Over the past century, American universities have evolved to be more than institutions for research and learning \u2013 they\u2019ve become engines of innovation fueling economic and societal progress.<\/p>\n
Chuck Eesley<\/a>, a leading scholar in entrepreneurship at Stanford, has spent over 20 years examining what\u2019s driven this transformation. His research explores forces that support innovation, such as government policy and investment, as well as the barriers scholars and students face in bringing ideas from the lab to market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eesley has also paid close attention to how entrepreneurship education shapes new venture creation, exploring the many ways universities can help students become successful entrepreneurs after graduation.<\/p>\n In a study published earlier this year,<\/a> he found that providing students with the autonomy and flexibility to take elective courses influences who becomes an entrepreneur, fosters new opportunities, and cultivates an entrepreneurial mindset. A 2020 study by Eesley showed that mentorship matters as well \u2013 students guided by seasoned entrepreneurs make more savvy business decisions and launch companies that last longer.<\/p>\n These are among the many insights Eesley has unearthed throughout his career, illuminating the many factors that contribute to commercial success.<\/p>\n Bridging academia to industry<\/p>\n Eesley joined Stanford in 2009 and recently became a faculty co-director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program<\/a> (STVP) in the School of Engineering<\/a>, which provides resources and programs for students, faculty, and researchers to develop entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. Notable alumni have gone through STVP: One of Eesley\u2019s first students was Bobby Murphy, co-founder of the social media platform Snapchat. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, founders of the photo-sharing network Instagram, were fellows in STVP\u2019s Mayfield Fellows Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Eesley\u2019s interest in the relationship between academia and entrepreneurship began as an undergraduate at Duke University in the early 2000s, when he helped launch a biotech startup with a biology professor to commercialize a drought- and pest-resistant corn variety.<\/p>\n Eesley was excited by its potential to address problems in the food systems, particularly in regions experiencing food scarcity. The startup sent seeds to drought-stricken regions of Africa through the United Nations and attracted investor interest, but the team ultimately split over the path forward.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was when I saw that it was a difficult process to commercialize these technologies,\u201d Eesley recalled. \u201cIn our case, we didn\u2019t fail because the technology didn’t work. We failed because I didn\u2019t really know what I was doing as an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, there were few opportunities for undergraduate students to learn entrepreneurial skills \u2013 the only programs were at business schools. When STVP launched in 1997, it was among the first programs to offer entrepreneurship education to students across disciplines and degree levels.<\/p>\n Eesley has since devoted his career to figuring out how to help both scholars and students succeed commercially.<\/p>\n What makes startups successful?<\/p>\n What makes startups that emerge from Stanford and other schools successful? According to Eesley, it\u2019s not just the technology.<\/p>\n While a novel software or product is essential, an entire ecosystem is critical to ensuring its success on the market, he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also takes a high-quality co-founding team involving academic expertise, industry experience, a supportive venture capital community, and knowledgeable accountants and lawyers who can structure deals,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n A strong alumni network also helps by providing graduates with opportunities to meet potential investors, collaborators, and mentors. Programs that provide students with social capital can turn into financial capital, too. In another study<\/a>, Eesley found that alumni connections often provided early-stage funding and co-founders, illustrating that the relationships formed in these programs can be as valuable as technical training.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the sum of all of these things \u2013 the package together is more helpful than any individual element,\u201d Eesley said.<\/p>\n As Eesley also pointed out, findings like this also illuminate inequities, favoring students with greater resources or existing networks. One area he is currently examining is what types of programs are effective, and crucially, for whom.<\/p>\n In our case, we didn\u2019t fail because the technology didn’t work. We failed because I didn\u2019t really know what I was doing as an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n This new research builds off some of his earlier work. In 2020, he conducted a comprehensive study<\/a> of Stanford\u2019s two major programs \u2013 STVP and the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) \u2013 and found that while these programs didn\u2019t lead to an increase in new ventures, they did make them less likely to fail. Courses helped students assess their entrepreneurial potential while improving the quality of starting and managing new ventures.<\/p>\n Just as importantly, entrepreneurial education also helped students figure out whether launching a startup is right for them. Learning early that they\u2019re better suited to join a company than to found one can help avoid failed ventures.<\/p>\n Role of government support in innovation<\/p>\n Eesley\u00a0has also looked at Stanford\u2019s own unique position in Silicon Valley<\/a>, a place that has become known around the world as the epicenter of technological innovation. Pivotal to that growth has been government investment in Stanford-affiliated research, a long-standing relationship that was accelerated after World War II.<\/p>\n The transformation of Silicon Valley into a hub of innovation has been credited in part to the vision of Stanford engineer Frederick Terman<\/a>, who, as dean of the School of Engineering and later as Stanford\u2019s provost, sought ways to bridge university research to industry applications. After WWII, he directed Department of Defense contracts toward research on technologies such as microwave systems and MRI machines, which were initially developed for the military and later widely used by the public.<\/p>\n Terman encouraged Stanford students to scale up their discoveries. \u201cAfter World War II, Frederick Terman encouraged students like William Hewlett and David Packard to commercialize their technologies,\u201d Eesley said.<\/p>\n Today, the current market value of the top 30 companies founded by Stanford alumni is estimated to be over $11 trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Over the decades, other cities and countries have tried to replicate what Silicon Valley has accomplished, efforts Eesley has also studied.<\/p>\n Today, the current market value of the top 30 companies founded by Stanford alumni is estimated to be over $11 trillion.<\/p>\n Eesley has examined how government support \u2013 through policy and funding \u2013 also influences the entrepreneurial ecosystem. One key finding: sustained government investment in research and education is crucial to building high-tech startup ecosystems.<\/p>\n