History

Until the late 1980s, there were limited opportunities to explore entrepreneurship at Washington University. Creation of the Olin Cup Competition was the first significant expansion of those opportunities. The Olin Cup was inaugurated upon the dedication of the John M. Olin School of Business in October, 1988. The competition was hosted by the Olin School and gave all Washington University students an opportunity to form teams which presented and defended their positions on an assigned business topic. Students did this as a co-curricular activity and received no academic credit.

In 1992, the Olin Cup invited interested student groups to discover and present their own ideas around the theme, "Opportunities for American Business." Continuing through 1996, student teams presented a variety of business opportunities, generating practical, feasible ideas. Although the Olin Cup was not designed as a business plan competition, several participants presented entries that related to entrepreneurial ventures.

In 1997, the Olin Cup joined with the Olin School's newly designed course, the Hatchery (Business Planning for New Enterprises), which was open to undergraduate and graduate students. The Hatchery linked students with outside entrepreneurs who had promising ideas but lacked capital, business experience, or both. Students gained firsthand entrepreneurship experience by working with these entrepreneurs to develop business plans. At the conclusion of the course, students presented their plans to a panel of business experts who awarded the Olin Cup to those teams that best exemplified entrepreneurial spirit, strategic business thinking, and high quality deliverables. In later years, students began to propose their own ideas for new businesses and formed teams to complete business plans. Numerous startups resulted in the years 1997-2000.

In 2001, funded by the generous support of the Skandalaris family, The Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program and the Hatchery Seed Capital Fund were created as the Olin School embarked on an expansion of entrepreneurship education. A full-time director was hired, several new courses were created and collaborations began with other schools at the University. The Hatchery remained as the centerpiece of the entrepreneurship curriculum. Work began with the Office of Technology Management on concepts related to applying early stage scientific discoveries.

In 2003, Washington University was challenged by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to create a new model for entrepreneurial education that followed a multidiscipline, cross-campus theme to involve a diverse population of students and faculty. Kauffman invited Washington University to compete with a number of other selected schools for funding of innovative programs. Under the guidance of Chancellor Wrighton and the School Deans, Washington University was selected as one of eight schools that were awarded a combined $25 million over five years to create these new models.

In 2004, the implementation was started. The Skandalaris family provided additional support to establish the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, a campus-wide operation reporting to the Chancellor. The Skandalaris Center, in turn, helped organize a new Center for Research in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CRIE) that is located in the School of Law and supported by the Kauffman Foundation.