Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Menu

Cultivating
Creativity

Activating
Potential

Seeking
Innovation

Fueling
Ambition

Energizing
Entreprenuers

Building
Community

The Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) helps students and community members acquire the tools, develop the skills and cultivate the mindset of an entrepreneur so that they may create economic and social value throughout the world. While it can mean starting a new business, entrepreneurial careers can be found or created in just about every field, industry, and organization. At the center, students and community members are immersed in the entrepreneurial process through hands-on innovation programs focused on our three distinct areas: LEARN, PREPARE and LAUNCH.

News & Events

News

How Cal Poly Helped a Power Couple Launch Two Startups That Have Become Giant Success Stories – and Why They’re Paying It Forward

Events

Watch 6 startups compete for $100k at AngelCon 2023!

News

MLK Legacy Award Honors Biomedical Engineering Professor’s Commitment to Students and Innovation

News

Cal Poly Magazine: Disrupting the Hospital

News

Student Startup ‘Ryde’ Releases New Mobile App

News

Microgreen business provides insight to student entrepreneurship at Cal Poly

News

LADWP Offers New Direct Discount for Flume, a Smart Home Water Monitoring Device

News

Cal Poly Demo Day 2022 showcases local startups

News

Female-led startup gets $2.8M, encounter with retired engineer led to building gadget fighting Parkinson’s disease walk

News

A Cal Poly Senior Project Is Making Virtual Labs A Reality

News

Spotlight: the applications of deployables – with DcubeD

News

Could These Students Improve the Global Food Supply? They’re Finding Out — One Tractor at a Time

News

Cal Poly HotHouse company started as a senior project. It just sold for $240 million

News

What Percentage of Small Businesses Fail?

News

Four Cal Poly Grads Explain Why San Luis Obispo Is A Hub For Startups

News

Cal Poly Startup Hopes To Shape Future Of California Wildfires

News

International Alumni Work to Give Others a Home — While Creating Their Own

News

Empowering the Innovators

News

Anatomy of the Hustle

News

Can ‘SLO life’ survive when tech comes to town?

News

How Tech Expanded From Silicon Valley to Bubblegum Alley

Learn

Entrepreneurial careers transcend specific job titles, career paths and industries. We develop the entrepreneurial mindset with complementing class instruction and project-based activities.

Jeremy Kerfs

Learn

Jeremy Kerfs
College of Engineering
Electrical Engineering Major

“My parents were pretty unsure about my involvement in two start-ups as a freshman. Now they see the support and instruction I’m getting and the tremendous investment others are willing to make in my future. We all realize I’m a whole lot closer to making this work.”

Prepare

The center prepares students to become emerging leaders and career ready entrepreneurs who generate innovative solutions to real-world problems, research promising technologies and develop viable business plans.

Elevator Pitch winners Owen Works and Camille Boiteux holding their $1,000 and $500 awarded checks.

Elevator Pitch Competition

You know that idea you’ve always had? The one you think could make you millions? Well, this is your chance to share that idea with the world and possibly win $1,000. The Elevator Pitch Competition gives students 90 seconds to pitch their best idea to a panel of entrepreneurs and compete for cash prizes.

Read More

Startup Launch Weekend

Starting a business usually requires months (or even years) of preparation. At Startup Launch Weekend, though, we give you only 54 hours to build a business with a team of strangers. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find out what it takes to produce a viable startup in the modern world.

Read More

The Hatchery

At the CIE, we understand that your best ideas can arrive before your diploma. In fact, the startups that change the world often begin in dorm rooms and classrooms. We designed the Hatchery to shape and grow student-led startups, enabling students to develop the proper tools for building a business from scratch.

Read More

A group of students smiling and holding giant checks

Innovation Quest

A great startup requires more than just a great idea; it needs support from the market, clients and investors. Innovation Quest (iQ) serves as the support system that provides the fuel for great ideas. With a $15,000 grand prize and over $10,000 in additional prize money, iQ can transform your idea into a financially-backed endeavor.

Read More

Camp PolyHacks

Cal Poly is home to some of the most creative programmers and designers in the world, so Camp PolyHacks we created a student-run, multidisciplinary hackathon dedicated to social entrepreneurship and human-centered design.

Read More

Ian Rice

Prepare

Ian Rice
B.S., Business Administration
Concentration in
Entrepreneurship

“This program ignited my passion. I’m prepared to spend my life using my own ideas to change the world, not sitting in a cubicle.”

Launch

The center offers students and community members highly customized paths that allow them to launch their own startups and become entrepreneurial leaders who create great economic and social value everywhere.

Alyssa Hitchcock

Launch

Alyssa Hitchcock
B.S., Graphic Communication
Concentration in
Web and Digital Media

“There was no, 'Now what?' when I graduated. I knew what I wanted and how to get it. I wouldn't have my awesome career if I'd just done my coursework, graduated, and looked for an entry-level job.”

Mentors

The center’s elite entrepreneur mentors accelerate growth and enrich the educational experience of Cal Poly students by advancing their entrepreneurial careers and helping them accomplish more faster.

Learn more about the mentorship program, and how to become a mentor like Eric Meyer, Lisa Hufford and Jeff Witous.
Explore CIE Mentorship