As we extend our reach out to our alumni, our focus remains the same: to empower innovation across the Northwestern community and bring inventive ideas to life.”
Mike Raab, Executive Director, The Garage
The Garage: A Decade of Empowering Entrepreneurship
Back in 2015, The Garage opened as Northwestern University’s student startup hub. Modest at first – a handful of enterprising students participating in the flagship Residency incubation program – The Garage has evolved into a vibrant, interdisciplinary, and collaborative community of students and mentors committed to unlocking innovation and transforming society.
The Garage now engages more than 3,000 students each year through a dozen programs designed to help students strengthen their business ideas in addition to lively events propelling innovation, promoting resources, and showcasing student-led efforts.
And it’s generated results.
Over the last decade, The Garage has incubated more than 1,500 student startups touching fields such as medicine, law, energy, media, and technology. These startups have collectively raised more than $1.5 billion, a nod to the ingenuity and market appeal of these upstart ventures as well as the skill and tenacity of their founders.
Motivated to accelerate its pace and broaden its reach, The Garage expanded to San Francisco to serve students and alumni in the Bay Area. A similar space in Chicago is now in development alongside programs to connect Northwestern startups with alumni investors.