When Jack Swartley arrived at Ohio State from Philadelphia, he had no interest in waiting until after he graduated to start a business.

So, during his freshman year, he dove headfirst into Ohio State’s startup community. Before the year was over, he had founded MobilePantry, a venture tackling two problems at once: food waste and food insecurity in Columbus.

Swartley brought the moxie. Ohio State provided the culture to put it to work.

He tapped into the university’s entrepreneurship programs, mentors and connections, building MobilePantry while learning how to bring an idea to life. Those connections even helped him get a venture capitalist job.

“Ohio State is one of the best places in the country to start building something,” says Swartley, a junior finance major. “Without the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship’s programming, MobilePantry would never have gotten off the ground.

“And without their willingness to make the right introductions, and the generosity of their volunteer mentors, I wouldn’t be working in venture capital at Vessel today. That’s what sets this place apart. Buckeye entrepreneurs give back, and they are here, ready to invest in the next wave of entrepreneurs.”

Entrepreneurship at Ohio State isn’t something students pursue on the margins of campus. It’s part of the fabric of the student experience — whether a student arrives with a business plan, a half-formed idea or simply sees a problem they’re eager to tackle.

In 2026, Ohio State announced an ambitious goal: to become the premier hub for student-led innovation and entrepreneurship. One target is to have 100 investible student startups annually by 2030 as part of a new startup program called BuildX, which President Ravi V. Bellamkonda recently announced. Bellamkonda said BuildX will include academic courses for credit.

While more announcements on BuildX are forthcoming, the pieces for student entrepreneurship are already in place.

Start with the ecosystem

This year, Ohio State brought together the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Software Innovation to create a more connected hub for student ventures, supporting entrepreneurs through mentorship and even funding from their first idea through launch and beyond. The university is also introducing courses specifically designed to help students build startups.

That means students don’t have to figure it out alone or wait until they’ve already figured everything out.

Then there are the programs. Lots of them.

Ohio State has spent years building a network of programs, competitions and communities where students can test ideas, find collaborators and get feedback. OHI/O, LaunchpadOSU, BOSS competitions, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Scholars and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Living-Learning Community give students different ways to get involved, depending on where they are in the process.

Two other opportunities for students to pitch their work will include the President’s Buckeye Award in the spring along with a Student Builder Showcase at Construct I/O on Nov. 6.

And entrepreneurship isn't just for business majors.

At the Keenan Center’s new Summer Catalyst program, 167 students representing 86 ventures explored ideas ranging from healthcare innovation and business services to digital platforms and consumer products.

The new Future Leaders in Innovation and Entrepreneurship program takes that interdisciplinary approach even further, pairing STEM researchers with MBA students to explore the commercial potential of university research. Its first cohort brought together students from business, engineering, medicine and arts and sciences to work on translating research into market opportunities.

Students can also get a front-row seat to how startups actually work.

The Center for Software Innovation’s part-time co-op program connects students with innovation-driven companies to work with founders, engineers and operators on real product, engineering and go-to-market challenges.

And Ohio State’s reach extends beyond campus.

In July, Ohio State-supported entrepreneurs gathered at a new startup hub in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhood, placing Buckeye founders and innovators in the middle of one of the world’s most important venture capital communities.

The hub, part of the Third Coast Foundry, is designed to connect Ohio State’s Midwest innovation ecosystem with investors, alumni and commercial opportunities in the Bay Area.

That same spirit is taking root closer to home, too. Columbus has become an increasingly active startup community, giving Ohio State students access to founders, investors, accelerators and companies beyond the university. Programs such as Techstars help make the city a place where students can see what happens when an idea leaves campus and enters the marketplace.

And then there's the research.

Ohio State invests heavily in research across disciplines, producing discoveries that could become tomorrow’s companies and technologies. Students can work alongside faculty developing innovations in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced materials, battery technology, healthcare, biomedical engineering, agriculture, climate and sustainability.

Hannah Myers, Ohio State’s Next Generation Innovator of the Year, provides one example of how student research and entrepreneurship can intersect, showing how a university discovery can become the starting point for something much bigger.

The real advantage of being an entrepreneur at Ohio State is you don’t have to arrive with a company. Or a business plan. You just have to see a problem and believe there might be a better way to solve it.

From there, Ohio State provides something difficult to find anywhere else — the startup culture to turn that problem into a solution.