It's not just leading corporations embracing the venture studio model today.
Many universities are emulating the corporate venture creation method by working with esteemed venture builders like High Alpha Innovation (HAI) to establish their own successful venture studios.
In other words?
Educational institutions are taking a new path to unlock innovation on campus. Notably, one in which they can work on minimum viable products for concepts tied to university-led research through problem-led ideation.
"There are Rembrandts in the attic [at schools] all around the world who have done work that is capable of being commercialized," Joshua Gans, the Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Professor of Strategic Management at University of Toronto, told Wired.
Working with a proven venture builder with vast experience with and deep expertise in developing, validating, and launching early-stage startups is how universities like yours can create an ecosystem in which new business models and ideas can be explored quickly and efficiently
The key to getting your venture studio model off the ground, though, isn't solely about working with the right in-house team and external stakeholders.
It's also about knowing what kind of innovation — and positive societal change — is possible with such a coordinated, focused effort by your university's leadership, faculty, students, and alumni.
Why leading universities are now embracing the venture studio model
A venture studio enables universities to identify and solve compelling problems of interest to their school and region through an open innovation approach.
The goal for venture studios (at least at High Alpha Innovation): Launch revenue-generating, venture-backable companies that benefit society in some.
Universities, like the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which first leveraged this approach with help from HAI, that want to build a repeatable, scalable mechanism for creating new companies that tackle issues of importance to their areas can see a lot of value in the venture studio model.
They just need the right external venture-building partner to help construct their studio — something other renowned research universities that have accomplished with help from us.
DIAL Ventures assesses and de-risks startups through agriculture industry relationship-building
Purdue University is one of the foremost research universities today.
Despite a wealth of interesting initiatives undertaken by programs and offices campus-wide over the years, Purdue leaders recognized the opportunity to better determine product-market fits for concepts assessed via university-led research related to the food and agriculture space.
Partnering with our team helped Purdue establish DIAL Ventures, which focuses on introducing new, disruptive AgriFood startups to the market.
Collaborating with veteran ag experts to understand farmers' biggest pain points today.
Hiring qualified entrepreneurial talent with rich industry knowledge and business acumen.
Developing business plans to make companies attractive to VC looking to back new startups.
These activities co-executed with our venture-building team, among others, have helped DIAL's venture studio model excel, with four new startups launched in recent years:
- Croft: An ag-ops platform to manage data and tasks tied to workers and service providers
- Oaken: A solution to help farm lessees manage landowner relationships and contracts
- Gripp: A platform for connecting ag operations teams and managing farm equipment
- Make Hay: A B2B marketing solution to help brands leverage farmers' authentic stories
"The [ag] industry needs to work with us in our ecosystem to get the best ideas so that we can de-risk those ideas," DIAL Ventures Executive Director Allan Gray noted at our last Alloy event. "We're gonna bring talent to [the startups], and we do that by attracting talent from the outside."
1842 Studio aims to make long-term impact on poverty-related issues through venture building
While DIAL tackles ag-oriented company creation, the University of Notre Dame has adopted their own venture studio model, in tandem with our team, to start addressing challenges of interest to the school, such as workforce development and empowerment.
Together, we co-created the "impact-oriented" 1842 Studio, thanks to backing from the 1842 Fund, a pre-seed stage venture capital fund also managed by us and the university.
Kelley Rich, the Interim Vice President and Associate Provost for Innovation for the IDEA Center at Notre Dame, noted the venture studio will "create symbiotic relationships for sustained innovation on campus" and the ability to investigate new potential business ideas to spin out.
Specifically, the studio will construct and staff new startup ventures through collaboration with professors, researchers, and undergrads at the university involved with the IDEA Center.
“I see this emergence of these venture studio models, and I see the appetite that people that are trying to commercialize at universities have," Matt Gardner, Partner for 1842 Fund at Notre Dame, told Global University Venturing. "I think we’re going to see more of this.”
How to enable your university to unlock growth through the venture studio model
Your university likely has its own plans for other kinds of open innovation initiatives that aim to confront one or more other societal challenges:
- Perhaps you want to expand healthcare access in low-income areas.
- Maybe you want to fix food insecurity issues within your community.
- Or your goal could be to find new, novel ways reduce urban pollution.
Whatever your focus, the venture studio model can help your institution expedite the launch of and investment in new, viable companies that can solve problems facing your state, the country, and potentially the world at-large.
And the below two steps are ideal ones to start with to:
- Set up your distinct university venture studio model quickly and efficiently
- Acquire the expertise to launch high-performing and impactful businesses
- Gain a reputation for unlocking innovation and empowering innovation hubs
(The combination of which can help your university potentially grow enrollment and secure more federal and state research and development grants.)
1) Determine what infrastructure and partnerships are needed to launch a venture studio
It's not just about getting the right people at your university in a room together to lay the groundwork for a venture studio. It's also about finding the right orgs and industry experts to partner with.
Consider the University of North Carolina.
John Bamforth, PhD, Director of Eshelman Innovation at UNC Chapel Hill, noted the school learned many great business ideas were "locked up" on campus, but it was uncertain of the best way to effectively evaluate those ideas.
"The logical place to go was the High Alpha Innovation team and say, 'Can you help us do this?'," John relayed at Alloy 2023.
Since partnering with us, UNC has built the Eshelman Innovation Venture Studio. Using our guidance and proven venture-building playbook, we've explored opportunities to address one big issue in the state: the opioid crisis.
"We're on a journey to build this venture studio in digital health across the entire state," John added, noting HAI's support has helped implement the necessary structure to the startup creation process that didn't exist before at UNC.
2) Join a community like HAI's University Studio Guild to meet with other likeminded universities
School administrators, entrepreneurship center directors, and technology officers at research universities nationwide are considering the merits of the venture studio model today.
And rightfully so, according to High Alpha Innovation General Manager Matt Brady.
However, too few of these individuals know of other institutions from whom they can learn the ins and outs of venture studio creation. That's where our University Studio Guild (USG) can help.
"University leaders who take part in USG can network with a community of likeminded individuals at other schools who are in a similar spot," said Matt.
"Our quarterly meetup of innovation-focused university stakeholders allows them to tap into expert insights from those at other institutions with established and successful venture studios, including those that we're helping to launch multiple advantaged startups," Matt continued.
University representatives who join USG can:
- Ask pressing questions about the logistics/process of venture studio formation
- Share their distinct concepts and ideas, and discuss collaboration opportunities
- Simply learn from one another by sharing stories of their own studio experiences
Factor in venture-building experts who speak at University Studio Guild from organizations such as MIT and McKinsey, who spoke at the Q1 2024 edition of USG, and there is ample opportunity for schools to get the info and insights they need for their venture studio blueprint.
