Yale’s status as a liberal arts college with no pre-professional or any professional development is being put to the test. With the establishment of Tsai CITY (more info), there are now so many initiatives to increase the entrepreneurial ecosystem here. Tsai CITY has regularly supported incubator programs whether that be for projects with established teams that need more resources to grow or getting ideas off the ground in the form of Launchpad that helps to flesh out the idea.
As Tsai CITY becomes more integrated with other parts of the university, collaborations with Yale Ventures and increased access to mentors have led to drastic increases in student involvement in entrepreneurship. There are programs that go past building your own startup to helping you match and be involved with existing startups so you can familiarize yourself with this environment and startups can get some extra help from talented Yale students.
I used to work at Tsai CITY for the Accelerator Program last year, but even in this short span of not even one full academic year, I was blown away by the growth of scale. I signed up for Start Up Yale, a two day conference filled with pitches and speakers, and arrived on the second day to hear panels on AI breakthroughs and watch the final round of pitches to see who wins the prize.
Packed itinerary of the day
I got there on a bus from Hillhouse Ave that drops all participants to Hotel Marcel where the event was held. The bus ran all day and it was so funny sitting in a yellow school bus being shuttled there like an elementary schooler. After I got there, I headed up to a meeting room to hear the panel of professors and graduate students on their AI startups meant to tackle blockchain problems.
Classroom to market!
Mini AI panel
Afterwards, we had catered lunch that was so delicious and the tables were very conducive to conversation so I got to talk with some people at a law firm specialized in startups and hear their perspective on college entrepreneurship.
So packed
Later, the big event at the main conference room was for the finalist competition for a $25,000 prize! Recently, the number of competitive startups have grown as have the prizes awarded to support student startups. It was interesting to hear what my classmates were working on and I learned a lot.
Experienced judges
Undergrad pitcher
Overall, the innovation sphere of Yale has continued to grow and participating in it at any capacity is a must do on campus!
