Profile

Jeff Sorenson is a founder, funder, and community builder. While attending college at the University of Michigan in 2012, he and some friends started a student-founder community. After a couple of years, the University of Michigan acquired the organization and formed it into a new department—something that had never happened before in the University of Michigan's 200-year history.

Sorensen built and ran that department for a decade, evolving it into one of the largest college entrepreneurship programs in the country—awarding $700,000 to students annually and growing to a staff of 40. Alums from the program are now building $100 million+ companies, leading social impact initiatives that affect millions, and winning prestigious awards.

In the summer of 2022, Sorensen joined the University of Oregon, seeking to build a similar program.

Over his career, Sorensen raised, along with great teams and colleagues, $25 million for college entrepreneurship programs, incubated more than 5,000 student founders, advised and funded hundreds of them, and built infrastructure that hopefully will exist in a hundred years.

Sorensen says his mission is to create supportive communities for the ones who ask, "Why not me?" encouraging them take action on their ideas.