Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Macathon is Macalester’s overnight innovation and creativity contest.
Macathon is the the 24-hour competition where student teams work to develop and present a product or service that will help solve a real-world problem
MacNest is a 10-week summer internship program with early stage Twin Cities startups.
MacStartups is a 10-week fully-immersive summer accelerator program open to current Macalester students.
Macathon – Macalester’s ultimate 24-hour innovation challenges, brings together student teams and alumni mentors.
Live It Fund J-Term supports students with hands-on support to pilot innovative solutions to complex problems.
Macathon is Macalester’s ultimate 24-hour innovation challenge. Overnight student teams build ground breaking ideas and enhance their liberal arts experience with playful, purposeful, and real-world learning.
Macathon 2025 Finals & Awards Ceremony
Please RSVP & join us on Saturday, November 8th as the final six teams pitch on the big stage! Doors Open 4:15 pm | 4:30 – 6:30 pm Final Presentations & Awards | Location: Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis Lecture Hall (lower level), 1600 Grand Avenue, St Paul, MN 55105.
Mission
We empower Macalester students to transform bold ideas into action through practical skills, resources, and collaboration. Together, we enhance the liberal arts experience with playful, purposeful, and real-world learning.
Vision
We envision a Macalester where every student sees themselves as a curious and confident innovator, ready to navigate uncertainty and shape a more just and sustainable future.
Team Values
- Trust & Respect
- Whole Person First
- Vision and Curiosity
- Play & Humor
- Teamwork & Initiative
- Order & Structure
Entrepreneurship Events
News & Highlights
Welcome New Director
Allan Martinez Venegas ’14 joins the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation as new Director.
Empowering Entrepreneurs
Basir Talayee ’25 awarded Live It Fund and Zia and Priti Fund for Innovation and Impact supports “life-changing” opportunites.
How It Started, How It’s Going
“At Macalester, students are encouraged to pair their entrepreneurial drive with a grounding in the liberal arts to build skills that will benefit them long beyond their time on campus.”
Exploring the DNA of Successful Startups
“Everyone who starts a company is an outsider, so you’re among giants! I really appreciate [Ali Alizadeh’s] encouragement and attention to students.” —Chloe Vasquez ’24
ABOUT
Entrepreneurship is not just studied at Macalester, it is lived. Driven by the college’s mission, the entrepreneurial spirit has been a part of Macalester’s culture from the very beginning. The urban environment of the Twin Cities provides an incredible ecosystem for students to experience entrepreneurship first hand and alumni across the world provide significant entrepreneurial opportunities for students.
At its core, entrepreneurship at Macalester inspires students to put their ideas into action. It gives students the courage to follow their dreams, the creativity to solve problems, and the resilience, grit, and hope necessary to create lasting change.
HOW IT BEGAN
In 2014, the college produced its strategic plan Thrive, which made Entrepreneurship a key strategic priority for the future. It called for the college to “draw upon the energy of our students, the success of our alumni, and the vibrancy of our urban location to make entrepreneurship, including social, commercial, and artistic, an area of distinctive strength at Macalester.”
Students have many opportunities in entrepreneurship, and often these opportunities were created by entrepreneurial students themselves. They include coursework, internship opportunities, seed funding, a 10-week accelerator program, community project funding, and hackathons. In 2017, the college unveiled the Idea Lab, a 7000 sq ft remodel of the library to open up a collaborative and innovative space for students, faculty, and staff. Additionally, students embed themselves in the Twin Cities startup community and continue to find new ways to innovate and create their own entrepreneurial experiences.
Macalester does not encompass a narrow definition of entrepreneurship but understands the broad tools of entrepreneurship to be powerful catalysts for change. “Entrepreneurship broadly understood means the bringing of creative thinking and a willingness to take risks to the formation of new businesses, the revitalization of existing businesses, and the mitigation of social problems. More fundamentally, in the words of a successful Macalester alumnus, it means having the courage, confidence, and necessary skills to follow the path to your dream.” -Thrive Strategic Plan.