Columbia Entrepreneurs Lab (CEL), a co-working space run by Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, this summer welcomes its first class of more than 20 students from across Columbia University. The student teams, which represent seven different schools, were selected to develop 13 business ventures over the summer using the lab’s resources and space free of charge.
Among the ideas selected as part of the inaugural CEL class are a news agregator that monitors geographic-specific, social media traffic for trending stories, a program to bridge educational and cultural gaps between Chinese and American students and an online private tutoring marketplace.
“I think this class of entrepreneurs provides a solid start to the CEL initiative,” Derek Lee, CBS ’08, said in a statement. Lee together with Barbara Roberts, a CBS adjunct professor, will serve as CEL’s facilitators and will mentor the participating students. “Our goal is to provide them with skills and, perhaps more importantly, experiences they can bring with them into the fall,” Lee added.
Lee is an entrepreneur specializing in quantitative finance, social media, advertising technology and real estate. Roberts directs the Columbia Community Business Program, which supports the growth and development of Upper Manhattan for-profit businesses. Together, Lee and Roberts also co-facilitate the Lang Center’s New Venture Track Program, which provides a peer network and coaching to entrepreneurial students over the summer.
Learn more about the ideas selected for the inaugural class at the Columbia Entrepreneurs Lab.
