Entrepreneurship at ASU
Changing Futures through Entrepreneurship
If we wish to change the future, we must fuel real-world innovation and prepare the next generation to address complex global challenges.
It is not enough to study the world or prescribe top-down solutions to our collective challenges. We must inspire the visionary leaders of today and tomorrow, cultivating their enterprising abilities and creativity. This moment demands that we embrace a dynamic entrepreneurial mindset, not as an add-on, but as a foundational principle. At Arizona State University, we are leading that charge.
For over 20 years, entrepreneurship has animated the entire ASU enterprise. In our classrooms and labs, our venture studios and hackathons, and in the partnerships we build across sectors and borders, the entrepreneurial mindset thrives in everything we do, ensuring our work is not only groundbreaking but ground-making, and inspiring faculty and students to envision possibilities yet to be discovered.
None of this is incidental. We have deliberately built an interdisciplinary entrepreneurial ecosystem—rooted in access, collaboration and public value—designed to transform ideas into insights, insights into action, and action into impact.
Our entrepreneurial ecosystem prepares and empowers students, faculty and community members to seize this moment and bring a better future to life.
Support future entrepreneurs
Ricky Johnson is the founder of Barrage Training Technology and inventor of Barrage Striking Sleeve and iOS app, designed to wrap around any punching bag to provide an interactive workout.
Entrepreneurship for all
At ASU, entrepreneurship is not the sole domain of business students and startups; artists, scientists, designers, policymakers, institutional partners and community members are equally part of our entrepreneurial community.
Whether launching a venture, designing a community program, or developing a life-changing technology, the ASU community takes initiative to develop innovative ideas, embrace risk, and marshal resources to deliver prosperity, public value and impact.
The J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute
Edson E+I reflects the very best of ASU: inclusive, ambitious, and relentlessly focused on transforming ideas into innovations that make a difference.
The J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute serves as the central hub for fostering entrepreneurial thinking and innovation across the university and the broader community, nurturing entrepreneurial talent through a comprehensive ecosystem of resources and support.
Edson E+I is inclusive by design, serving artists, engineers, community leaders, and scientists alike. The institute offers a wide range of offerings — from free online digital learning tools to industry-specific incubators and cohorts—to meet people where they are and support them through every stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
Guided by the conviction that entrepreneurship is a mindset—a way of seeing and shaping the world—Edson E+I nurtures “entrepreneurs for life,” encouraging students, faculty, and community members to imagine boldly, act creatively, and drive change that matters for their communities.
Twice a year, entrepreneurs compete for funding at Demo Day, a showcase for top ASU-affiliated ventures in several categories to deliver investor-style pitches as they compete for over $250K in funding and support.
Entrepreneurship at ASU by the numbers
250+ companies have been launched based on ASU innovations since 2003
$1.4B+ invested in ASU ventures over the same period
Top Ten in the world for U.S. utility patents in 2023
#1 in Innovation in the United States for 10 consecutive years
Arizona’s top student entrepreneurs take the stage at the Inferno Invitational Startup Cup, a high-stakes pitch competition where the most promising student-led startups compete for up to $100,000 in funding.
We harness the intelligence, creativity, drive, and ambition of our faculty and students to make the university entrepreneurial in every possible way. We are not interested in being a walled-off institution; we are a frontline, highly innovative and entrepreneurial university that aims to enhance competitiveness, drive economic and social change, and deliver public value.”
— Michael M. Crow, President Arizona State University
Student facing programs
Edson E+I inspires the next generation of visionary leaders
Programs such as Venture Devils, Blackstone LaunchPad, and the HEALab cultivate entrepreneurial skills and ambition among students from ASU and Maricopa Community Colleges. These initiatives empower students to identify challenges that matter to them and provide them with tools to take meaningful action, including mentorship, funding, peer networks, and space to experiment and iterate.
Edson E+I’s programming extends opportunities to students beyond ASU, including K–12 schools nationwide. Since 2017, Edson E+I has positively impacted more than 40,000 high school and middle school students from over 400 Title I schools in more than 30 states through a wide range of programs, including an Innovative Learning Lab program, which encourages students to experiment with and leverage cutting-edge technology to create solutions for issues affecting their communities.
AZ inventor Blayden with his judges at the Invention Convention.
Community entrepreneurship
Edson E+I’s community-facing portfolio is built on a clear principle: entrepreneurial talent exists everywhere, and ASU has a role to play in helping that talent grow. Through over 100 community programs and events each year, the institute reduces barriers for aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a more accessible entrepreneurial ecosystem that reflects the communities served by ASU, advancing a future where entrepreneurship serves as a shared tool for economic and social transformation.
Programming initiatives like HEALab, which supports health innovation, reflect Edson E+I’s approach to sectorspecific support—providing community members with access to training, networks, and industry expertise that might otherwise be out of reach. Additionally, civic partnerships, such as the Chandler Endeavor Venture Innovation Incubator, build on this approach by focusing on place-based economic development, working closely with local governments to strengthen the Phoenix metro’s position as a growing hub for inclusive innovation.
By providing flexible, low-to-no-cost opportunities, Edson E+I helps community members to formalize their ideas, grow existing ventures, and contribute to the region’s economic and social vitality.
The Incubator at Chandler Endeavor is focused on advancing the development of early-stage and growthstage ventures by providing access to highly tailored support and resources, igniting innovation.
Social entrepreneurship at ASU
Doing good while doing well
ASU students apply entrepreneurial principles to address social, cultural, and environmental challenges, fostering positive and sustainable change within their communities. Through university-wide initiatives like ASU Changemaker and Change the World, ASU students are afforded numerous opportunities to learn and engage with social entrepreneurship.
ASU Changemaker creates real opportunities for students to take action—not someday, but right now. This student-led initiative provides opportunities and resources to inspire, catalyze and sustain social change through community service and social entrepreneurship.
Changemaker Action Grants provide up to $2,000 in funding to support students in launching or expanding student-led initiatives, such as organizing clothing swaps, launching nonprofits, starting mental health campaigns, and testing early-stage products and services.
Change the World is a signature ASU social entrepreneurship showcase at Mountain America Stadium featuring pitches, performances, exhibits, and artwork by ASU and middle and high school students—all centered on themes of social good. Students present their ideas, connect with peers and mentors, and have the chance to earn scholarship funding.
The work of Changemaker and Change the World reflects something deeper about ASU’s commitment to entrepreneurship: Our work extends beyond launching ventures; we actively create the conditions that empower every individual to take initiative in ways that matter to them and do good for their communities, while balancing purpose, impact and profit.
Finalists present their work at the ASU Innovation Open, a pitch competition with prizes up to $100,000 of seed funding.
This is our moment
ASU has strategically built an interconnected entrepreneurial ecosystem that inspires tomorrow’s gamechangers to actively shape a more prosperous future for all.
Now, we are poised for a significant expansion of our proven and impactful model, scaling up the volume, velocity and visibility of entrepreneurial breakthroughs.
This is our moment to instill the entrepreneurial mindset across the ASU community, translate research into realworld impact, and solidify the Phoenix metro as a leading national hub for innovation.
But we can’t capitalize on this moment alone. We need the partnership of those who see challenges and want to find solutions, who believe in doing things differently. Partners who believe we can achieve both monetary and public value at the same time, and who want to equip the next generation with the skills and forward-thinking commitment it takes to face the most complicated issues in human history.
This moment demands partners like you.
Together, we will inspire tomorrow’s game changers to ask better questions, take informed risks, and lead with imagination and resolve. Because with more entrepreneurs, communities become more resilient; economies become more inclusive; institutions grow more adaptable; and we all begin to see ourselves not just as beneficiaries of change, but as builders of it.
This is our moment to change the future. And there’s no better place to start than right here.
The Innovation Showcase at ASU Polytechnic Campus featured project demonstrations by undergraduate and graduate students, with attendance from faculty members and visiting high school students. Pictured: Jeevan Manjunath ‘26 MS in Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.
To support Entrepreneurship at ASU contact: Erin Walker
Senior Director of Development
Erin.Walker@asufoundation.org ASU Charter
asuchangingfutures.org