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More students are launching purpose-driven startups than ever before鈥攊nspired by the networking connections, funding opportunities and experiential learning they鈥檝e found at Leeds.

Tanner Nott (Mktg鈥�24) planned to work in finance after graduation. But everything changed when she enrolled in Assistant Teaching Professor Brad Werner鈥檚 New Venture Creation class.

鈥淎 year ago, I totally thought I knew what I wanted to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淥nce I got in the startup space and had Brad as a professor, it completely changed my outlook and made me realize I had skills that I had never really been encouraged to put to use before.鈥�

Nott decided to pursue an entrepreneurship certificate. Since graduating, she has continued working on Solii, the health food company she created in Werner鈥檚 class.

Like Nott, many recent college graduates have become entrepreneurs instead of pursuing nine-to-five jobs. A 2022 Intelligent.com survey of new college graduates found that 17% of respondents already ran their own businesses. An additional 16% of respondents 鈥渄efinitely鈥� planned to start a business after graduation.

Founding a startup is becoming increasingly popular, and at Leeds, abundant resources empower students to launch their ideas.

Werner, who teaches in the Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Operations Division, said CU places a larger focus on entrepreneurship than when he started seven years ago.

鈥淏ottom line is for our students, all you want to do is create options, give them the options to live whatever life they live,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 believe that developing this type of thinking helps them create more options.鈥�

Both Leeds鈥� Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and CU鈥檚 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative support budding entrepreneurs. The Deming Center hosts the Startups & Sandwiches lecture series, which allows students to network with professionals like the CEO of We Are Social and the founder of Illegal Pete鈥檚. Meanwhile, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative鈥檚 student-run Get Seed Funding program awards founders micro-grants of up to $500.

Winning opportunities

Another exciting opportunity is the New Venture Challenge (NVC), a campuswide competition that allows participants to pitch their ventures at the Boulder Theater. Stan Hickory, director of NVC and the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, noted that in 2024,听 a sponsorship from venture capital investor Kickstart resulted in larger-than-ever prizes鈥�$100,000 for first place and $30,000 for second place. (A team composed mostly of Leeds students won first place for their startup, Foodwise.)

Lissette Reynoso (MBA鈥�25) created Mind- surf, an AI-driven teletherapy platform, in her home country of Mexico before enrolling at CU. Taking the New Venture Launch class helped her incorporate Mindsurf in the U.S. She later pitched it at NVC, and although she didn鈥檛 win funding, the experience was invaluable.

鈥淚t was great because I learned from them, and I got very interesting feedback, and I also got some connections,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll of that contributes to ... taking a step forward in your venture.鈥�

One of those connections was Karen Crofton, who runs the College of Engineering and Applied Science鈥檚 Catalyze CU accelerator, where she gained supporters and funding for her business.

Like Reynoso, Jamie Saunders (MBA鈥�24) found her way to the NVC through the New Venture Launch class. Coming from a career as an architect, she had the idea for a real estate venture that provides housing in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range. The class helped her and her team practice pitching their venture, AFFIX Communities, both to more conservative real estate investors and to more risk-tolerant venture capital investors.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e talking to two very different mindsets, which was new to me, and I definitely needed a lot of practice to be able to speak both languages,鈥� she said.

Their efforts paid off. AFFIX Communities placed fifth in the 2024 NVC, winning funds to purchase land for their prototype unit.

Seeds for a sustainable future

While student founders are finding new ways to forge a career, they are also finding new ways to effect change. Nott, for example, aims to use locally sourced and sustainable ingredients for Solii products. CU students can compete in the Sustainability Hackathon, developing and pitching solutions to sustainability issues. The 2023 Hackathon winner and 2024 NVC鈥檚 first-place winner, Foodwise, for example, conceived of an AI platform to curb restaurants鈥� food waste. Hickory calls this attention to sustainability a core tenet of CU鈥攁nd Boulder more broadly.

鈥淚t鈥檚 part of the fabric of our whole system,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o therefore, when you鈥檙e thinking about starting a business, in the back of your mind is always that sustainability component. It鈥檚 just part of our ethos.鈥�

Werner agrees that the entrepreneurship opportunities at CU Boulder and Leeds foster this ethos and enable students to shape the future.

鈥淚t鈥檚 in our students鈥� DNA to want to make a difference in the world,鈥� Werner said. 鈥淎nd as an entrepreneur and a professor, that makes me feel great about the generation that鈥檚 moving in to take over.鈥