Entrepreneurship Is Booming at Wesleyan

Scores of alumni Founders from successive decades are proof that the entrepreneurial spirit has always been a Wesleyan characteristic. But while student entrepreneurs at Wesleyan used to rely on ad hoc meetups and a loose collection of disparate classes and mentors to help them realize their dreams, today’s intrepid innovators are finding formalized classes and a more structured community to build their dreams into lucrative realities.  

That’s what Susan Paley ’89 discovered when she got involved with the Art of the Pitch student-led course and served as an alumni investor for the Shark Tank–style business pitching event held in May 2026. 

“I think I was always an entrepreneur, always looking to create and build, but it wasn’t called entrepreneurship [then],” says Paley, the founding CEO of Beats by Dr. Dre and currently a partner at Conduit Venture Labs. “There wasn’t the infrastructure, there weren’t the tools.”  

One of the major differences is the Patricelli Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE), which was founded in 2011 to support nonprofit initiatives, but which today embraces a broader mission of fostering all kinds of entrepreneurship, as well as innovative leadership.  

 The Art of the Pitch is one of two student forums offered by the PCE, along with  three other courses aimed at sharpening the business acumen of young innovators. The PCE also hosts a cohort of student fellows and two entrepreneurs in residence who mentor students and also teach classes like Applied Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Exit.  

Providing seed money and other types of funding is also part of the PCE’s work to enhance opportunities for students. Through the New Venture Awards and other grant programs, $118,000 was awarded to student enterprises last year. 

While courses and special events have expanded the footprint of entrepreneurship on campus, Director Ahmed Badr sees the Patricelli Center as part of a greater “entrepreneurship ecosystem” that extends out to alumni, whose formal and informal involvement enhances the entrepreneurship space at Wesleyan.  

Art of the Pitch guest speaker and executive director for startups at JP Morgan Jesse Bardo ’07 said, “I wish that this had existed when I was at Wesleyan. This is the best time and place to start a company, and Wesleyan is an incredible institution to be building a company at.” 

Says Badr, “Entrepreneurialism has always been in our DNA. We’re just activating it in a different way today.”