Transformational Entrepreneurship
DRAFT CASE FOR SUPPORT
AT A GLANCE
We are integrating entrepreneurial skills and approaches for UC Davis students and the broader Aggie
community through a comprehensive, coordinated system of courses and programs supporting future leaders of every field and focus.
KEY ACTIVITES
- Preparing tomorrow’s leaders with entrepreneurship opportunities
- Developing innovative academic and co-curricular programs that integrate entrepreneurship and
education - Supercharging regional economic development through startups
INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP
- Aaron Anderson, Director, Student Startup Center
- Andrew Hargadon, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Management, and Founder, Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Karl Jessen, Director, Venture Catalyst
- Sam King, Director, CITRIS at UC Davis
ADMINISTRATIVE LEAD
- George Baxter, Chief Innovation and Economic Development Officer
TODAY
Today’s college graduates are entering a workforce that is radically different from anything previous generations have seen. And the tools professionals use to create value are changing just as fast — revolutionizing every field and industry.
With a focus on pursuing solutions, embracing new modes of thinking and creating, and recognizing unexpected opportunities, entrepreneurs have always been essential to navigating change. And in a world where so much is in flux — from rapidly evolving technologies to ever-shifting industry demands, social needs and economic pressures — an entrepreneurial mindset has never been a more needed asset.
UC Davis currently offers a robust set of courses and resources for our community to build entrepreneurial skills and viable enterprises. But with many entry points and multiple channels for entrepreneurial
activity, the path from promising idea to successful venture can be challenging to follow.
We now have a key opportunity to integrate these programs into a unified entrepreneurship network that serves the entire UC Davis community while leveraging our university’s core strengths — including health, engineering, agricultural science, veterinary science and more. By bringing these forces together, we will build a powerful pipeline that sets our students, faculty, graduates and partners on a pathway to create innovative approaches to the world’s most pressing problems and boldest opportunities.
STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS
Akshay Sethi was a senior undergraduate studying biology at UC Davis when he started rooming with genetics major Moby Ahmed. The pair shared a commitment to addressing the worsening problem of industry-driven plastics pollution and worked with biomedical engineering professor Marc Facciotti on a genetically engineered microbe designed to eat and recycle clothing plastics. Receiving support from UC Davis programs such as the Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Innovation and Economic Development Office, they founded textile recycling company Ambercycle based on their innovation. Introduced into an environment increasingly under stress from overconsumption and waste, Sethi and Ahmed’s microbe has the potential to revolutionize the fashion industry.
Since their graduation in 2015, Sethi and Ahmed have struck deals with major fashion labels and formed an $80 million three-year agreement with the global fashion distribution group Inditex. At current rates of industry adoption, Ambercycle is on track to help the global fashion industry offset up to 15% of its emissions.
TOMORROW
In the future we envision, members of the UC Davis community will pursue novel approaches to problems and turn those approaches into solution-focused businesses, creative ventures and initiatives that build a better world. We have proven programs and centers that we will fortify and scale — including the Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS), the Student Startup Center, undergraduate and graduate courses on entrepreneurship and venture capital at the Graduate School of Management, and AI computing and machine learning courses offered by the College of Engineering. Looking forward, we will pilot new initiatives like the Aggie Innovation Catalyst faculty commercialization program and UC Davis Ventures.
Together, we will transform UC Davis into a destination for entrepreneurial innovation, empowering our community to transform their ideas into enterprise.
Our initiative is organized across four key areas of activity:
COORDINATED STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES
Equipping students with multiple pathways to entrepreneurial education and opportunities
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Connecting field experts and innovators with business-minded professionals to create the next big companies and creative ventures
EXPERIENCE BASED EDUCATION
Preparing students and tomorrow’s leaders in every field for a new era of data-driven, innovation-focused entrepreneurship
INNOVATION AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC IMPACT
Launching entrepreneurs who build innovative solutions and products with material impacts on regional economies
KEY FUNDING PRIORITIES
Donor support will advance our highest priorities, including:
PEOPLE | GOAL: $22,000,000
- Director, program lead, technology lead and student program managers for the entire entrepreneurship pathway
- Teaching positions dedicated to a specialized entrepreneurship course sequence
PROGRAMMING | GOAL: $36,000,000
- Mike and Renée Child Institute programming, including Big Bang! and Little Bang! fellowships and academies
- Student Startup Excellence Fund
- Teaching pool funding for departments to pursue product-building courses
- Summer pre-accelerator program housed at Aggie Square
- Aggie Venture Fund seed and Series A capital
EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY | GOAL: $2,000,000
- Operating budget for program planning, customer relationship management and outcome tracking
BUILDING THE FUTURE TOGETHER
Entrepreneurship is the engine that powers economic development, fosters innovation and breaks new ground in virtually every realm of our world.
