How Two Years at Rice Alliance Became 22 feat. Brad Burke

Owl Have You Know

For our final episode of season 3, we wanted to bring you one last conversation from this year’s Alumni Reunion.

Brad Burke is the managing director of Rice Alliance, Rice Business’ flagship entrepreneurship initiative launched in 2000. Brad has led Rice Alliance since 2001, helping the Rice Business Plan Competition become the world’s largest and richest student startup competition. Since Rice Alliance’s inception, more than 2,950 tech startups have participated in its programs.

In the Rice Alliance space in McNair Hall, host Maya Pomroy ’22 chats with Brad about his journey to Houston, his illustrious career spanning 22 years at Rice, and some of the most memorable competition winners that have stuck with him over all these years.

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Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

On Houston's Energy transition

28:00 - So, we launched a Clean Energy Accelerator two years ago, and we're about to start evaluating the applicants for the third cohort of the Clean Energy Accelerator. And part of the reason is we're attracting startups from all over the U.S. and outside the U.S. to come through the accelerator. We want to help them be more successful, but we also want to show them what's going on in Houston…[28:36] We also want to show the investors in Houston really promising clean energy technologies. And so, it gives investors in Houston an early look at some of these promising technologies. So, Houston has the ability, and we've been the energy capital of the world. We have the ability to be the energy transition capital of the world because we have the knowledge, the expertise, the resources and almost every major energy investor.

How the Rice Business Plan Competition sparks new angel investments in Houston

24:53 - This competition has mobilized a number of individuals who weren't doing angel investments before. And now they're doing not just investment in the business plan competition; they're investing in companies from Houston as well.

On the impact of the Rice Alliance and Rice Business Plan Competition

16:25 - It's amazing, you have the opportunity to mentor these amazing, bright, enthusiastic young founders, who are generally first-time founders. And then you have the opportunity to see this innovation benefit society, come to the world. And so, you can see a real impact in what you do.

Show Links:

• Rice Alliance
• Rice Business Plan Competition
• OwlSpark Startup Accelerator | Rice Alliance
• BlueLaunch Small Business Accelerator | Rice Alliance
• Transcript

Guest Profile:

• Brad Burke | Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University
• Brad Burke - LinkedIn
• Brad Burke | Princeton Innovation

Listen to OWL entrepreneurs Hassan Panahi, Taylor Ann Adams, and Delaney Berman in this episode titled "Giving Entrepreneurs the Tools to Change the World" here: https://business.rice.edu/owlhaveyouknow-season-3-episode-19