The Tim and Kathleen Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship
The Tim & Kathleen Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship works to grow and foster a culture of entrepreneurship for the Ohio State community through the creation and support of new ventures and the education and encouragement of their founders. The Keenan Center provides a campus-wide hub for collaboration and engagement with early-stage capital, startup talent and robust programming resources to maximize opportunities for social and economic impact.
Visit the Keenan Center websiteFeatured Ohio State Startups
Central Ohio Ecosystem
Startups formed with Ohio State technology benefit from becoming part of the central Ohio entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- In 2017, Columbus ranked third on the Kauffman Foundation’s annual index of growth entrepreneurship — a measure of how hospitable a city is for high-growth startups — ahead of San Jose and San Francisco. That year, the Kauffman Foundation also named Columbus the top metropolitan area for scaling young companies.
- VentureOhio notes that more venture capital funding is flowing through Ohio than at any other point in the state’s history. In 2016, $470 million was invested in 210 startups, a 46 percent increase over the previous two years. Cited by Venture Beat magazine, Columbus was also one of the few U.S. cities to see its total number of startups raising their first round of venture capital financing grow over the past seven years.
According to Forbes and Venture Beat, a solid base in research and producing talent in Columbus has helped the city to grow in startup activity. Other key factors include:
- Location: nearly 50 percent of the U.S. population is within a day’s drive of Columbus.
- Access to corporate partners: Columbus has a large Fortune 1000 base, and many corporations are signing on to be startups’ first customers while also investing in them.
- Low operating costs: according to KPMG and EY, Columbus’ tax climate was ranked as one of the top three most business-friendly environments in the U.S. In comparison to traditional entrepreneurial hubs like New York City, Boston and Silicon Valley, Columbus offers comparatively low operating costs for businesses.
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Are you excited by a research idea, discovery, or insight that could have an impact on the world around us? If so, please let the Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) know!