IDEA, Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator, is a student-created and run university program at Northeastern. Our mission is to educate and cultivate the entrepreneurial community at Northeastern University. We achieve this by providing student, faculty, and alumni ventures with coaching, connection to resources, and funding with the end goal of developing self-sustaining and investment-ready ventures.
Northeastern is the leader in experiential learning and post graduation job placement with established companies worldwide. As a result, Northeastern attracts students who are focused on advancing and refining the direction of their professional careers, many of whom have an entrepreneurial spirit that drives them to better understand how to establish and operate companies.
It was this entrepreneurial spirit and ambition that led to the initial development of IDEA. In January 2009, a group of students approached the university and expressed the need to support entrepreneurial endeavors within Northeastern. With the backing of the university, a program intended to provide resources and support for entrepreneurs across all academic backgrounds was created.
Today, IDEA’s management team and coaches, along with the help of service providers, mentors and our advisory board, work to support a large number of student and alumnae ventures from across Northeastern University.
IDEA works for its ventures to:
· Coach ventures through the development of their business idea
· Connect ventures with the resources they need
· Fund ventures that show exceptional potential
