How can universities help student entrepreneurs gain access to capital? Should universities invest directly in startups?
UC universities now have the ability to invest directly in companies that start on their campuses. This “direct-investment model” is relatively new for public universities, though private institutions such as Stanford pave the way for success. Universities are also testing “equity stake exchanges” through which university accelerators gain an equity stake in exchange for allowing student entrepreneurs to utilize campus resources; this setup emulates popular private incubators.
What do you think? As an aspiring student entrepreneur, would a school’s willingness to provide direct financial support be a differentiating factor for you?
To learn more about this, see here: https://bit.ly/2l1TkS5
To view PitchBook’s 2016-2017 list of the “top 50 universities producing VC-backed entrepreneurs,” see here: https://bit.ly/2ldKyml