Message from Alicia Löffler
Dear members of the Northwestern community,
When I became INVO’s inaugural executive director in 2010, I held one personal, admittedly strange goal: to put myself out of a job. That successful result, after all, would mean Northwestern University had established itself as a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship among U.S. universities.
Here, a dozen years and one global pandemic later, I proudly say promised fulfilled.
INVO was founded in 2010 to supercharge innovation and entrepreneurship at Northwestern. At the time, our entrepreneurial ecosystem was underperforming. Our faculty, students, and community – increasingly interested in pursuing entrepreneurial activities – were dissatisfied.
Still, we knew Northwestern possessed the necessary ingredients to increase its entrepreneurial horsepower. Lyrica, the now-ubiquitous therapeutic for nerve and muscle pain with inventive roots at Northwestern, served as a prominent symbol of the innovative spirit rumbling under the surface and the power of our people – our greatest asset. Northwestern hosted intelligent, resilient students and ambitious faculty eager to solve global problems through innovation.
And so, we – this growing INVO team of enterprising, collaborative individuals who prioritize action – went to work.
Soon, we became a central part of the overall entrepreneurial culture at Northwestern. We supported interdisciplinary courses like NUvention, challenging students to pursue entrepreneurial projects in fields like artificial intelligence, energy, and transportation, and we launched mentorship programs like INVOForward.
We built The Garage to energize student entrepreneurship and unveiled the InQbation Lab to advance faculty innovations. We introduced funding programs like NUseeds and N.XT to invest in impactful technologies and entrepreneurs.
We crafted strategic relationships with external partners providing expertise, resources, and funding. We revised core facilities and rent structures. We solicited feedback from students, faculty, and industry to ensure calculated movement. We cultivated trust from our community by making it easier for Northwestern faculty and students holding inventive ideas to pursue translation.
All along this still-ongoing adventure, our people-centric mission never wavered. We invested in billion-dollar people, confident the billion-dollar companies would follow.
Today, Northwestern’s ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship is robust and a clear point of differentiation from other universities. Our portfolio now includes nearly 100 startups and non-Lyrica revenue is 10 times its 2010 tally. Northwestern-founded technologies, meanwhile, have generated more than $2 billion in acquisitions while three Northwestern startups have gone public.
Our culture is lively, dynamic, self-sustainable, and also ready to take its next daring steps behind fresh ideas from new leadership. Change is central to progress, and the courage to constantly evolve and transform is a necessary component of a growing individual and organization.
It was an honor and privilege to serve as INVO’s founding director, to work with an exceptional team of doers, and to help shape Northwestern’s entrepreneurial culture. I know even brighter days reside ahead.
Alicia Löffler, PhD
Executive Director, INVO
Associate Provost, Innovation and New Ventures
Associate Vice President for Research