https://www.linkedin.com/school/northeastern-university/
https://www.instagram.com/northeastern/
https://www.facebook.com/northeastern/Entrepreneurship is about solving problems and making an impact. At Northeastern University, we’re investing in the entrepreneurs who will fuel the economies of tomorrow and launch the ventures that benefit all humankind. Our approach is multidimensional. It’s about developing people who can think and do in ever-changing contexts. It’s about finding faster, better ways to launch companies. And it’s about building the community and networks that founders, VCs, and mentors want and need. All at a global scale, with local impact. We do this by drawing on what makes Northeastern unique: • Student-led experiential learning. As a world-leader in experiential learning, Northeastern students across all stages of life and career learn about entrepreneurship not only in the classroom, but also through real-world experience—launching their own ventures, doing co-ops at start-ups and their own ventures, taking part in residency programs, and participating in Northeastern’s wide range of student-run entrepreneurship organizations. “Student-led” is the primary design driver in our entrepreneurship ecosystem, and all programming is made with students, not just for them. • Global reach. Northeastern now has 14 campuses in the U.S., U.K., and Canada in some of the fastest-growing tech and start-up economies. That includes not only start-up and Big Tech hubs like San Jose, Seattle, and Boston, but also emerging tech and finance economies like Miami; Portland, Maine; and London. • Our partnership model. Partnership with industry, government, and community organizations fuels our unique model for lifelong learning, research, and entrepreneurship. We’re able to integrate the hundreds of startups and venture capitalists in that network into all parts of our student and faculty experience. • Interdisciplinary. Our programming is agnostic of background, integrative, and interactive; dynamically and organically connecting students, alumni, researchers, employers, and entrepreneurs in response to the needs and goals of the network members.
RUNNER-UP
Americas Most Impactful University of the Year Award
Northeastern University
RUNNER-UP Americas Most Impactful University of the Year Award
Northeastern University - United States
"Good humans, sound ventures, world leaders"
Summary
Key People
Jennifer Boyle-Lynch
Executive Director
Center for Research Innovation, Northeastern University
Katrina Brink
Associate Director
Venture Mentoring Network, Northeastern University
Eugene Buff
Director
Health Sciences Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Northeastern University
Francesca Grippa
Director
Inclusive Entrepreneurship Lab, Northeastern University
Theo Johnson
Director
Michael J. and Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education, Northeastern University
Alyn LeBlanc
Program Manager
IDEA, Northeastern University
Betsy Ludwig
Executive Director
Women’s Entrepreneurship, Northeastern University
David Manning
Director
Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Provost, Northeastern University
Marie Meslin
Managing Director
Center for Entrepreneurship Education, Northeastern University
Rebecca Riccio
Khaled and Olfat Juffali Director
Social Impact Lab, Northeastern University
Marina Watanabe
Associate Director
Mosaic, Northeastern University
Christopher Wolfel
Associate Vice President and Head of Entrepreneurship and Venture Creation
Roux Institute, Northeastern University
Shea Tate-Di Donna
Head of Entrepreneurship
Northeastern University Oakland
Richard Corps
Head of Entrepreneurship
Northeastern University London
Acknowledgements
We would be nothing without our students. Every day, we are grateful to you for your passion, drive, and determination to make the world better. It is an honor to work with you as part of our community.
Thank you to our philanthropic supporters for funding our students so they have the resources to learn and grow. With your generosity, we have created a platform where more than half of our funding goes directly to the students in the form of venture grants, entrepreneurship organization funding, and resources.
Northeastern University is a central part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem across our global campuses, not just inside the classroom, but also in our local communities. From our faculty, staff, investors, corporate partners, mentors, and alumni, we thank all who are helping to shape the innovative minds of tomorrow.
Images
The inaugural Miami Entrepreneurship Fintech Trek where students had an all-expenses paid one week experience at the Northeastern Miami campus meeting with founders and creating a fintech venture from scratch
Students from Disrupt, the student-led fintech initiative show off their new shirts at the annual Fall Fest to recruit new members
Entrepreneurship organization student leaders gather in the IDEA Lab to brainstorm and collaborate
Students from Northeastern’s Young Entrepreneurs (NYE) at the Northeastern London campus advertise their programming
Entrepreneurs Club (E-Club) members at the Northeastern Oakland campus pose for photos with University President Joseph E. Aoun at the Experiential Entrepreneurship program kick off
The 2023 Roux Institute Founder Residency Future of Healthcare cohort members
Students from the Northeastern Oakland campus visit Onto Innovations in Milpitas, California during the Experiential Entrepreneurship program
Students from Generate, the student-led prototyping studio, work on building prototypes for a venture client
Students from the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship (WISE), the student-led group at Northeastern dedicated to helping women and underrepresented genders excel in entrepreneurship, at their annual Summit conference
Northeastern University’s Women Who Empower (WWE) initiative seeks to inspire and enable future generations of entrepreneurs to be creative, innovative, and agile. By hosting events ranging from panels to workshops, WWE ensures all voices are amplified and heard
IMPACT STORY
Impacting lifes
Andrew Shenouda, computer science and business major at Northeastern University, struggled to read until third grade when tutoring helped bring him to the top of his class. In high school, he wanted to unlock that same potential in other students, starting a nonprofit tutoring service with over 20 tutors. In the end, he fell into the same pitfall many businesses fall into: The administrative side of things took more time than the actual tutoring.
Andrew came to Northeastern with a dream of building a business, perhaps one that could help solve problems like the one he faced during his previous endeavor. That’s how he ended up joining a business pitching competition held by the Entrepreneurs Club where his idea placed third.
Andrew’s venture, Tadpole, a platform that allows tutors to manage the administrative side of their business, has now raised $30,000 in grants and is months away from onboarding users. It’s also an example of how Northeastern’s entrepreneurial ecosystem can help bring the ideas of aspiring founders to life. Through his start in Entrepreneurs Club, Andrew thrived in IDEA, Northeastern’s student-led venture accelerator, finding mentorship, community, and funding. Andrew joined the venture co-op, focusing on Tadpole for six months while receiving guidance and being paid. He has won funding through university grants and most recently represented Northeastern at a pitch competition for universities across Boston.
LEARNINGS
Lessons learned
We’re all about setting up our students to be good humans who build sound ventures and become world leaders. We have a long history of learning in motion, applying classroom learning to new contexts, and figuring out solutions in real time. Over the years we’ve learned a few things:
We never underestimate students. Northeastern students are doers. They want to build and experience entrepreneurship, and our best tactic has always been to provide resources then step back and let them run with it. The result: an ecosystem of student-led entrepreneurship organizations on multiple campuses and a growing number of venture and entrepreneurship related Co-ops.
It’s not just about founders, it’s also about a mindset. We encourage people to think bigger, bolder, and across boundaries by building a ‘yes and’ culture. We work hard to make entrepreneurship accessible to all. We don’t assume that because someone has no start-up experience, they don’t have a desire to try something new. Building a robust entrepreneurship ecosystem requires the engagement of everyone.
Context matters. It’s one of the reasons Northeastern plans to leverage its global system of campuses and partners. Yes, we want to scale entrepreneurship so that all students, faculty, and partners have convenient access to our entrepreneurship offerings. But we also believe in the value of localized start-ups, investing, and solutions—for impact on learning and economies.
FUTURE PLANS
What's coming?
Our mission is to scale the reach of our entrepreneurship programs and offerings across our global campuses in ways that are accessible, impactful, and locally aligned.
We’re expanding our experiential entrepreneurship offerings everywhere to align local business, entrepreneurship and student activity where we have growing undergraduate populations and opportunity to underscore our distinctive brand in new markets.
In Oakland, we’ve launched an Experiential Entrepreneurship curriculum for first-year students. Integrated into the more traditional academic programs offered, the EE curriculum weaves in panel discussions with local founders, pop-up entrepreneurship events, bootcamps, and field trips to local startups. Students get a holistic perspective on the power of entrepreneurship as a tool for new inventions, in-house innovation, and social impact.
In London, we’ve launched a startup coworking space to continue to integrate undergraduates into the London entrepreneurship ecosystem by working closely with growing startups.
In Miami, we’re building more opportunities like our Entrepreneurship Fintech Trek where students spend a week meeting with local founders and experts and creating a fintech venture from scratch, with prize money to build a prototype.
In Portland, we are launching a partnership between Gulf of Maine Ventures and The Roux Institute at Northeastern University to drive blue technology innovation. The Blue w(AI)ve program will be the first-of-its-kind 16-week accelerator focusing on early-stage companies leveraging artificial intelligence in ocean-based solutions.
Meanwhile, we're expanding student-led entrepreneurship opportunities through The Center for Entrepreneurship Education which houses Mosaic and other college-agnostic entrepreneurship programs at our Boston campus, where entrepreneurship already thrives.
