Thankfully, we have a few exciting new initiatives in the works to do just that.  Thank you, Allie and Kaj, for lining up an amazing group of advisors for us.  Thank you, Abe and Emily, for getting those “Lunch and Learns” going so we can regularly provide feedback for one another in an informal group setting.  Thank you, Sergio, for getting us to join you last Thursday night for our now regularly scheduled happy hours.  Lots to be thankful for!

I’m also excited about all of the work we are doing to build stronger communities outside of the lab.  For example, I turn to my left and I see Coleman Skeeter, who is working to make healthy produce more widely available to urban residents at a lower cost (and lower rate of pollution!).  I turn to my right and see Sage Wohns, who is developing technology that will make it easier for us to spend face-to-face time with our friends and family in an increasingly virtual world.  I appreciate that we care not just about strengthening our office community, but also the broader community in which we live and work.

And it is for this reason – building a stronger global community – that I chose to post my blog entry today, October 1^st, the first day of National Bullying Prevention Month!  Through my company, Evergreen Creations, I am partnering with Joe Troiano, the author & creator of Spookley the Square Pumpkin, and PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, to help raise awareness for bullying prevention.  We have established a network of family entertainment venues that are featuring Spookley, the Official Spokes-Pumpkin for National Bullying Prevention Month, to spread messages of tolerance and kindness throughout October.  We have also published free educational resources online to help early childhood educators to help “STOP BULLYING BEFORE IT STARTS,” and I hope that you will join us in our efforts!

Thanks for reading and Happy 1st day of October!

-Aaron

Wallie working on his minimum viable product at the CBL

Which I guess just speaks to the importance and uniqueness of the groundswell of entrepreneurial activity in NYC.

About this time last year, I had submitted an application to be a part of the Dean’s Advisory Committee at CBS.  My raison d’etre was trying to drive an entrepreneurship-focused agenda in conversations with Dean Hubbard.

The thesis was pretty much strategy 101: Columbia is a powerful incumbent institution in NYC, and it should take full advantage of its position to intersect and nurture the local entrepreneurial economy that had been accelerating over the past several years.

The time seemed especially ripe given the tech campus initiatives proposed by the city and New York’s rise to #2 in technology venture funding (as of 2011; NY and Boston have continued to trade spots since then).

Sourced from The Atlantic: Cities (link embedded)

Building on the efforts of many of our CBL colleagues, the support of the Dean’s office in establishing the CBL was a clear signal that Columbia Business School would indeed invest from its position of strength in New York’s burgeoning startup ecosystem.

Sound strategic planning, and an awesome office to boot.

The locality of NYC’s tech obsession was evident to me even before we opened CBL. I was lucky enough to participate in the inaugural WalkAbout NYC, a city-wide open house for New York’s tech offices. Within only a radius of a few blocks, we cavorted and frolicked about as the founders of over half a dozen tech companies opened their doors to anyone curious enough to enter.

The meet-ups were both casual and productive: beer flowed, desserts were had and dogs took the best seats. These visits not only sold me on New York as a tech hub, but I was also able to meet some titans who inspired the creation of my own venture Ninoh.  Meeting with the founders of SeatGeek led us to use their event API for offering on Ninoh. Hunch’s machine learning hackers were insightful and helpful in expanding the idea of recommendation services to include events and venues.  The Yipit story, as related to us by Jim Moran, encouraged us to develop additional revenue streams for Ninoh. All this in one day, in one neighborhood, and only possible in New York.

When I joined the Columbia Business Lab, I figured I would be the odd duck in the space.  Others might be collaborating, making use of speaker series on creating apps for multiple mobile operating systems and attracting VCs who would rather meet 20 tech entrepreneurs at once rather than just one.  But hey, I’m a sandwich guy.  I figured I could use the space to escape the confines of my apartment and my increasingly demanding dog for some quiet space where I could focus on the logistics of creating my shop.

But a funny thing happens when you hang out with creative people.  You get ideas and advice in the strangest of places.  My good friend and fellow CBL tenant, Jonathan Wasserstrum, has a business called TheSquareFoot, which helps businesses looking for office space as they navigate the commercial real estate market.  One day as I was coming into the office, I stopped at Jonathan’s desk just to catch up, and do what I always do, which is vent about my search for a space for my sandwich shop.  Jonathan, of course, being knowledgeable about commercial real estate, asked me a ton of questions about how I was going about the process.  And then he started giving me advice. And then he introduced me to a couple of brokers.  And then he became my go-to with questions that begin with “X broker just told me Y: does that sound right to you?”  And now he is even checking out spaces with me in NYC.  The best part is that while I am certainly reaping the lion share of value from this relationship, I know that Jonathan is also learning first-hand about how a restaurateur looks for their space, and I would imagine that not too far in the distant future, TheSquareFoot may also be able to help small restaurateurs navigate this miserable, miserable process.  The sandwich guy and the real estate tech guy, collaborating at the Columbia Business Lab.  Whodathunkit?

For an entrepreneur, however, the things that a customer may take for granted can be the result of months of hard work.  One must agonize over every little detail related to one’s business.  Successful businesses exist because, before they became household names, someone (or several people) spent a great deal of time and effort thinking through each of the nuances of their business.  They potentially consulted with advisors, friends, customers, and others before making a decision; then, when possible, tested and tweaked the action items related to that decision.

For me and my Columbia Business Lab peers, many decisions relate to setting a solid foundation on which to scale our businesses.  A few months ago I faced one such decision: where would I work after graduating from business school?  One option was to work from home/coffee shops/various locations within Columbia Business School.  While this was free, I was unsure how it would impact my productivity.   I was also considering hiring a summer intern, which would have been difficult if I were working from home.  Another option was to pay $400-$500 per seat per month at one of the many incubator spaces in the city.  Not only was this a significant expense (how would this impact other planned expenses?), but I would also have to find a space that worked.  To say the least, this was a tough decision to make.  Then suddenly I got great news: I would have the opportunity to be a member of Columbia Business Lab, a new free co-working space for recent graduates of Columbia Business School.

Being a part of Columbia Business Lab means I don’t have to worry about the complications that could result from being in a difficult working environment.  It means I don’t have to worry about skimping on important expenses at this critical stage in my business development because I have to pay a New York City rent.  It means I can spend more time thinking about critical business issues.  It means I don’t have to worry about whether it’s acceptable to have an intern work with me in a coffee shop.  It means I don’t have to worry about giving up my seat at a Starbucks because I’m worried about leaving my laptop while I wait in line for the bathroom.  Because of Columbia Business Lab we have a head start on implementing the world’s next amazing business feats.  Thank you to Allison, Kajal, Phillip, Ted, and Columbia Business School for making this possible!