It’s been exactly one year since the Columbia Startup Lab opened its doors at 175 Varick Street as a shared workspace for budding Columbia entrepreneurs. With several profitable businesses established and a full roster for the new cohort (the second contingent started on June 1), you might say the lab is a startup success story itself. Run by Columbia Entrepreneurship — a coalition across Columbia Business School, Columbia Law School, Columbia College, and the schools of Engineering and International Public Affairs — the lab offers graduates subsidized space for up to one year to work full time on their ventures.
The first year of a startup is often lonely and challenging for the founder, with countless late nights and early mornings, chugging towards an uncertain future. By creating a community of like-minded individuals and fostering a lively group atmosphere, "the lab makes being an entrepreneur a real career path," says Ashley Zwick, director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, which processes the applications for the Business School. "You're not just picturing yourself sitting alone on your couch, plugging away by yourself. People [can see], ‘Oh, there's this space where I can build this company and not do it on my own.’" The lab currently has 71 total alumni in residence — 28 of whom are from the Business School, which has the largest presence in the partnership. The School’s current resident startups run the gamut from retail to media to tech, an industry range that "is very much intentional," Zwick says. That’s because such diversity in skills and talents often results in cross-pollination, which can lead to better outcomes and propel a venture forward. "We're really [uniting] the best and the brightest at Columbia to come up with real solutions to problems together," Zwick says.
Current ventures in the space include Wandering Bear Coffee Co., which sells boxed premium iced coffee, founded by Matt Bachmann ’15 and Ben Gordon ’15; Thursday Boot Company, a maker of sophisticated work boots, founded by Connor Wilson ’15 and Nolan Walsh ’15; and Flip, an app for lease breaks and takeovers, founded by Susannah Vila ’15. Some of these startups are already in business, with Wandering Bear now sold in retailers like Murray’s Cheese Shop and online at FreshDirect.com. The startups are assessed on a trimester basis, with each business evaluated for relevant progress and each participant evaluated for being a good community member — which includes serving as a resource for other teams, Zwick says. Several of the lab’s first-contingent startups have continued after their one-year residency to become successful enterprises, she adds. Sailo, a peer-to-peer marketplace for boat rentals started by Delphine Braas ’14 and Adrian Gradinaru ’14, currently offers over 200 boats in its inventory. DeansList, a data-management tool to improve school performance that was founded by Matt Robins ’13 and Akshai Patel ’13, can now be found in more than 25 schools across the country. And Exubrancy, founded by Liz Wilkes ’13, already has 40 corporate clients for its in-office fitness classes, chair massages, meditation sessions, and other wellness services. "Columbia Business School students have lots of options for what to do when they graduate, and we want to be sure that we are supporting the students that are 100 percent committed to pursuing their startup," Zwick says. "It's really about building this community of entrepreneurs."