Even before graduating from high school in Frisco, Texas, Rudy Arora was no stranger to the startup world. He had already launched WorkBee, an app to help homeowners hire reliable contractors, and had won a national award for young entrepreneurs. When looking at universities, Arora was drawn to Northwestern because it provided the ideal place to take his business-building skills to the next level: The Garage.
Launched in 2015 in a converted space within a campus parking structure, The Garage has helped more than 10,000 students explore the world of entrepreneurship. Arora quickly found like-minded student partners through a “startup matchmaking” event and joined The Garage’s residency program, which granted his team access to both office space and mentorship.
From left, Steven Gu ’24, ’24 MS, Jack Burkhardt ’24, ’24 MS and Ashley Guo ’26 explore drone capabilities in The Garage’s prototyping lab. Photo Credit: Sean Su ’15 MS
With The Garage’s support, Arora, now a sophomore, launched Turbolearn AI, a software platform for students who struggle with taking notes. Users upload an audio recording of a class, and the study tool uses artificial intelligence to automatically generate notes, diagrams, charts, flash cards and quizzes. Within four months Turbolearn AI had more than 155,000 users, and in 2024 it won the $100,000 grand prize in Northwestern’s VentureCat competition, an annual event for the University’s most promising student businesses. Since that time, the platform has grown to 750,000 users and has millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue.
Stories like Arora’s have been plentiful throughout The Garage’s first decade of operations, with inventive students fueling its growth. It has expanded beyond its initial 11,000-square-foot space on the Evanston campus, utilizing Northwestern’s academic space in San Francisco to offer programming for Bay Area alumni who are a part of the startup ecosystem.
“The successes of The Garage, our students and our alumni over the past 10 years are all due to the people,” says Mike Raab ’12, ’22 MBA, the program’s executive director, citing the support of donors and mentors. “Most importantly, it is the ambitious, curious, collaborative students who contribute to The Garage’s culture of helping each other succeed.”
Thanks to donor contributions, The Garage offers vital programming, resources and funding that help students in their endeavors. In addition to VentureCat, which annually awards more than $175,000 in prize money, the Jumpstart Pre-Accelerator program provides programming and $10,000 to early-stage startups. And the NUseeds investment fund helps fast-track the success of new businesses by investing $100,000 in one to three promising startups each year.
“The Garage brings together students with diverse skills and interests but a unified passion to pursue a nontraditional path,” says Tony Owen ’97, ’03 MBA, who, along with his wife, Monique, funded the Little Joe Ventures Fellowship to support students at The Garage. “We have been amazed to see the impact of the fellows and the companies they create during their time at Northwestern and beyond.”
Programs at The Garage do much more than provide capital for new ventures. Students learn from established entrepreneurs, intern at alumni-owned businesses, practice the art of pitching and hone their leadership skills. And specialized initiatives such as Luminate, an eight-week experience for first-generation and/or lower-income students, are designed to support populations traditionally underrepresented in the entrepreneurial space.
The Garage’s offerings have evolved over time, bolstered by gifts from donors such as Valerie Friedman ’85 and her husband, Mark, who were among the earliest supporters of The Garage. “These programs help students develop the full range of skills they need to be effective business leaders,” Friedman says. “The Garage has made tremendous advances over the past decade in shaping a new generation of entrepreneurs.”
Startups spun out of The Garage span a wide range of industries, including medical devices, online marketplaces, AI software, sustainability-focused organizations, consumer products and more. Alumni have developed home batteries that reduce electric bills, drones that promote public safety, software tools that enhance manufacturing operations and apps that help shoppers uncover resale bargains. Companies that were supported by The Garage also have created thousands of jobs in these areas and others.
Learn more about The Garage’s impact at thegarage.northwestern.edu.
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