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?
- this is what i wish i had during my first product sprints: a community of builders, mentorship for feedback, and sessions for skill training.
in my role as managing director
- i managed the program team of 12 to run an eight week incubator program
- i marketed, recruited, interviewed, and mentored 21 startups to reach their next company milestones
- i fundraised, hired, and served on the board of the non profit for 7 years, ensuring continued program success, transition into global virtual program, and launch of the peer to peer network for cornell alumni
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
scott belsky
founder of behance
danielle strachman
founder of 1517 fund
jb osborne
founder of red antler
"before I knew nothing about startups. now i might want to start one."
lauren stechschulte
cornell computer science 2017
demo day
we brought in top investors to judge final progress and pick the winner for the $1,000 cash grant.
"LCL is a great opportunity for people to develop an early stage venture in an energetic, supportive community."
aaron proujansky
angel investor
"cool quote from cornell chronical... embed it
- https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/08/high-schoolers-create-business-ideas-summer-boot-camp
- https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/07/students-spend-summer-incubating-their-business-ideas
- https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/02/high-schoolers-beat-undergrads-grads-make-thon
"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 community
LCS
cornell thangs: fall campus welcome, big idea, monthly dinners
LCL make
post mortem
what i would keep doing
- pitch practice 3x a week. forcing function for updates and community to see how each other's work evolves
- centralize the intern team so they can pick job board tasks from different startups. makes sure startups recruit their own interns, and gives early stage students chance to work with different product team. techstars inspired.
- founder mentors were previous or are current founders. their advice is more direct and aligned with the early stage founder's journey.
what i would do differently
- less skill stack sessions. protect founders time to build. one dinner a week is enough, as mentor sessions are on opt in.
- separate program logistics from coaching founders. bringing on a second team member would help focus on community and program based operations, and all the founders would get extra attention for better experience and accelerated development.
- stream demo day pitches. being based in ithaca we were limited who could make it in person, would have been better to stream pitches and circulate within the network.
resources to explore more
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 citie's ecosystem. check out the book →
hard things about the hard things
as an early stage deep tech investor, rahul explore differnet tactical perspectives and philosophies on how to invest in larger breakthroughs in science and technology. check out the book →
scrum
as an early stage deep tech investor, rahul explore differnet tactical perspectives and philosophies on how to invest in larger breakthroughs in science and technology. check out the book →
if you liked this, then you may enjoy
← harvard design engineering
earthshot projects →