大学应该如何扶植学生创业？

    没错，斯坦福大学（Stanford University）正在变成创业工厂。该大学与斯坦福医院与门诊部（Stanford Hospitals & Clinics）每月将向参加StartX的学生和毕业生创建的公司投资100万至200万美元。StartX是斯坦福大学附属的创业加速器项目。斯坦福大学首席财务官兰迪•利文斯顿表示，这种节奏的投资将至少持续三年。

    除了资金之外，斯坦福大学还将在三年内，向该创业加速器项目陆续拨款360万美元。凭借这笔资金，作为非盈利机构的StartX租下了一间13,000平方英尺的办公室，并将其重新装修，配备有一间生物科技实验室、硬件车间、编程室、活动场地、户外露台和“游说电梯”——这部工作电梯被提升为练习游说投资者的场所。

    宿舍创新并不新鲜。但斯坦福大学如此大的资金扶持力度，却将创业文化推向了新的高度，其影响力远远超过大多数大学提供的创业加速器项目和商业计划竞赛。自由流动的资本再次提出了一个老问题：在引诱聪明的学生退学创造下一个大事件的过程中，学校究竟扮演了什么角色？去年，十多名学生离开斯坦福大学，创立了一家名为Clinkle的公司，该公司得到了多位教授的支持和建议。此事引发了激烈争论。

    首轮资本公司（First Round Capital）合伙人菲尼亚斯•巴恩斯表示：“（斯坦福大学的）投资数额令人震惊。”首轮资本公司是少数几家针对大学创业者成立投资基金的风险资本公司之一。相比而言，首轮资本公司的基金——宿舍创业基金（Dorm Room Fund），在4年内仅投资200万美元，投资的对象是十多所学校的初创公司。巴恩斯认为，20,000美元或者更少数额的投资，可以让学生既能运营自己的公司，又能留在校园——同时还能促使他们变得更加勇于拼搏和机智灵活，进而让他们更好地学习创业。巴恩斯说道：“投资数额较大，会迫使学生在大学和创业之间做出选择，这是危险的，因为在选择之前，他们的创意还没有经过检验，没有收集足够的市场反馈，因此无法做出明智的选择。”

    但利文斯顿并不认同这种观点。他表示，学校会努力确保学生继续学业，从StartX走出的创始人中，仅有很少一部分没有完成本科学习。他表示，斯坦福大学依旧是美国毕业率最高的大学之一。

    StartX获得的最新投资源自斯坦福大学医院和该校的资本储备，没有使用方面的限制。对于学校而言，此项投资补足了学校的其他投资。目前，学校投资的对象涉及公共发行的股票、风险资本基金、房地产等各个领域，投资规模超过200亿美元。利文斯顿表示，斯坦福可能要在十年之后才能看到投资收益。然而，对于一所盛产创新者和企业家的名校而言，这样的投资很有意义。斯坦福大学校长约翰•亨尼斯表示：“我们为这些创新思想提供指导和支持，我们投资于他们未来的成功，这是再合适不过的。”

    大红风险基金（Big Red Venture Fund）前董事克里斯•莱斯梅斯表示，其他大学正在密切关注此事，并且有可能会效仿斯坦福的做法。大红风险基金是由学生运营的一只200万美元规模的投资基金，目标是康奈尔大学（Cornell University）的初创公司，该基金的资本来源是该校毕业生，而不是学校。最近，为了紧跟创业风潮，康奈尔大学在纽约市成立了一座科技园，并且为生物科技实验室和创业孵化器投入了更多资源。莱斯梅斯说道：“获得任何机构的学位，最终目的就是提前抓住机会。对任何大学来说，如果忽视学生创业的前景，都是不明智的。”

    Think Stanford University is becoming a startup factory? You may be right. The school, along with Stanford Hospitals & Clinics, is investing $1 million to $2 million each month into student and alumni companies participating in StartX, a campus-affiliated accelerator program. That pace of investments may not let up for at least three years, says Stanford chief financial officer Randy Livingston.

    In addition to the fund, Stanford provided a $3.6 million grant to the accelerator program to be doled out over three years. The cash allowed StartX, a nonprofit, to move into a rented 13,000-square-foot office and deck it out with a biotech lab, hardware workshop, coding rooms, event space, outdoor patio, and “pitch elevator,” a working elevator promoted as a place to practice your investor pitch.

    Dorm-room innovation is not new. But the big financial push by Stanford raises startup culture to a new level, far exceeding the impact of accelerator programs and business plan competitions offered by most universities. The free-flowing capital also renews old questions about the school’s role in luring bright students to drop out of school for the next big thing. Last year, debate ignited after more than a dozen students left Stanford for a startup called Clinkle, backed and advised by a number of professors.

    “The volume of investments is astounding,” says Phineas Barnes, a partner at First Round Capital, one of several venture capital firms that set up investment funds aimed at college entrepreneurs. In comparison, First Round’s fund, called the Dorm Room Fund, invests just $2 million over four years, spread across startups at a dozen schools. Barnes argues that the smaller amounts, typically $20,000 or less, allow students to run their companies and stay in school—as well as boost their entrepreneurial education by forcing them to be scrappy and resourceful. “There’s a danger when larger investments force students to choose between the university and the start-up, and choose before they have tested the idea and gathered enough market feedback to make an educated choice,” Barnes says.

    Livingston counters that the university is committed to seeing students continue their education, and only a small fraction of StartX founders enter the program without having finished their undergraduate degree. The school still has one of the highest graduation rates in the country, he says.

    The new Stanford-StartX investments are funded by the hospital’s and university’s capital reserves and have no limit. For the university, the dealmaking complements more than $20 billion it already has invested in everything from public stocks to venture capital funds to real estate. It may be up to a decade before Stanford sees a return on its StartX investments, Livingston says. Yet it makes sense for a school that has a storied history of spawning innovators and entrepreneurs. “We train and house these creative minds,” Stanford president John Hennessy says, “and it is only fitting that we invest in their future success.”

    Other universities are watching carefully and will likely follow Stanford’s lead, says Chris Lesmes, former director of the Big Red Venture Fund, a student-run $2 million investment fund targeting startups at Cornell University and financed by alumni, not the school. Cornell recently opened a tech campus in New York City to be closer to the startup scene and is pouring more resources into its biotech labs and incubators. “The whole purpose of a degree from any institution is to advance opportunity,” Lesmes says, “so it would be unwise for universities to discount the startup scene.”