Founding Stories: The development of the University of Toronto accelerator network, 2000-2021

This exhibit attempts to trace and document the recent history of entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto (U of T) with a focus on the creation of the campus accelerator network. From 2000 to 2021 there developed a more formalized support structure for co-curricular activities such as accelerator programs, as well as for the establishment of what is now known as U of T Entrepreneurship. The result is a timeline in four parts marking the key internal and external events along that development.

Entrepreneurship at U of T has historically existed as what one interviewee calls a sidecar to the university’s primary goals of teaching and research, often viewed as a delay to faculty promotion and tenure processes and an obstacle to public access to publicly funded research. As a result, these accelerators often started as informal trials and individual passion projects with scant or inconsistent documentation from the early days.

This exhibit is based on information gathered through interviews with 40 current and former faculty, staff, and students engaged with this community, to understand and record the context in which the accelerators were created. Information presented here is drawn from those interviews, as well as secondary research to contextualize and confirm first-person accounts when available.

For more information, please see the acknowledgments and references, as well as my researcher positionality statement.