Will the $50,000 Harvard Business School awarded to student entrepreneurs help your Boston Small Business? We’d like to think so.

The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at HBS picked seven winners for what is the first round of its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Funding, covering the 2011-2012 academic year, according to a release from the school. The Rock Center is funding the MVP Fund, which was created last year by three MBA students at the school – Dan Rumennik, Jess Bloomgarden, and Andrew Rosenthal. The goal is to reward entrepreneurs with ideas that align with fast prototyping, in order to get commercial products on the market as soon as possible.

The awards were given to individual students or small student groups with products already designed to hit the marketplace. With Commercial Banks tightening their belts, Small Business loan offerings are not easily obtained anymore.

Here’s hoping the cash awarded is enough to get these young, aspiring student entrepreneurs the support they need to get their businesses up and running. This is exactly the type of investing that needs to be done to generate employment opportunities as well. What are you thoughts on this type of award?

If you would like to read more of the Boston Business Journal article, just click here.