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SALT LAKE CITY — While it's been a rough season for the Utes on the gridiron, the University of Utah is finding other ways to ascend the national rankings.
Earlier this month, Utah's flagship university was ranked No. 3 in the West for undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship education by Princeton Review. Nationwide, the University of Utah cracked the top 25, coming in at No. 24.
Kurt Dirks, dean of the university's David Eccles School of Business, is, no surprise, pleased with the recognition. The Princeton Review honor is a source of pride for alums. It's a reputation boost.
But Dirks is most enthused talking about the fundamentals being taught at the university that earn such rankings. "Our focus is making sure we have strong programs that make our students successful," he said.
Central to the University of Utah's aim to foster the next generation of Phil Knights, Elon Musks or maybe Canva's Melanie Perkins is the school's Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute.
Launched in 2001 through the vision and support of Utah business school alumnus Pierre Lassonde, the university's vast entrepreneur institute is a sprawling campus hub of student collaboration and innovation.
Thousands of the University of Utah's students — including business majors along with students from any other college degree program — are taking their first steps here into the often turbulent world of entrepreneurship.
"Entrepreneur" is a verb, say institute leaders. So start doing.
Lassonde's mission: Live. Create. Launch.
Many Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute participants, such as students Ethan McQuarrie and Ali Phillips, are business founders utilizing the institute's resources to launch and grow their ventures.
Others will never initiate a start-up — but they are picking up the entrepreneur's toolbox that's designed to serve them well across wide-ranging careers and life paths.
The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is also home sweet home for hundreds of U. students — literally.
The university has traditionally been a commuter school, although on-campus living has increased in recent years. Some 400 students are now living in the center of campus in the Lassonde Studios' four floors of residential space.
The cost of living at the Lassonde Studios varies with each bedroom type and housing option, but it's estimated that a student living in a single room will pay a little more than $11,000 for a nine-month period.
Life in Lassonde Studios is designed to foster an open, diverse student community where ideas and innovations first germinate and are then tossed about with fellow student entrepreneurs and mentors.
It's hoped that ideas grow into successful businesses.
Much of the institute's "entrepreneuring" takes place in Lassonde's Neeleman Hangar, a 20,000-square-foot "innovation space" on the studio's main floor. It's a 24-7, mixed-use activity hive where students of all academic backgrounds can network, attend events, bounce ideas off each other, build prototypes in the wood shops or 3D printing design labs and then learn, experiment and learn some more.
Troy D'Ambrosio, the university's vice president for innovation and the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute's executive director, points to Neeleman Hangar's openness. That's by design — an architectural cue to collaborate with the guy next to you.
The Neeleman Hangar offers workstations and meeting spaces for gatherings. But there's also a pool table and a grand piano available to anyone who wants to decompress for a few minutes before getting back to the grueling trial-and-error process of innovating.
And the free coffee brewing on the main floor draws bleary-eyed students from all corners of campus, jokes D'Ambrosio.
"No other school provides the same depth and variety of experiences for students and alumni who are interested in entrepreneurship," said D'Ambrosio, who has co-founded and directed several successful startup companies through his own entrepreneurial adventures.
Hands-on, real-time entrepreneurship
Ethan McQuarrie and Ali Phillips reflect the start-up diversity found at the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute.
McQuarrie is an undergraduate. Phillips is pursuing a Master of Business Creation degree. The former recently launched a line of all-natural men's hydrating cologne called OCOVES. The latter is the founder and CEO of MedicalMatch, a company designed to connect health care organizations with qualified professionals.
Both say Lassonde and the university's business school have been elemental to their burgeoning business ventures.
"The Lassonde Institute is really just an incubator for us young entrepreneurs to be able to create entrepreneurship with our own hands," said McQuarrie, who has competed in institute-sponsored entrepreneurship challenges. "That's all helped me to receive funding for my own personal business and to get advice on running a business and figuring out ways to grow and expand."
For many would-be business founders, entrepreneurship can be an intimidating, lonesome place. Lassonde, say participants, delivers a confidence-building community to student entrepreneurs.
Besides traditional business training, McQuarrie points to the Institute's networking resources and its vast mentor pool.
"There are great opportunities to not only meet professors, but also to meet directors of different clubs and businesses — as well as just meeting students who are growing and becoming better at what they do."
The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, added McQuarrie, equips student-enterpreneurs with the pieces they need to launch. "Here they have multiple funding and marketing opportunities and so many other things that can help you expand your business and look at different ways to grow it."
Phillips points to the school's many business educators who are also seasoned business founders.
"Most of my professors are not just, say, theory professors," she said. "They are entrepreneurs themselves who have successfully started and exited several companies — some of them, dozens of times."
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Jason Swensen
