entrepreneurship
The vision of creating a design aspiration to Value Entrepreneurship within the framework of the New American University was to take entrepreneurship out of a singular college or program (traditionally housed within a university’s business or engineering school) and make it available to all students within all programs of study. The goal was also to make entrepreneurship less of a noun and more of a verb; to move from the traditional thinking of entrepreneurship as a business plan competition and to embrace the thinking that entrepreneurship is a mindset, a new way of approaching not just venture creation but also learning, education and faculty-student-staff interactions. ASU has been incredibly successful in disseminating the message that entrepreneurship is for everyone within the university, from the incoming freshmen to the tenured faculty or the staff member who has been with the university for days or decades.
While ASU has always made a large and lasting impact on the Phoenix-area entrepreneurial community, since the launch of the New American University ASU has taken great strides in advancing student entrepreneurship. ASU has built, launched and propelled the success of a number of cutting-edge entrepreneurship endeavors, all while challenging the long-standing belief that entrepreneurship is only for “business.” ASU has done as much to cultivate and support social entrepreneurship as it has for traditional entrepreneurship.
Through entrepreneurship and innovation, ASU seeks to assume major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it, and ASU has been unbelievable successful in its entrepreneurial endeavors. It has been an incredible decade for all levels of entrepreneurship and all types of entrepreneurs here at ASU. We are confident that the next 10 years will propel ASU to the forefront of collegiate thought and practice regarding entrepreneurship.
SkySong
Since the inception of the New American University model, ASU has launched a campaign to fundamentally change the way the university approaches all aspects of entrepreneurship. Since 2002, ASU has seen the formation of Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) to help cultivate research discoveries into technologies and business ideas that can be commercialized and licensed to entrepreneurs or corporations. In partnership with the City of Scottsdale, ASU was instrumental in creating SkySong an innovation and entrepreneurship hub in south Scottsdale. Today, SkySong is home to the best student startups that ASU has to offer as well as an incubator for high-potential startups and a prime location for innovative businesses looking to work with other like-minded entities.
ASU SkySong impacts local, state and international economies by engaging the university with businesses and governments to drive economic development and global enterprise. ASU SkySong helps grow the economy through launching and accelerating new companies and promoting use inspired research. SkySong houses more than 1,000 employees, 79 private companies, 44 tenant companies and 20 student startup companies – all representing eight different countries. SkySong is operating at 98 percent capacity, with plans to break ground on a third and fourth building in the fall of 2012, which will add an additional 300,000 square feet of space to the complex.
Arizona Technology Enterprises
Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) is the exclusive intellectual property management and technology transfer organization for Arizona State University. AzTE works with faculty, investors and industry partners to speed the flow of innovation from research laboratories to the marketplaces. Formed in 2003, AzTE has been a successful driver of entrepreneurship for ASU. More than 55 companies, based on ASU research discoveries and faculty research efforts, have been spun out of the university since 2003. Of those 55 companies, 10 companies have had exits; eight through mergers or acquisitions and two through Initial Public Offerings. Collectively, AzTE’s portfolio of spinout companies has received $200 million from venture funding, public markets and other investments. This success is gaining national attention. The Association of University Technology Managers is projected to rank ASU No. 2 in invention disclosures, No. 2 in startups created and No. 4 in licenses and options in their annual rankings report this year.
Edson Initiative
In 2005, through the generous endowment from Orin and Charlene Edson, ASU was able to launch the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative. The Edson Accelerator provides funding, office space and intensive mentor-led guidance to teams of students within all university disciplines. This accelerator gives student entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their innovative ideas and launch viable businesses. As an integral program of ASU Venture Catalyst, students in the Edson Accelerator have access to seasoned entrepreneurs, industry mentors and other catalyst programs that enable them to advance their enterprises.
Since its inception in 2005, the Edson Initiative has provided 124 unique student ventures with nearly $1.2 million in seed funding grants. Edson has also seen continual, year-over-year increases of student awareness of and interest in the program. Student applicant numbers continue to grow. In 2012, more than 340 individual venture applications were received for the Edson Initiative, representing more than 1200 students from across all university disciplines. In the first five years of the program alone, these student ventures created more than 70 full- and part-time jobs, 40 percent were acquired, sold or are still operational, and more than 44 different majors and programs of study were represented by applicants. In 2011 alone, the Edson Initiative was directly responsible for creating 20 new jobs, with more than 20 forecasted to be created by the 2012 Edson cohort.
