Startup Resources & Programs

These resources and programs provide assistance to inventors pursuing a startup company based on their Stanford technology.

Startup Resources & Programs

There is a wealth of helpful resources both within Stanford and OTL and externally that can provide assistance to inventors that are interested in entrepreneurship. See below for links to organizations and educational resources that can help orient those interested in learning more about forming a startup company.

Stanford Programs & Organizations

High Impact Technology (HIT) Fund

OTL's HIT Fund provides strategic, monetary, and advisory support to faculty, students, postdocs, and staff to help enable the transition of innovative and advantaged Stanford technologies with the potential to have a societal and economic impact on the world’s most pressing problems in the form of new products or companies.

Biodesign

Program that trains students, fellows and faculty in the Biodesign Process: a systematic approach to needs finding and the invention and implementation of new biomedical technologies.

Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students (BASES)

A community that encourages learning, fosters innovation and inspires the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.

Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES)

Founded in 1996, the CES seeks to build understanding of the issues faced by entrepreneurial companies and individuals.

Entrepreneur Club at the Graduate School of Business

Student organization that focuses on the interests of risk-seeking students who want to build and manage new organizations.

Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN)

Organization that supports entrepreneurship teaching, research, and collaboration campus-wide.

Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)

Entrepreneurship education center located within the University's School of Engineering.

SPARK

On-campus program offering proof-of-concept funding and mentorship to advance new biomedical research discoveries into promising new treatments for patients.

Sustainability Accelerator

The Sustainability Accelerator serves as a launch pad to leverage knowledge and expertise at Stanford and co-develop potentially scalable sustainability technology and policy solutions with external collaborators worldwide, with the goal to substantially and measurably improve the quality of human life and our planet.

TomKat Center

The TomKat center works to transform the world's energy systems, offering support to startups and proof-of-concept funding for early research.

StartX

Non-profit community of serial entrepreneurs, industry experts, tenured Stanford professors and well-funded growth-stage startups.

Stanford Ignite

Stanford Ignite is a certificate program offered on the Stanford campus and in cities around the world. It teaches innovators to formulate, develop and commercialize their ideas. It combines current graduate students and entrepreneurs with innovators, scientists and engineers from leading companies. Ignite is taught by Stanford GSB faculty who expose participants to both the fundamentals of business, and the practical aspects of identifying and evaluating business ideas and moving them forward.

Stanford Graduate School of Business Venture Studio

The Stanford Venture Studio is an entrepreneurial hub and collaborative learning community for students across all disciplines and at any stage of entrepreneurship.

Stanford Explore Energy

This is a student engagement and energy education program to enhance and amplify the Stanford student experience around energy. The Energy Roadmaps serves as a database and tool. The goal is to not only share opportunities within Stanford's energy ecosystem, but also to organize them across pathways so students can plan and build on their experiences.

Additional Resources

USPTO Startup Resources

The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) offers resources to help address the intellectual property (IP) challenges specific to startups.

Osage University Partners (OUP)

Osage University Partners (OUP) is a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in disruptive startups coming out of the top universities and research institutions. OUP has partnered with over 100 of the most entrepreneurial universities and research centers to invest in their startups.

OUP produces webinars and other informational video content relevant to startups on the OUP YouTube page.

Academic Venture Exchange (AVX)

Connect with the Academic Venture Exchange, which curates a community of professionals dedicated to scaling deep tech ventures sourced from leading academic research institutions, including Stanford University.