As part of my graduate studies I was able to get funding from a research-oriented startup. The amount of hoops I had to jump through with the university to clear all of their IP related concerns, and to come away with a small fraction of the funding for living expenses was surprising. It made me realized that the university wasn't really on my side, and soured me on an academic career.

I wound up setting up funding through a clinical trial protocol that's normally reserved for medical testing. I love the people at my old grad school, but I think academia (in general) is putting administration, IP concerns, and rights management above everything else... and if that's the case you might as well go into industry and at least get paid properly. I loved my research (in recommender systems), and I was willing to sacrifice a good deal to focus on that. However, past a certain point I wasn't.