McCombs Entrepreneurship Complex

Overview

Five Centers Under One Umbrella

McCombs spreads entrepreneurship across five centers rather than one institute. Texas Entrepreneurship, founded with a gift from the Brumley family and led by Executive Director Mellie Price, links them through shared events, mentor pools and communications while each keeps its own mission and donors.

The complex grew from the Moot Corp Competition, a business plan contest that ran from the early 1980s, and now serves more than 1,500 students a year. Mulva Hall, a new 17-story McCombs building under construction, will add entrepreneurship space alongside Rowling Hall, the Speedway building and the Kendra Scott Center.

Graduate

Brumley Institute and Texas Venture Labs

Success magazine called UT's Moot Corp Competition "the mother of all business-plan competitions" in 1998. In March 2010 it became the Venture Labs Investment Competition, and Texas Venture Labs (TVL) launched the same month; a $6 million gift from Fort Worth oil-and-gas entrepreneur Jon Brumley (BBA '61) renamed it Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs in May 2012. After Brumley died on July 2, 2025, at 86, the program became the Brumley Institute for Graduate Entrepreneurship in September 2025, widening its scope beyond venture-backed startups.

Mellie Price directs the institute from the Venture Partners Suite in Rowling Hall. It draws graduate students from the MBA and MSTC programs, the Cockrell School of Engineering, the Jackson School, the LBJ School, the School of Law, the College of Pharmacy and the College of Natural Sciences. The institute takes no equity and makes no investments; its startups raise from donors, angels and venture funds, and it hands companies to and from the Austin Technology Incubator.

Undergraduate

Harkey Institute and Kelleher Center

The Harkey Institute houses the campus-wide Entrepreneurship Minor, which grew from fewer than 90 students in fall 2018 to more than 800 in 2024, the fastest-growing minor at UT Austin according to Dean Lillian Mills. John D. Harkey Jr. (BBA '83), CEO of Consolidated Restaurant Companies and founder of JDH Investment Management, named the institute in 2021 with a $10 million gift and his wife Peni Barfield. The gift matches other donors' endowed gifts of $500,000 or more toward a $20 million goal, of which $13.5 million was raised by 2024.

Dr. Melissa Murphy directs the Harkey Institute, with Colin Ellis as assistant director. Programs include sponsored practicums, guest speakers, co-working space and the Summer Entrepreneurship Academy.

The Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, founded in 2001 and named for the Southwest Airlines co-founder, runs community programs for undergraduates from the Speedway building. Director Dr. Steven Gray succeeded Dr. Luis Martins, who served eight years. HKEC runs the Forty Acres Founders practicum and pitch competition, the Entrepreneurship Live! speaker series, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, and the Freed Family Pitch Competition, UT's largest undergraduate pitch contest at $65,000 in cash and prizes, backed by a $1 million gift from William "Billy" Freed (BBA '81) and family.

Women Founders

Kendra Scott Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute

KS WELI launched in September 2019 at Bass Concert Hall and began programming in spring 2020. It spans McCombs, the College of Fine Arts (where Kendra Scott is a professor of practice), the College of Natural Sciences and The LaunchPad in Undergraduate Studies.

In March 2022 Kendra Scott committed a $13.25 million endowment, which also seeded the Women in Entrepreneurship Specialization, a women-focused route to the Entrepreneurship Minor launched in fall 2022. The institute aims to help more than 24,000 women over the following decade. Programs include a consumer products practicum at McCombs, a studio seminar at Kendra Scott headquarters, FoundHER, SHEspeaks and the Changemakers Summit, run from the Kendra Scott Center.

Austin Pipeline

From McCombs to Austin Startups

McCombs MBA and MSTC graduates move into Capital Factory portfolio companies, ATI member companies and Austin venture firms, and minor alumni take both founder and operator roles. Apptronik co-founder and CEO Jeff Cardenas (BBA '08, MSTC '13) is the best-known recent case; Apptronik's Apollo humanoid robot is in commercial pilots with Mercedes-Benz and Jabil.

Related coverage

Related Coverage

• McCombs MSTC Program in Austin
• Austin Technology Incubator (ATI)
• Capital Factory in Austin
• Austin VC Community
• Austin Unicorns and Notable Exits
• UT Austin Nexus