The Center for Creative Entrepreneurship (CCE) was formed to empower students in the cultural arts with the confidence, skillset and practice necessary to transform their passion and ideas into viable business opportunities. For too long creatives have missed out on learning the core fundamentals of building a sustainable business, or how to think entrepreneurially about their career. But the business of art has changed in the last decade, and requires the mindset that CCE empowers.

The Convergent Incubator program connects founders with engineers, designers, and business analysts needed to take ventures to the next level. Founders work with a technical project manager, a designer, and a team of engineers to build, add features, and scale the product. In unison, our team of business analysts set founders up for success in raising capital. We partner with organizations like Genesis to streamline the process for funding.

The E. Craig Nemec Elevator Challenge Award is a $1,000 prize given to the presenters of the top three elevator pitches at the Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition. The award is named after Edward Craig Nemec, who began his entrepreneurial pursuits while completing his business degree at UT. Over the next 25 years, he grew it into the commercial real estate firm Pearson Group Capital Management, owners and operators of office and industrial properties.

DisrupTexas is an annual pitch competition for undergraduate students at The University of Texas at Austin. Hosted by the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, DisrupTexas is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for experiential learning and a chance for student teams to walk away with some serious cash.

We are a full-service podcasting production house that gives students from across the campus a chance to build high-quality, long-form podcasts. Our first podcast, "The Orange Tree," was a true-crime story that has exceeded 4.5 million listens. We have multiple other podcasts in production. We are open to working on projects with entities across the campus to tell your stories for a mass audience. We are working with Planet Texas, a UT research consortium, on a podcast about climate change.

Our 4-module bootcamp helps undergraduate students learn an entrepreneurial approach to work and life. Topics include "Information Overload: How to Make Effective Decisions in Complex Environments," "Ideation: How Entrepreneurs Generate Compelling Ideas," "Customer Discovery: How to Pressure Test Your Ideas," and "Present Like an Entrepreneur: How to Pitch Yourself & Your Ideas."

The Entrepreneurship Minor teaches students how to become innovative leaders and make meaningful impact in their communities. Our curriculum requires students to learn fundamental skills in ideation creation, business plans, marketing, pitching, and product development. In summary, students learn how to plan and launch new projects, products and startups.

The KS WEL Institute empowers and spotlights female-owned startups monthly through their application-based Featured Female Founders program. The Featured Female Founders program provides resources and exposure to the Austin startup community for these founders. Come stop by the KS WEL Institute or apply online if you're interested in becoming a Featured Female Founder!

Hosted by the Texas Innovation Center, KS WEL Institute's Female Founder Pitch Competition showcases emerging businesses and technologies that are paving the way to have a significant impact on the world. Open to all UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, alumnae, and startup ecosystem women-founders, this startup competition aims to highlight innovation happening in the heart of Texas.

Genesis is a student-alumni partnership with over $1.8 million to distribute to student-founded companies through non-dilutive grants, along with the time and talent of our diverse and entrepreneurial leadership team. Genesis has helped founders develop their businesses, build their products, generate their first revenue, recruit cofounders and early employees, brainstorm ideas, and raise future funding from top investors. All students can apply for funding and mentorship.