Introducing the Northwestern Student Business Formation Website

Posted on October 16, 2020 by The Garage • Posted in Resources

The entrepreneurial ecosystem at Northwestern is more robust than ever before. Cross-disciplinary resources and programming at The Garage, academic courses through The Farley Center, Kellogg’s initiatives and academics such as the Zell Fellowship and courses in KIEI, and the growth of VentureCat, Northwestern’s annual student startup competition, have all helped fuel a thriving community of student innovators. With so much entrepreneurial activity, students in these programs and courses often have similar questions around topics such as forming a legal business entity, co-founder agreements and equity, and University intellectual property (IP) policy. 

To help explore many of these common questions students face, we’re proud to announce the launch of Northwestern’s Student Business Formation website at https://studentbusinessformation.northwestern.edu.

Developed in partnership between the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center, the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO), and The Garage, this site should serve as a first-stop for all of your questions around starting a business as a Northwestern or Kellogg student. You must use your NetID to log in.

Some common scenarios students experience include turning a project into a business after starting it in a course such as NUvention, using University IP for your business, or formalizing agreements when working with other students on a business. The site also contains useful sample templates for common documents including Founders’ Agreements, Statements of Intent, Work for Hire agreements, and Student Waivers, among others. 

While establishing agreements, having difficult conversations with team members, or considering tax obligations are often not the tasks that founders enjoy the most–they are a few of the necessary things to tackle when laying the groundwork for a successful venture. This site can be used as a helpful resource for outlining those “must do’s”. 

If you’re working on an entrepreneurial project as a Northwestern student and have questions around these complicated topics, check out the brand new Student Business Formation website!