[sargstuff]

Perhaps, companies in which employees can pursue hobbies/personal projects. (kodac & digital camera[0] being an interesting case study))

Companies arise out of diverging from 'parent' company goals/objectives.

Also a side project grows beyond original intent.

How to pay for US college education / research ...

* side jobs/projects that superceeded 'getting a degree': Dell, Nerf, Microsoft, facebook, netscape.

* While doing research .... microwave, transisor, antibiotics, digital camera, c/unix, bsd, alto & apple Lisa, etc ...

[0] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camera

[aprdm]

I think you're not seeing it through the same lens :) Look for example all machine learning, hardware, AI, LLM, etc.

None of that came to be used in the world due to University departments. Maybe some of the theory behind it, sure, but making it useful in the real world through engineering, no.

Microsoft "side project" innovation vs current Microsoft innovation (e.g: what goes into building something like Azure or ChatGTP backend) is also very different :)