From the Basement to the Dome
by Jean-Jacques Degroof
Foreword by Bob Metcalf

MIT is a world-famous launching pad for entrepreneurs. Alumni have founded at least 30,000 active companies, employing an estimated 4.6 million people, with revenues of approximately $1.9 trillion. In the 2010s, twenty to thirty ventures were spun off each year to commercialize technologies developed in MIT labs; in the same decade, MIT graduates started an estimated 100 firms per year. How has MIT become such a hotbed of entrepreneurship? In From the Basement to the Dome, Jean-Jacques Degroof describes how MIT's problem-solving ethos, multidisciplinary approach, and experimental mindset nurture entrepreneurship.

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Degroof explores why entrepreneurship is so uniquely aligned with MIT's culture: a history of bottom-up decision-making; a tradition of academic excellence; a keen interest in problem-solving; a belief in experimentation; and a tolerance for failure on the way to success. Entrepreneurship is the logical outcome of MIT's motto, Mens et Manus (mind and hand), translating theories and scientific discoveries into products and businesses—many of which have the goal of solving some of the world's most pressing problems. Degroof maps MIT's current entrepreneurial ecosystem of more than 60 courses, 80 extracurricular activities and support mechanisms; considers MIT’s particular way of teaching entrepreneurship; and outlines ways that the MIT story could inspire conversations in other institutions about promoting entrepreneurship. 

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