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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

MSB to Launch Venture Lab in Entrepreneurial Effort

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SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA

The Georgetown Venture Lab, a shared office space designed to attract alumni entrepreneurs in downtown Washington, D.C. is set to launch later this year after Ted Leonsis (CAS ’77), chair of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Advisory Group, gave $1.5 million to the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative of the McDonough School of Business in November to fund the project.

By creating a physical hub in D.C., Georgetown Venture Lab seeks to foster entrepreneurship and attract a critical mass of innovators. The lab plans to offer up to 90 desks for student and alumni entrepreneurs, common spaces for meetings, and programming to connect members with other alumni and current students.

The Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, Provost Robert Groves and MSB Dean Paul Almeida presented plans for the lab to Leonsis in November 2017.

SHEEL PATEL/THE HOYA By creating a physical hub in D.C., Georgetown Venture Lab seeks to foster entrepreneurship and attract a critical mass of innovators.

“The Georgetown Venture Lab will offer valuable support for aspiring entrepreneurs, while at the same time further strengthening Georgetown’s alumni network and Georgetown’s connections to the local business community,” Leonsis said in the MSB’s March 14 news dlease. “We would like to see these companies led by Georgetown alumni grow and become leading contributors to the local economy.”

Leonsis is also the founder and chief executive officer of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates the Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics, as well as the Capital One Arena, where the Georgetown men’s basketball team plays its home games.

Ben Zimmerman (GRD ’19) began on March 19 as community manager of the Venture Lab, where he will recruit, select and manage members of the lab. His responsibilities also include programming and facilitating cooperation between WeWork, a global network of workspaces where companies and individuals buy memberships to gain access to a subsided WeWork space and Georgetown University.

Zimmerman first became enthusiastic about the Venture Lab while working with the Entrepreneurship Initiative as a program manager for MSB.

“The opportunity arose around WeWork space, and the contract was approved,” Zimmerman said. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a new opportunity, something creative, a bit outside of the box.’”

The lab is now accepting membership applications from startups run by Georgetown alumni to use the space. Membership will also include access to benefits

Zimmerman said WeWork seek a diversity of venture — in terms of their revenue and mission — as well as diversity of members.

“We want to bring a diverse group of alumni into the space,” Zimmerman said. “We want to bring diversity both socioeconomically, the ventures themselves — the direction they’re headed in terms of income as well as the mission of being a social impact initiative or just being for-profit.”

Zimmerman also acknowledged that, although the Venture Lab plans to select alumni-led businesses, not every member will be an alum.

The lab will also offer internships to current students, according to Jeff Reid, Georgetown professor and founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative.

“The companies in the lab will engage many students as interns helping to grow their businesses. We expect that over time there will be tons of internship opportunities, during the summer as well as during the school year,” Reid wrote in an email to The Hoya.

A select number of students will receive seats in the Venture Lab through a partnership with the Red House, the incubator space for a university initiative for innovation in higher education.

Furthermore, student-led startups in the StartupHoyas Summer Launch Program are set to work in the Venture Lab during their eight-week summer term. StartupHoyas is currently accepting applications for this program.

The lab will be located at the WeWork White House on 15th and G streets, one of ten D.C. locations of WeWork.

The initiative had contemplated creating a physical space for a few years, according to Reid.

“We have been exploring a number of ways to support student and alumni entrepreneurs with a space to call home — along with dedicated mentoring and other resources,” Reid wrote. “But space is expensive and can be difficult to operate, so it’s taken us a while to develop the right plan.”

Arthur Minson (GSB ’92), who serves as a member of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Advisory Group and the president and chief financial officer of WeWork, jumpstarted the process in late 2016, according to Reid. After Minson gave Reid a tour of a New York location of WeWork, Reid began to formalize plans for using the WeWork White House as a location for Georgetown entrepreneurs to develop their startups.

The $1.5 million gift is not Leonsis’s first contribution to Georgetown entrepreneurship. In 2016, he launched the Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize to “honor and financially assist students and recent alumni who kickstart social impact ventures and initiatives.” This year, Hatch — a company run by JP Coakley (GRD ’18) and Kelsey Lents (GRD ’18) that creates co-working spaces with built-in childcare — received the grand prize of $30,000. Zimmerman said the Venture Lab is an experiment in collaboration between non-profits like Georgetown and for-profits like WeWork. He said the two institutions hope to cooperate for a mutually beneficial relationship.

“We’re in a unique position, as an academic institution, working with a for-profit, growing, massively growing organization, WeWork,” Zimmerman said. “The goal is that we will go through this together with WeWork and work in tandem — so it’s like a hybrid of for-profit, non-profit model.”

Reid said he is excited about the Venture Lab and potential next steps to grow entrepreneurship at Georgetown and in the District.

“Entrepreneurship is perhaps the most powerful force for good in the world, and Georgetown students in all degree programs are demanding more and more ways to learn and engage with this phenomenon,” Reid wrote.

Correction: Due to an editing error, this article previously misidentified the Red House, an incubator space for Georgetown University’s Designing the Future(s) initiative, as an on-campus space for supporting entrepreneurial initiatives.

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    Dave MuchowMar 23, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    The GU Venture Lab is a great step forward! Congratulations to Jeff Reid, Ted Leonsis, and all the team for this innovative way to teach students about global entrepreneurship and support alums’ ventures. Entrepreneurship is one of the greatest forces to help solve the tough world problems of jobs, health, energy and environment. And GU should be and can be the best school in the world for Global Entrepreneurship!
    Dave Muchow, Adj. Asst. Prof., Law, Bus,. and Entrepreneurship, Landegger Prog., SFS.

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