The University of Oregon and its Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce a new partnership with Starve Ups, an Oregon startup accelerator with a unique approach and a track record of success helping founders grow innovative companies.

“They have had some amazing successes,” said Nathan Lillegard, program manager for the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship, pointing to the group’s exceptional statistics. Starve Ups members are four times more likely to secure funding and six times more likely to stay in business than the national average for entrepreneurs.

Several Starve Ups member companies have ties to the Lundquist College including Animosa, Blue Dog Mead, Cricket Flours, Manage My Co-op, Red Duck Foods, ROAM Fitness, Ruby Receptionists, Rumblefish, Trail Supply Co., Versation, and wired.MD.

Starve Ups started in Portland in 2000 by a group of founders—many of them Ducks—making up seven Oregon startup companies. After years of refining and developing their unique approach to what it calls “proven peer mentoring” for founders, a Eugene chapter was established in 2013. Starve Ups recently began the process of adding a Bend chapter as well. Now, there are 173 member companies, plus additional strategic partners offering services specialized to founders and their startups.

The college has been referring entrepreneurship students to Starve Ups for some time. The new University of Oregon partnership formalizes the relationship and ensures students’ exposure to the process as well as other entrepreneurs through internships, networking events, and the Starve Ups Launch Pad—an exclusive three-day startup “boot camp” for founders that qualifying students will be able to attend free of charge.

“It’s a very tangible thing you can plug into,” Lillegard said. “Starve Ups reflects and embodies what I see as the important ethos of what we aim to achieve with our student entrepreneurs. This is for students who want to get involved and get their hands dirty. This is for those ready to do the work.”

Starve Ups members will be invited to participate in mentoring and programs related to entrepreneurship at the Lundquist College and the University of Oregon. It will also play a large role in the New Venture Championship (NVC), the university’s premier startup competition. 

Principals

Nathan Lillegard

Year Joined

2017