Ohio State hosts launch event for BuildX initiative

The Ohio State University celebrated its commitment to entrepreneurship at a BuildX launch event at Pomerene Hall Wednesday night.

BuildX is an initiative designed to help students interested in entrepreneurship move through every stage of the startup process, from idea exploration to building a company and investor readiness. The initiative aims to launch 100 investable student startups annually by 2030, increase investment in Ohio and grow the startup ecosystem.

BuildX will be based in a 7,000-square-foot space in Pomerene Hall, creating an active environment for student startups. The space will bring teams together to collaborate, test ideas, meet with mentors and build alongside a community of peers.

“This is a dedicated space for our student builders to be able to work, learn and connect with each other,” said Associate Vice President for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Shereen Agrawal.

Ohio State’s Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Trevor Brown agreed, calling the location “magical.” He pointed out that neuroscience research shows that an open, airy space can open the mind to innovation and new creative possibilities.

“Some people think entrepreneurship is something you just simply learn by doing, and doing is an incredibly important part of it, but there are bodies of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t,” Brown said. “When you combine that with experimentation and hands-on activity, people working together, often with mentors and their instructors, you can get acceleration of ideas from concept into proof of concept and into implementation, in a much faster way because you have a place where that can occur.”

In addition to the new space, the launch event also explained the new BuildX curriculum. Beginning in spring 2027, students will have access to two new three-credit-hour BuildX startup labs in addition to an already-available Intro to Software Startups course. 

One lab will be open to all students who are validating a problem and developing an initial solution. A second lab will support student teams that have demonstrated that they are ready to build and launch their ventures.

Students participating in BuildX will collaborate with current entrepreneurs, Ohio State alumni and local business leaders. Tim Keenan, an Ohio State alum and founder of the university’s Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, said BuildX will connect them with like-minded students and open doors for collaboration across academic disciplines.

“You’ll also find people in the room that think like you. They want to start a business. They don't know how,” he said. “So, we’ll train you on how. Business students that can do the revenue model, technologists that can write the code, engineers that can structure it.”

Those student teams collaborating through the initiative will have an opportunity to join the BuildX Accelerator. Selected teams will receive $15,000 in funding along with embedded founder coaching and access to investors. It culminates in Demo Day, where founders present their business ideas to investors and supporters.

“The last thing I want to tell you is that you’ve been given the greatest opportunity that you’ll probably ever face,” Keenan said. “All these resources are here to help you, and frankly, the only thing an opportunity needs is for you to take action.”