The Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies is the corner of Main and Main for all undergraduate entrepreneurs at the University of Texas. We support interdisciplinary education and enriched extra-curricular experiences for students at any stage in their entrepreneurial journey. From the Entrepreneurship Minor, to the Undergraduate Mentor Program, there is a resource to get you to your next step.

The Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies Living Learning Community(HIES LLC) is a first of its kind community that will admit incoming students directly into the Entrepreneurship Minor. This entrepreneurial living learning community provides students with access to entrepreneurship classes, campus housing, and the McCombs business community, a credential program that is usually reserved for admitted upperclassmen students.

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.

The Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship Certificate helps students develop skills to bring creative thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset to their goals, whether they’re interested in turning their ideas into a new venture, being part of a startup team, or bringing new ideas to established organizations. Through interdisciplinary coursework and research or internships, students gain skills including idea generation, design/prototyping, problem-solving, pitching ideas, and collaboration.

The LaunchPad at UT Austin is a resource hub that helps all undergraduate and graduate students explore entrepreneurship at UT. We help students identify where they are in their entrepreneurial journey – Explore, Ideate, Create, or Scale – then educate and connect them to resources across campus and in Austin. LaunchPad resources include events, coworking space, funding, bootcamps, accelerators, and other programs. We are a proud member of the global Blackstone LaunchPad Network of 46+ campuses.

The Longhorn Impact Fellowship at Texas provides UT-Austin students with impact-focused consulting experience. Selected Fellows are placed with sustainable corporations, start-ups, and nonprofits to solve sustainability challenges. Projects are completed in 10-12 weeks and must be related to sustainability, corporate philanthropy, impact/ESG investing, or social and environmental innovation. Scholarships are available for students with financial need.

The McCombs Entrepreneur Summer Fellowship (MESF), funded by the generous support of alumni donors and the Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, enables innovative students to continue building their startups during the summer. Full-time undergraduate students from majors both in and outside of McCombs, and with four semesters of course work who are actively working on a startup are eligible to apply. Applicants working on any stage of startup development from ideation to scaling are eligible to apply.

The Moffett Family Summer Entrepreneurship Academy (SEA) is an in-person, 8-week summer program for UT Austin undergraduates. SEA participants will complete 4 of 5 required courses for the Entrepreneurship Minor. Students will develop a foundational understanding of entrepreneurship, through terminology, case-based learning, key theories, and empirical-based practices, while working with local startups, corporate sponsors, McCombs alumni, and entrepreneurial mentors.

Texas Momentum is a student organization on a mission to create a vibrant entrepreneurship community for students. We run a semester-long startup accelerator that connects student-founders with product managers, software engineers, and designers to build, launch, and scale their venture. Membership in Momentum is open to all majors.

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.