Choosing between a Student‐Run and Professionally Managed Venture Accelerator

This case presents challenges facing a student-run venture accelerator at a major university in the United States. The student-run model has attracted much media attention for its uniqueness, but it has also raised questions about its sustainability. Signals from a new dean, not invested in the student model, are putting much pressure on the student-chief executive officer to change course—to tweak the student-run model and fight for its future or cave in to pressures to “professionalize” it and let students take a backseat in management. The case highlights challenges in entrepreneurial leadership of a student-run accelerator at the point of initial growth.