With donor support, we can weave an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset into our community, empowering our students, faculty and staff to define the future with business ventures that make a better world. The Aggie Innovation Pipeline will bridge the gap between field experts and business leaders and equip them with the tools needed to turn innovation into products and services.
We will bolster our current offerings, from AI-related courses in our College of Engineering, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Letters and Science, School of Medicine, and Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, to technology commercialization programs led by the Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship that serve undergraduates, graduate students and faculty and staff across UC Davis as well as training scientists at partner institutions like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At the same time, we will broaden community education programs and launch new initiatives that will transform UC Davis into a hotbed of innovation, investment and company creation. With philanthropic partnership, we can expand access to vital capital and networking resources. UC Davis Ventures, a capstone project of this initiative, will provide integrated support to Aggie entrepreneurs in the form of funding and connecting participants with experienced mentors and partnerships that leverage complementary areas of expertise. Our goal is to empower our community to turn their innovative ideas into competitive, market-ready ventures providing needed solutions to the world.
THE IDEAL UNIVERSITY TO ADVANCE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
As a recognized leader in agriculture, veterinary science, engineering, health and more, UC Davis is uniquely positioned to generate innovations in these fields while preparing leaders who will found the next big companies, drive innovation from the inside in current leading organizations, reimagine new pathways for artistic creation and social engagement, and build a future that benefits us all. Through philanthropic support of our initiative, donors will lead the way for visionary ideas to enter the marketplace and be repaid exponentially in the long-term, whether monetarily or in the form of world-changing impact.
UC Davis already boasts numerous proven entrepreneurship-focused programs that can be leveraged for this initiative, including:
AI Center in Engineering, advancing foundational research, translational applications, and transformative education in AI computing and machine learning
Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, delivering impactful programs including mentor networks and entrepreneurship academies that help researchers find a path to commercialization, fellowships that support Ph.D. student entrepreneurship training across the disciplines, an undergraduate minor in innovation and entrepreneurship, and a 3-stage business plan competition that awards over $100,000 annually in prizes
CITRIS, leveraging UC Davis strengths in engineering, nanoscience, law and medicine to address complex challenges at the intersection of food, health, the environment and society
Student Startup Center, developing skills, knowledge and ventures of student entrepreneurs through events, curricula and programs like PLASMA, a 12-week early-stage cohort accelerator
- Innovation and Economic Development Office, facilitating the translation of UC Davis research to real-world applications via Aggie Square, Venture Catalyst, Health Ventures, and Aggie Venture Accelerator with resources like the Smart Toolkit for Accelerated Research Translation (START) for university entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize their research or innovations
Above: Student engagement in Student Startup Center courses, events and other programming continues to rise substantially.
With philanthropic support, we can build even further on these strengths and expand our vision to make entrepreneurial training and opportunities widely available for the UC Davis community. Together, we can empower the innovators who will lay the foundations of tomorrow.
DEFINED BY UC DAVIS, REFINED WITH YOU
The world faces a host of complex, ever-evolving problems, as well as unprecedented opportunities. These challenges require agile thinking and a solutions-oriented mindset as well as steadfast vision, leadership, and a commitment to bringing those solutions to the world. Entrepreneurs turn the world’s most complex challenges into powerful solutions that benefit the world. Helping build the Aggie Innovation Pipeline is an investment in our students, in our community and in a brighter future for us all.
Thank you for your engagement, advocacy and support. Volunteer leaders like you are key to the success of our initiative. Your feedback on the Aggie Innovation Pipeline is invaluable in refining our vision’s appeal to donors. As we begin to promote this initiative more broadly, we will look to you to help us raise awareness and engage donor interest in infusing a culture of entrepreneurial thinking across the university, inspiring innovation in every Aggie. Boundary-pushing innovations are already being dreamed up by our faculty, researchers and students and are already having demonstrated impact. Philanthropic support can build new systems of support and access that will catalyze these innovations into real-world impact and benefit. Together, we can capitalize on this momentum to create opportunities now and for generations to come.