New Harvard Tech Startup Incubator Opens in Boston!
I recently had the opportunity to visit with second-year Harvard MBA student, Matt Noble, who gave me a sneak peak tour of Harvard's new i-lab. The mission of the lab is to help support and nurture entrepreneurship at Harvard and to finally provide a physical space where individuals from all of Harvard's various schools and disciplines can cross pollinate to innovate and create new companies. The i-lab will provide bright, motivated and entrepreneurial Harvard undergraduates and graduate students with the tools and mentorship necessary to help grow their business concepts from idea to reality.
The i-lab is housed in an awesome 33,000 sq ft facility owned by Harvard and located adjacent to the Harvard Business School at 125 Western Ave. in Allston, MA. The first section of the i-lab is a very open, public space similar to the Microsoft NERD center in Kendall Square, which will be used as a venue to house social events, speakers and other public gatherings.
In a recent blog post, Noble commented on Harvard grad and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg making a recruiting visit to Harvard recently and to the i-lab.
"We did indeed get a surprise visit from Zuckerberg," said Noble. He showed up during our regular Monday night meeting that we hold for students interested in or actively working on startups, called “Startup Tribe.” Everyone was fired up and we joked that next week we would have Larry Ellison and Bill Gates in the house."
Noble went on to say "I’m incredibly excited about the promise the i-lab holds. I was a Harvard undergrad during the time when the dot-com bubble was popping (graduated in ’02). The i-lab is the latest—and maybe biggest—step in the university’s transformation in harnessing, supporting, and advancing the entrepreneurial spirit that has been rising rapidly on campus in recent years, and doing so with the recognition that true innovation happens where different disciplines and perspectives intersect.
It is great to see Harvard getting into the innovation game and embracing entrepreneurship. Backed by one of the world's most prestigious, recognizable and richest universities, the future is bright for the Harvard i-lab.
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