ground-zero collegestudent with an idea," explains Weiss, 22. "What'sreally important is the guidance and hand-holding they need. Ourgoal is to take college students through start-up and position themto [approach] the investment community."

Here's how it works: Fledging student entrepreneurs fromuniversities in the targeted region submit their business plans forevaluation. The field is narrowed to 10 or 15 applicants, who thenpresent their proposals to a panel, then one or two students fromeach school win a spot in a five-suite start-up facility locatednear their campuses. In addition to receiving seed capital and freerent for up to 6 months, the selected high-tech companies canobtain free advice from a board of experts in the fields of law,marketing, e-commerce, real estate and business management.StartEmUp has also now partnered with Arthur Andersen, Smart Onlineand giants like The Dilweg Companies, and StartUpStreet.com, anInternet accelerator for high-growth start-ups, has jumped aboard,promising to provide StartEmUp winning student teams with access toa network of angel investors.

Student Start-Up Challenge contests have already been held forDuke, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina StateUniversity. The next areas on the agenda are Atlanta, Boston, LosAngeles and Washington, DC, with Chicago and New York slated forspring 2001. If all goes as planned, StartEmUp student acceleratorswill dot the country, giving Weiss and his partners a 20 percentequity stake in the Amazon.coms and eBays of the future.