life changing labs

founded, designed, and managed cornell university's 8 week summer incubator. over two years, we supported 1500+ student entrepreneurs and 21 startups.

tl'dr

why a summer startup program?

in my role as managing director

featured startups

maidbot: autonomous cleaning robots for hospitality industry

founder: micah

results: secured three partnerships, build first working prototype, and prepped for seed round

dynamic boundaries: biomimetic boundary lubricants of articular cartilage to treat osteoarthritis

founder: kirk, mingchee

results: secured ip deal with university, and established clinical research partnerships for next steps

eversound: smart hardware and community software to help give senior living residents power of sound

founders: jake, matt, devin

results: finished first pilot, raised seed round, and moved hq to boston

post program growth: served 500+ customers, raised $10M, and grew team to 30+ members

"lcl took a huge weight off my shoulders as a founder. whether it was helping with the website or editing the term sheet for investors, each member of lcl brings extremely useful skills."

micah green

founder of maidbot

the incubator process

background

8 week journey

we launched with a strong focus on community, set direction with each team, and worked in build cycles with mentor feedback until demo day.

background

weekly founder dinners

inspired by y combinator, we had weekly dinners with builders and investors within the cornell alumni community.

scott belsky

founder of behance, investor and author

danielle strachman

founder and managing partner of 1517 fund

jb osborne

founder of red antler

ceo mentorship

we brought in serial founders to help mentor and guide each startup founder with weekly syncs.

"lcl is a great opportunity for people to develop an early stage venture in an energetic, supportive community."

aaron proujansky

angel investor

centralized intern team

we recruited the top young talent across cornell to work on gig style tasks for founders.

h/t techstars associate structure.

background

"before I knew nothing about startups. now i might want to start one."

lauren stechschulte

cornell computer science 2017

demo day

we invited investors to judge final progress and pick the winner for the $1,000 cash grant.

background

"while most cornell students headed home for the summer – off to internships, work or play – a group of entrepreneurial undergrads and graduate students are staying in ithaca for intensive business development as part of the new life changing labs summer incubator."

"lcl is fantastic! through the mentors and resources they provided, we went from having minimal startup experience to establishing strategic relationships to grow our company."

mingchee tan

co-founder of dynamic boundaries

building more community

life changing school

simultanously, i launched and ran a 3 week bootcamp for high school students to learn how to build prototypes.

make-a-thon

i assembled a team and some resources to run cornell's first hardware hackathon. somehow all the high school teams won.

cornell big idea

manage event and coach teams for the annual competition with $10,000 of prizes

cornell eship kickoff

manage event and programming for the annual campus kickoff with 150+ attendees.

monthly hangouts

host and run community dinners, workshops, or pitch competitions.

post mortem

what i would keep doing

what i would do differently

it takes a committed team to do something new with limited resources

a huge thank you and s/o to


resources to explore

startup communities by brad feld

as an investor and founder in techstars, feld shares perspective for what role different people play in supporting founders across a city's ecosystem. check out the book →

startup ceo by matt blumberg

this is a tactical guide for first time CEOs to help figure out what it means to multiple hats and what to focus on when building a successful early stage startup. check out the book →

venture deals by brad feld

founders need to know just enough to decide what makes sense for their startup. this is a must read to understand the legal and financial perspective for raising venture money. check out the book →

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