Making money out of brainpower is the bread and butter of entrepreneurs. With the grand opening of a new lab and meeting space at Cornell, the Student Agencies eLab is hoping to harness that skill in college students, explained Dan Cohen, eLab Entrepreneur-in-Residence and a School of Industrial Labor Relations faculty member.
Though encouraging entrepreneurship is not exactly a new thing at the school, there was no dedicated place - with a fax machine, computers, meeting space and so on - for students to begin building on their ideas.
"The eLab got started because of demand. We [now] have a great physical space [where] these students can get access around the clock," Cohen said of the eLab's location in the Student Agencies building at 409 College Ave. The space is so new that computers are still being installed and the paint still smelled fresh last Friday, the day the lab officially opened.
Cohen was in charge of a similar incubator for student businesses at the University of Iowa, where he was picked as Faculty Advisor of the Year for his work with that school's own entrepreneurship program. At Cornell, the idea received a boost from on high when President David Skorton, also a veteran of the University of Iowa, suggested to John Jaquette, executive director of Entrepreneurship@Cornell, that one be created.
And so it was. "There's been a surprising amount of demand," Cohen said of the program, the opening of which coincided with a campus-wide entrepreneurship conference. Cohen attributes the early success to students' pent-up need for mentorship, opportunity and the ultimate entrepreneurship make-it-or-break-it element: competition.
"We can only make relationships with 20 student [entrepreneurship groups]," Cohen said, "but we want those to be the best 20."
The program will accept applications from student groups, typically ranging from 2 to 4 people, whose ideas will be reviewed by a panel of advisors. The Selection Committee will judge ideas based on the entrepreneurs' passion, commitment and feasibility. Once a part of the program, the eLab will pair the groups with Cornell alumni mentors in their specific fields - a unique advantage to student business incubators, Cohen pointed out.
The eLab and Cornell's entrepreneurship program is already being used by two groups, both tech-based, though Cohen said ideas come from all areas of the education map, including from the arts, engineering and the hotel school. One of the projects, www.wiggio.com, helps facilitates group work online; another is a cell phone-based social networking system that allows groups of people in the same area to keep track of one another through their cell phones.
For more information on the eLab, contact Cohen at 255-9472.