LSE Generate: Building a Global Movement of Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs
Founded by Laura-Jane Silverman, LSE Generate began as a bold vision to make entrepreneurship at LSE inclusive, socially responsible, and globally impactful. At a time when formal support for student and alumni entrepreneurs was minimal, LJ built an entire ecosystem from scratch—focused not just on start-ups, but on start-ups that solve real-world problems.

LSE Generate has created a new standard for entrepreneurship education: one that is inclusive, mission-aligned, globally scalable, and framed through a social sciences lens. What makes the team’s work pioneering is not only the creation of a highly successful entrepreneurship centre within a traditional academic institution, but the complete reframing of enterprise as a tool for public good.
Examples of impact and innovation include:
Expanding the student entrepreneurship programme to incorporate corporate innovation offerings, with profits reinvested directly into student and alumni support.
Scaling across 20 international hubs, establishing a distinctive decentralised model for post-graduation entrepreneurial support.
Embedding UNSDG alignment into every programme design — ensuring that every founder is challenged to consider and articulate their potential social impact.
Launching elleSE, a dedicated programme for women founders — offering development retreats (from Brighton to Koh Samui), mentoring, and peer-led support. The initiative has significantly shifted the gender balance of LSE’s startup ecosystem.
Creating a new 60+ alumni cluster, designed to support later-life entrepreneurs and alumni seeking non-executive board roles - opening new pathways for “experienced entrepreneurs” within the LSE community.
Launching the LSE Entrepreneurs Pledge, which secured 32 signatories in its first year -with one successful donation that translated into an entrepreneurial scholarship - helping build a sustainable culture of entrepreneurial giving back, without taking equity from student businesses.
Designing the first LSE entrepreneurship programme for secondary schools, now piloting as a credit-linked course at Godolphin School, supported by an innovative impact assessment tool to track long-term outcomes.

Over a decade of building LSE Generate has offered powerful insights into leadership, impact, and innovation. At the heart of its journey is one core belief: entrepreneurship is a vehicle for social change, not just profit.
Key learnings include the importance of community over competition. Successful ventures rarely grow in isolation. LSE Generate has proven that building a trusted, inclusive ecosystem where founders share ideas, support each other, and collaborate is just as important as access to funding or skills.
Another key lesson: impact takes time. From launching in a single room at LSE to growing into a global network, the team learned that meaningful, values-led entrepreneurship requires patience, resilience, and long-term thinking.
On leadership, the message is clear: lead with authenticity, not ego. Founder Laura-Jane Silverman’s people-first approach has shaped LSE Generate’s culture. She champions listening, empathy, and purpose as the core of effective leadership.

Advice to future leaders and entrepreneurs?
-Build something bigger than yourself. Align your work with purpose.
-Be bold but stay grounded—great ventures grow from humility and curiosity.
-Surround yourself with diverse voices. True innovation comes from inclusion.
-And finally, don’t chase success—build value, and success will follow.

From a quiet start-up hub to a global force for impact entrepreneurship, LSE Generate’s story proves that with vision, integrity, and community, anything is possible.

1. Expanding global reach & partnerships
Generate will continues to expand its pool of global partnerships and its overall impact over the next 5 years and beyond in the following ways. The International Chapters model that Generate has created has become a blueprint for diaspora and alumni engagement through entrepreneurship. Numerous higher education institutions have sought guidance on replicating this approach. Simultaneously, LSE Generate has expanded its offer to include week-long social innovation bootcamps for visiting international students and a new Entrepreneurship Summer School, now running in both summer and winter at LSE.
The team partners with the British Council and UK embassies to deliver city-wide innovation events for students and alumni in over 20 countries.The team has also established a permanent coworking space at LSE Generate’s European HQ in Lisbon, home to an annual startup summit convening the local and international entrepreneurial community. Future plans include:
1. Embedding sustainability through LSE’s new Global School of Sustainability
With the Global School of Sustainability having launched in 2025, LSE Generate will collaborate closely on programmes that link entrepreneurial ventures to sustainability efforts, aligning with UN SDGs and sustainability-focused research. Examples of this include an international venture builder focused on healthy ageing and the future of work, an international nature tech conference and global summit in November focused on social innovation across Europe.
2. Launching new incubator and bootcamp offerings
As the schools programme (Find Your Cause) continues to grow, the team will launch new bootcamp weeks across Florida, Hong Kong, and schools across the Caribbean. The team plan to roll out a proof-of-concept programme with the education ministry in Monaco and the Fiji Islands to introduce the programme for the first time into the national curricula.
3. Building deeper ecosystems through investors & policymakers
LSE Generate plans to deepen engagement with investors, corporate partners, and policymakers, expanding funding streams and support for early-stage, impact-driven ventures. Its new Intrapreneurship initiative will work with CEOs and senior professionals across the global both in the corporate and government sector to support internal innovation through incubation, and intensive learning bootcamps.
4. Growing global ecosystems, locally.
Currently working across 20 international chapters, the team plan to expand their entrepreneurial offering to alumni and broader ecosystem builders in Switzerland, Kenya and Columbia.