At the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, our dedicated focus is on fostering the growth of entrepreneurial skills and empowering Longhorns to embrace this mindset in their careers, whether through starting their own businesses or driving innovation within established industries. UT founders can tap into the HKEC’s wealth of entrepreneurial resources through our networking and funding opportunities, interactive speaker events, one-on-one mentorship, pitch competitions, and our semester-long practicum, the Forty Acres Founders Program.

As a complement to The Navigator, the Innovation Concierge serves as a nexus for all innovation activity for faculty across the UT campus. The Innovation Concierge is well informed on innovation resources both within the institution, as well as the broader Austin and Texas ecosystems. Faculty are encouraged to connect as needed and the Innovation Concierge will provide a warm handoff to the correct point of contact.

The Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute (KS WELI) supports creatives, founders, leaders, and allies by redefining leadership and entrepreneurship. KS WELI equips and empowers students of all backgrounds through engaging programming and events, spotlighting women-led businesses through the FoundHER Program, and sponsoring interdisciplinary courses within the McCombs Entrepreneurship Minor. Since its founding, KS WELI has become a force on UT’s campus to grow and support the number of women-owned and women-led businesses.

The Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program offers $50,000 grants for Faculty and Grad Student/Postdoc researchers to reduce the time and risk associated with translating technologies from lab to market, quickly assessing the market potential of inventions developed from fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. Teams work directly with leadership from the Southwest I-Corps Node (SWICORPS) at UT Austin to gain eligibility and prepare for the NSF grant program through regional activities.

Pivot allows researchers in all disciplines to quickly discover funding opportunities that match their interests and expertise. Pivot is available to all UT faculty, staff researchers, research administrators and students.

UT Entrepreneurs: Whether you're looking to see what other creative students are up to, have a business idea of your own, or are in search of co-founders to join your team, Startup Coffee Connect is the perfect event to kickstart your dream. From apps and software development to medical technology, innovative services, and retail goods, UT students are working on big things. Come by these monthly gatherings to meet others in the innovation space in a low-stakes, friendly environment.

StartupTree is an online platform that aggregates entrepreneurship events, opportunities, mentorship, and startup jobs and internships at UT Austin.

A 9-week summer accelerator program that picks the most promising emerging UT startups (undergrad, grad, and faculty teams) and helps them confront their next market-driven milestone. In its 13th year, alumni companies have collectively raised $100M and generated over $400M in valuation.

Texas Biodesign is inspired by Stanford Biodesign’s process of front-end innovation development, in which interdisciplinary teams of researchers, engineers, business participants, and clinicians work to understand how to use needs-driven innovation to solve medical and business problems. Texas Biodesign is a collaboration between UT’s Texas Innovation Center and Texas Venture Labs, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and NASA.

The Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium (TEXGHS) connects academic, public- and private-sector partners to support companies working towards pandemic preparedness and response in Texas. TEXGHS is developing a health security innovation ecosystem that supports innovators and innovations fighting COVID-19 and future pandemics. UT Austin entrepreneurs should contact TEXGHS when they are seeking to commercialize infectious disease-related innovations at any stage of development.