Rice Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship at Rice

Rice University is known for its entrepreneurial activity. The Rice Business Plan Competition has the largest prize of any university competition of its kind, the Rice Alliance has been ranked the No.1 University Business Incumbator in the world for 2013 and 2014 [1], and Rice recently hired Jones Graduate School of Business Professor Yael Hochberg to lead the new campus-wide Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative.

Campus-wide Institutions

The four main institutions supporting entrepreneurship across campus are the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative, Rice Alliance, OwlSpark, and Rice Launch.

Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative

The Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative, also known as Entrepreneurship@Rice and REI, is "a collaborative effort of students, professors, mentors and the Houston entrepreneur community to foster innovative entrepreneurial spirit and help launch successful ventures through education, guidance and connections"[2]. The initiative, launched in 2015, is led by Yael Hochberg, Head of Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Ralph S. O'Connor Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, who is supported by Dr. Abby Larson, Director of Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative [3] [4]. In March 2016, Rice alumnus Frank Liu and his family gave $16.5 million to establish the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie). Headed by Dr. Hochberg and Dr. Larson, Lilie gives students access to the expertise and experiences that will help them launch their own enterprises. Beginning next spring, courses offered through Lilie will encourage students to solve real-world problems while working with faculty and entrepreneurs. The Lilie New Entrepreneurs Grant will help incoming freshmen, starting with the Class of 2020, to fund their business ventures. Before matriculating, freshmen can apply for the $10,000 grant that funds the most creative and compelling business ideas.

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

Founded in 2000, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education, and the launch of technology companies. Its mission is to support creation of technology-based companies and commercialize new technologies at city and statewide levels.

The Rice Alliance provides education, guidance, and connections to its recipients. It works closely with the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. The program has launched more than 230 startups, collectively raising over half a billion dollars in early-stage capital. They have awarded more than $1.3 million [5] in prizes. Recipients have a high success rate in their business ventures, with over 133 past competitors in business today having raised in excess of $394 million [6]. The Rice Alliance is best known for its Rice Business Plan Competition.

OwlSpark

OwlSpark is a Houston-based, non-profit university accelerator founded in 2013. It advertises a wide array of services, including funding, access to experts, office space and mentorship. OwlSpark has five directors, none of whom have direct entrepreneurship experience as an established entrepreneur. Of the 33 startups which have enrolled in the OwlSpark program, none have received venture capital funding. No company which has participated in the OwlSpark program has been acquired or exited in an IPO.


Rice Launch

Rice Entrepreneurship Club [7] is a student-run campus organization designed to introduce prospective entrepreneurs to available resources within the Rice and Houston communities. It aims to provide Rice undergraduate students with the resources and opportunities to grow their professional network, engage with entrepreneurs, connect with like-minded peers, and develop the skills necessary to start their own company. The club originated in 2013 as Rice Launch when three different entrepreneurship clubs, OwlSquad, Rice Business Collaborative - Entrepreneurship and Rice Sprout, combined.[8] In 2016, Rice Launch merged with Rice Conversations, a club that began in 2015 to organize informal conversations between local entrepreneurs and Rice students, to create the Rice Entrepreneurship Club. Notable for co-hosting 3 Day Startup, Entrepreneurship Summit, and the Owl Open, Rice Entrepreneurship Club collaborates with OwlSpark and University of Houston's RED Labs.

Undergraduate Entrepreneurship

There are courses for undergraduate students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship at Rice in a variety of disciplines.

The Rice Undergraduate Elevator Pitch Competition is a 90-second product pitch contest supported by the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), Rice Alliance, and Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL).

Graduate Entrepreneurship

The Jones Graduate School of Business has a complete curriculum for MBAs wishing to study entrepreneurship.[9] The Jones Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Club is open to current Jones Business School students.

The Owl Open is a campus-wide business plan competition and qualifier for the Rice Business Plan Competition, which is billed as the "world's largest graduate-level student startup competition"[10]

According to their website, the Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s largest graduate-level student startup competition. The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship acts as organizer and host. Since its conception in 2001, it has grown from nine teams competing for $10,000 in prize money in 2001, to 42 teams from around the world competing for more than $1 million in cash and prizes. In 2014, more than 1200 applications were submitted. More than 170 corporate and private sponsors support the business plan competition. 155 past competitors have gone on to successfully launch their businesses and are still in business today, raising in excess of $844 million in funding.

The competition is designed to give collegiate entrepreneurs a real-world experience to fine tune their business plans and elevator pitches to generate funding to successfully commercialize their product. Judges evaluate the teams as real-world entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early stage investors and venture capital firms. 76% of judges surveyed considered investing in a team that presented at the 2014 RBPC or referred a team to a third-party investor. [11]

Entrepreneurship Clubs and Organizations

The Jones Graduate School Entrepreneurs Organization (JGSEO) is a member organization of the Jones Graduate School of Business alumni and Rice University Alumni. JGSEO's goal is to teach graduates how to manage, grow, and network their business ventures. The JGSEO system mirrors peer-to-peer groups such as the Young Presidents Organization and The Entrepreneurs Organization. JGSEO facilitates the bringing together of Jones Business School alumni to help them achieve their entrepreneurial goals. This includes social events, education based presentations, industry panels, business plan competitions, access to CEO Round Tables and the Rice-owned Business Directory.

There is also:

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