• 1st Place winners of the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition were ASU teams in 2011 and 2012
• Entrepreneur magazine "College Entrepreneur of the Year" in the USA – three out of five finalists (1st time) and overall winner
• AppSumo Lean Startup competition – winner (1st time)
• Top 5 Small Business Facebook Presence – One out of 20 internationally (1st time)
• Cleantech Open – One winner of the Rocky Mountain Regional final (1st time)
• Idea to Product Global competition (final in Sweden) – One finalist, placed second (1st time)
• Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) Accelerator – One accepted (1st time)
• Global Student Entrepreneur Award Global Finals (graduate level) – One accepted (1st time)
• Startup Open global competition – Two in top 50 finalists (1st time)
• Inc magazine’s "Coolest College Startup in America" – 2 finalists – first and second place overall (1st time)
• The 2011/12 cohort of Edson companies have brought in over $300,000 in grants, cash prizes and in-kind prizes with zero loss of equity
The Edson Initiative is only one of the successful student entrepreneurship program that ASU has developed since the launch of the New American University. Building on the success of Edson, ASU launched Innovation Challenge, P.A.V.E., 10,000 Solutions and Changemaker Central – all aimed at continuing to build awareness of ASU’s excellence as a vehicle for social and world change through entrepreneurship.
Innovation Challenge
ASU’s Innovation Challenge seeks undergraduate and graduate students from across the university who are dedicated to making a difference in our local and global communities through innovation. The P.A.V.E. Program in Arts Entrepreneurship lays the foundation for the future of the arts by investing in student innovation and creativity, supporting arts entrepreneurship education and undertaking entrepreneurial activities and research. 10,000 Solutions is a place to showcase and collect innovative ideas that solve local and global challenges. Changemaker Central was created as a way to facilitate participation by making direct service, service learning, entrepreneurship, and high-impact careers more accessible and inviting to students.
While relatively new programs, they have seen almost immediate success. More than 300 students applied for Innovation Challenge in the first two years, representing over 500 ASU students. Within the top five colleges represented by Innovation Challenge applicants, three were non-traditional schools for entrepreneurship including the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and Barrett, The Honors College. Additionally, Innovation Challenge applicants represent 60 different programs of study at ASU and 68 percent of applicants stated that their education at ASU inspired them to start their own venture.
Changemaker Campus
ASU’s programs and initiatives to support student entrepreneurship have transformed the university into a leading school for entrepreneurship. Since January 2007, more than 1,700 applications were received for ASU’s various student entrepreneurship competitions, more than 48,000 students have enrolled in an entrepreneurship course within their program of study, and more than 900 entrepreneurs have been trained in programs at ASU SkySong. All of these initiatives and entrepreneurial successes were recognized on a national level when ASU was invited to join the Changemaker Campus Consortium by Ashoka, a global network of more than 2,500 social entrepreneurs.
ASU was selected as a Changemaker Campus in fall 2010 by Ashoka U, which works to strengthen entrepreneurship in higher education by disseminating key knowledge and resources, recognizing innovation and facilitating collaboration between institutions of higher education and social entrepreneur practitioners. The Changemaker Campus Initiative, launched in 2008, focuses on bringing together higher-ed institutions that are moving forward and preparing the next generation of leaders in social change.
ASU Venture Catalyst
After developing several channels to support student, faculty and staff members’ entrepreneurial endeavors, ASU continued to support entrepreneurship at a broader community level through the creation of ASU Venture Catalyst. Made possible through a $1 million grant from the state, ASU was able to create a unit to work with, mentor, develop and support high-potential startups from the local area as well as national and international startups.
ASU Venture Catalyst equips high potential startups for success. The catalyst assists university students, faculty and staff, as well as local and global companies, with launching startups or accelerating existing ventures. Based at ASU SkySong, the catalyst offers investor connections, technology road maps, go-to-market strategy consulting, mentoring opportunities, and several other programs and services, all designed to identify and develop investment-grade companies.
In 2012 Venture Catalyst began a program that would bridge the gap between student and university startups and external high potential startups. Rapid Startup School was designed to be a practical academic approach to teaching entrepreneurship, focused not on the theory behind entrepreneurship but the practicality of actually getting a startup business developed and funded. The objective is to allow graduate students, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers an understanding of commercialization and to stimulate startup activity. The initial 12-module program was very successful. It included 70 participants that included postdoctoral and research staff, ASU alumni, serial entrepreneurs and community members.
SMALLab Learning
SMALLab Learning, a faculty spin-out company from Arizona State University, announced a $500,000 development grant provided by Educause and the Gates Foundation, and their first customer ChicagoQuest. SMALLab Learning developed after more than six years of research conducted at ASU's School of Arts, Media + Engineering with funding from the National Science Foundation and Intel Research, among others.
The SMALLab team is developing a series of learning scenarios focused on the physics of simple machines, a foundational topic for middle school math and science students. The grant also supports innovative methods for assessing student learning during the act of learning.
The faculty startup company has been supported by ASU Venture Catalyst, which support faculty, student and external startup companies, and Arizona Technology Enterprises, the intellectual property management and technology transfer organization for Arizona State University.