School News

Only At Stern: Professor Deepak Hegde, Turning Scientific Breakthroughs into High-growth Businesses

—

  • Deepak Hegde is the Seymour Milstein Professor of Strategy and the Andrew Hamilton Founding Director of Endless Frontier Labs (EFL) at NYU Stern
  • Professor Hegde researches how entrepreneurs and innovators commercialize their ideas, focusing on science and technology-intensive industries
  • Professor Hegde teaches MBA courses on Entrepreneurship, Competitive Strategy, and Corporate Strategy

Deepak Hegde is the Seymour Milstein Professor of Strategy and the Andrew Hamilton Founding Director of Endless Frontier Labs (EFL) at NYU Stern, a program designed to transform scientific breakthroughs into high-growth businesses.

What is Endless Frontier Labs?

Endless Frontier Labs is NYU Stern’s hub for the world's most ambitious science and technology startups. The program runs for nine months — long enough to set real milestones, hit them, miss a few, and learn. Founders work with a hand-picked network of serial entrepreneurs, scientists, and venture capitalists drawn from across NYC and beyond.

They are supported in their go-to-market, market research, and fundraising work by Stern MBA students enrolled in a companion course taught by Professor Hegde — and graduate having built something, not just studied something.

EFL is founders-first by design. No fees. No equity. No prior affiliation with NYU required. Any scientist or technologist anywhere in the world can apply.

What impact has Endless Frontier Labs had?

Under Professor Deepak Hegde’s leadership, EFL was named the Prix Galien Winner in the Best Incubator/Accelerator/Equity Category in 2025, given by the Galien Foundation in recognition of innovation that advances human health. The award is a nod to the powerhouse EFL has become for science and tech startups:

  • $3.20 billion raised by 243 EFL graduates
  • $9.14 billion in combined value across 186 graduates
  • 47.2% of all EFL graduates led by women founders
  • EFL has already produced two “unicorns” — startups valued at over $1 billion — in only eight years.

In a statement about the Prix Galien award, Professor Hegde said, “We built Endless Frontier Labs on a simple idea: world-class science deserves a world-class path to patients. That means rigorous milestones, founder-friendly incentives (no equity, no fees), and an ecosystem that converts uncertainty into progress. This recognition matters because it celebrates what we exist to do: turn science into impact.”

What does Professor Hegde research?

Professor Deepak Hegde researches how entrepreneurs and innovators commercialize their ideas, focusing on science and technology-intensive industries.

His recent co-authored paper found that 60-80% of accelerators don’t actually help startups, and many may hurt. In fact, picking the wrong accelerator can be worse than skipping one entirely — but a small group of high-performing accelerators significantly boosts outcomes.  The research places EFL in the top 5% of U.S. accelerators by value-added per startup — and the only program in that tier that takes no equity, charges no fees, and is open to founders regardless of institutional affiliation.
Professor Hegde’s work is published in the world’s leading academic journals, including:

  • Science
  • American Economic Review
  • Journal of Political Economy
  • Journal of Finance
  • Management Science
  • Review of Financial Studies

And major media outlets, such as Business Insider, Harvard Business Review, Nature, and The Wall Street Journal, feature his insights.

Professor Hegde is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has received honors for his research, including:

  • U.S. Patent Office: Thomas Alva Edison Fellowship
  • Kauffman Foundation: Junior Faculty Fellowship

What is the impact of Professor Hegde’s teaching?

At Stern, Professor Deepak Hegde teaches MBA courses on Entrepreneurship, Competitive Strategy, and Corporate Strategy.

Professor Hegde’s teaching has been recognized with numerous distinctions, including: 

  • Poets & Quants: "World's Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professors"
  • NYU’s Distinguished Teacher Award
  • Stern’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Pedagogical Innovation
  • Stern’s Faculty Leadership Award
  • Academy of Management’s Innovation in Pedagogy Award, Entrepreneurship Division

Learn more in this video and below:

Select recent media highlights featuring Professor Deepak Hegde:

Recent research from Professor Deepak Hegde: