Venture Building Strategies: How Universities’ Acceleration Programs Could Improve Based on this Approach Rodrigo de Alvarenga 1 , O. C. Junior 1 , and Carla C. A. Estorilio 2(B ) 1 Pontifícia Universidade Católica Do Paraná (PPGEPS), Rua Imaculada Conceição, Curitiba, Prado Velho 1155, Brazil rodrigoalvarenga@icloud.com, osiris.canciglieri@pucpr.br 2 Mechanics Department, Federal Technological University of Parana (UTFPR), Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil amodio@utfpr.edu.br Abstract. Venture Builders are a relatively new phenomenon that addresses the challenges of creating and nurturing start-ups by relying on well-structured ideation and validation processes that lead to choosing the most promising ones for further development. Although venture builders share some characteristics with accelerators and incubators, they offer a different and more enduring model for start-ups development. However, academic research lacks a proper definition and recognition of the term. This research paper conducts a systematic literature review identifying the benefits and challenges of venture builders and the factors influencing them. Results show that venture builders adopt a methodological app- roach by adding external resources, mentorship, know-how, talent, and business management skills. Consequently, they produce optimized outcomes and a shorter learning curve that can benefit university spin-offs. This paper’s main contribution is to offer a comprehensive definition of venture builders, contextual factors, and dynamics while showing its practical value for Universities. Keywords: Venture Builder · Start-up Studio · Acceleration Programs · Incubation Programs · University Spin-offs 1 Introduction Over the past 20 years, tech-based entrepreneurship has seen a rise with technology companies’ ascendence in various fields (Amitrano et al. 2016; Estorilio et al. 2015; Canciglieri and Young 2010; Uemura et al., 2020). The same growth was perceived for the accelerators in the same period, supporting the private, public, and university-owned start-ups, thus, expanding and fostering the transformation of the business scenario (Sta- gars 2015). However, according to the CB Insights (2018), the start-ups’ mortality rate is at least 67%, and after failing, the whole process must start from scratch. Schumpeter and Swedberg (2005) have described this phenomenon as “creative destruction” which explains the growth of venture capital required to fund newly created tech-companies, since the first “garage start-ups” emerged from the Silicon Valley. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 F. Deschamps et al. (Eds.): ICPR 2022, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Production Research – Americas, pp. 675–690, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36121-0_85