An emerging ecosystem for student start-ups

New initiatives in student entrepreneurship programs are moving rapidly beyond traditional classroom teaching to experiential learning, which is associated with improved employment outcomes for students (Gosen and Washbush in Simul Gaming, 35:270–293, 2004). Unfortunately, we lack a framework to understand the ecosystem required to enable our students to launch successful startups. In this article, we develop such a framework. The elements of this framework include university mechanisms to facilitate student entrepreneurship, along with a continuum of involvement from pre-accelerators through to accelerators; the involvement of a variety of entrepreneurs, support actors and investors; the particular nature of the university environment and the external context; and their evolution over time. We also consider the important issue of funding mechanisms.