Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University A recipe for a successful univenture program – and some hurdles to beware of
This is the story of the rise and fall of a univenture program. It presents a fascinating double-barreled case study, with critical insights about how a univenture program can be made a success, and what pitfalls must be avoided to keep it sustainable over time – both very useful lessons for other universities.
In its heyday, the univenture program at the University of Utah in the previous decade was characterized by excellent outcomes – it tied MIT by creating over a hundred startups in some five years. And then came the winding down of the program. Dr. Krueger looks at the driving factors behind this story through a lens of four relevant elements:
- Visible, vocal leadership that establishes a clear vision
- Understanding and managing the local context
- A culture supporting risk taking and entrepreneurship
- Extensive ecosystem engagement
The article describes the inherent tension between a program leadership that repudiated “business as usual” and a bureaucracy that pushed back. As long as the first prevailed, the program saw excellent results; the eventual leaving of key drivers allowed inertia to take over again.
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About the Author:
 | Dr. Norris Krueger – Research Fellow, Center for Global Business Research at the University of Phoenix; Founder, Entrepreneurship Northwest |