Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center has chosen 14 groups to participate in its Innovation and Entrepreneurship @ Columbia Program. The IE@Columbia program is intended to support the development of technologies and innovative ideas from Columbia community members. This is the second year of IE@Columbia.
The program topics include the customer, entrepreneurship, the market, product design, financial forecasting, sales, leadership, operations, entrepreneurial finance, and how to pitch to investors. The program also provides students with information about dealing with legal issues, negotiations, and intellectual property. The ultimate goal is of the program is to produce fundable, high potential businesses.
The potential businesses this year come from a wide range of fields. One group is developing a proposal that will help citizen journalists share information about political protests. Another group is creating a Wikipedia-like resource for legal matters, which will include texts and explanations of regulations, statutes, and legal opinions. Several of the groups have ideas for health-related startups, including a tool to help hospital staff predict discharge dates for patients, and a platform for patients to gain access to second opinions.
This year, 51 groups made up of Columbia students, faculty, or staff members from all over the university, applied to the IE@Columbia program this year. Of those 51 teams, Columbia invited 25 teams to present their projects to the selection committee. The selection committee then chose 14 finalists. Each of the finalists will be able to attend the program for free, and will leave the program with a developed business proposal and the opportunity to pitch projects to angel investors and venture capitalists.