The Venture Lab is a semester-long course designed to support graduate students and upper-level undergraduates at The New School in developing financially sustainable ventures with the potential for scalable impact.
A keystone program of the Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative, the Venture Lab is designed to support graduate students and upper undergraduates at The New School in developing financially sustainable ventures that address critical societal challenges and demonstrate the potential for scalable impact. Students accepted to the Venture Lab enroll in a semester-long course offered in the spring semester, for which they will receive academic credit. The Venture Lab course will be co-taught by Jen van der Meer, assistant professor of strategic design and management, Parsons School of Design, and the Impact Entrepreneurship Team, which includes Michele Kahane and Elizabeth Werbe.
The Venture Lab builds on the Lean Launchpad® curriculum taught at Berkeley, Stanford, and a number of other universities and is adapted for social impact ventures. The course incorporates systems thinking, customer discovery, design thinking, and values-driven leadership to help student teams on their path toward sustainable revenue and growth. Participants come away with the tools needed to plan for financial sustainability, address critical societal challenges, and demonstrate the potential for scalable impact.