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OREM — Utah Valley University was ranked No. 1 for the amount of graduates who open businesses in the same state as their alma mater.
Switch On Business collected data from LinkedIn to see which colleges produced the most business founders who launched businesses locally.
Hunter College in New York City was found to have the most graduates open businesses within the same city as the school. But UVU was found to have a whopping 80% of alums who founded businesses within the same state, more than any other school.
"No doubt helping matters is the fact that UVU is home to the largest business school in the state and an Entrepreneurship Institute that offers mentoring, funding and networking opportunities to students. After graduating, it's no wonder the entrepreneurially minded are happy to stay local — a variety of factors make Utah one of the most favorable states in which to start a business," Switch On Business's analysis said.
Entrepreneurship Institute Director Seth Jenson said the institute is housed at the business school, but it's a hub for anything entrepreneurial for students in any department. He said the organization has a portfolio of programs that suit everyone and they connect students with business leaders in a variety of industries.
"We're doing things differently here — and I know because I've been all the different places that are doing things. I'm very familiar with all these schools all over the world and how they do entrepreneurship and I think we have a really cool secret sauce that people are going to start noticing," Jenson said.
He has experience with Oxford, Harvard and Stanford universities and has done consulting for major entrepreneurial schools.
Entrepreneurially minded from the top
Jenson said UVU President Astrid Tuminez and business school dean Bob Allen are the main reason for the success of graduates.
"They're so all in on entrepreneurship," he said. "They want UVU to become the entrepreneurship hub of Utah County and Utah and they're willing to do whatever it takes."
Jenson said UVU exists to help change the trajectory of students and the school's programming is designed to help launch students forward in their careers.
"It's a very hands-on, practically minded university. So some things that other universities may say aren't academic enough, UVU says, 'Bring it!' We are so open to that. If it's going to help our students become better experts in their industries or get more experience, we're just for it," he said.
"If it's going to connect them to where things are moving and shaking in the world — yes, we're all about it. And that goes all the way from the top down, which is pretty exciting," Jenson added.
He said UVU has an entrepreneurial mindset, which allows staff to "try really cool things."
Ben Perkins founded the business &Collar which sells athletic dress shirts. He said even though he grew up being a big BYU fan, he's very biased towards UVU as his wife works there, he graduated from UVU, was part of the Entrepreneurship Institute and used to work part time for the university.
"In my experience having attended UVU and graduated from there, it is the amount of attention you get from administration and from key individuals, where the university and its employees become stakeholders in you," he said.
Perkins said the UVU administration has invested heavily in its students, and the biggest example of that is Tuminez.
"When the president of the university is sending me messages asking about my business, I think that's special — Astrid Tuminez leads from the top. She is about as special an individual as I've ever met," he said. "And it's not just me. ... She knows people by name. It comes from the top where there's real investment and attention."
UVU attracts 'scrappy' people
Jenson said he loves the mission at UVU, and said everyone who comes to the university gets to find their own path and is supported by the staff.
Alessandra Camargo, Entrepreneurship Institute coordinator, is a UVU alumna who believes UVU's motto: "It's a place for you."
"We give opportunities to everyone here, whereas maybe different institutions are looking for maybe that one in a million, that perfect student, that perfect idea. But we quite literally say, 'Come as you are and we will help you.' And I found that to be true when I was a student here," she said.
Camargo found lifelong mentors who cared about her and her ideas, and she said those connections are what made her and others students successful. Because of those connections made, a lot of alumni want to stay involved with UVU and stay in Utah to serve the community, she said.
Jenson called Camargo, the "ideal entrepreneurial student," as she participated in all of the business competitions as a student — won a lot of them — and is now helping students in their endeavors.
"It's really cool to come full circle for me. I got to experience this on the student side with those amazing mentors and programs and now I can give back in a way that feels meaningful. I'm helping these students push off, launch their ventures and it feels good. I feel like we're doing good in the community," Camargo said.
While he likes to think the success is all from the "brilliant" programming, Jenson said UVU attracts the type of students who want "to do things now." Instead of thinking education is just for the future, UVU students focus on what they need to learn now, to change their life in the moment, he said.
"They think of their education as a means to something. They're using their education as a tool," he said. "I think it's important that UVU attracts those types of students that are gritty and grinding and goal-oriented and using their education in a really practical hands-on way."
Perkins echoed a similar idea, saying UVU's student base is "very scrappy." Perkins saw so many people at UVU who were working full time and squeezing in a degree at night, so the idea of students adding one more thing on top and starting a business isn't that crazy.
"(It's) just a group of people who are honestly, almost bred by environment to be entrepreneurs. There's something special in the water there," he said.
Why Utah?
Perkins said he would love to try to start another business and he used to think it was an "inevitability" that he'd move out of Utah. But now, he doesn't know why anyone would want to move out of a place that is so supportive of starting new businesses.
Those who have found success in Utah are great at making themselves available and offering resources to those just starting out. He experienced so much support from people in the community who helped push him to do his business full time and found that local venture capitalists, who didn't need to listen to a college student selling dress shirts, were so willing to back student ideas and give them funding.
"It's a standing on shoulders or grabbing your hands up — whatever metaphor you want to do — where people who have done it in the past are more than eager and willing to help you expedite the process," he said.
Successful entrepreneurs will tell newbies the mistakes they made so the students don't have to waste years of toiling. "It's this spiral staircase upwards it seems like," Perkins said.
Camrago said what also makes Utah great for business, is that it's "such a special place for networking." She said everyone knows everyone, and if you don't know someone, someone you know knows them.
"In that sense, it's really easy to just network, to meet people, to find mentors," she said. "It's such a tight-knit community and culture that you really can't find anywhere else because of just the way Utah is."
Jenson did his graduate research on what makes Utah special for entrepreneurship and found the unique networks are a huge contributor. He found that Utahns have a lot of "multiplex relationships" where people know each other in multiple ways, such as school, religion or work.
"It's all kind of baked into the cultural ethos," he said.
Frequently, Utahns go out of the state for school or other opportunities, and then they move back to be with family and bring outside perspectives back to the state they can interweave into Utah's networks. Jenson emphasized the link Utah has to California through the Silicon Valley connections that have found their way into Utah's own Silicon Slopes.
Jenson has traveled and worked all around the world, but is grateful he gets to apply everything he has learned to his job at UVU.
