This paper investigates the impact of entrepreneurship on cooperative job creation in a large North American post-secondary institution. The data-driven analysis is enabled by two unique datasets: a list of companies started by the institution's engineering students and faculty, and a database of the institution's cooperative education (co-op) placements. Over the past 10 years, companies started by the institution's engineers have created at least 9,000 co-op placements for the institution's students, paying a total of at least $115 million in salaries (Canadian dollar; CAD$). Furthermore, students working for these companies were more likely to receive high performance evaluations than their peers and were more likely to be satisfied with the cooperative experience. Finally, students who went on to start companies did not always take entrepreneurship courses or excel academically, but they were rated highly by their workplace supervisors.