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The Garage at Northwestern University

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The Garage at Northwestern University is an interdisciplinary innovation and entrepreneurship space and community for students at Northwestern University. The Garage provides students with resources and programming related to entrepreneurship and mentorship.[1] The Garage houses approximately 90 student-founded startups per academic quarter.[2] Its programs and resources are available to all Northwestern students.

The Garage at Northwestern University
IndustryEducation
Founded2015
HeadquartersEvanston, Illinois, U.S.
Key people
Melissa Kaufman (Executive Director), Mike Raab (Associate Director)
Websitehttps://thegarage.northwestern.edu/

Administration

Melissa Kaufman is the founding Executive Director of The Garage.[3] Prior to The Garage, Kaufman worked at Google and founded an influencer marketing agency.[4] In addition to full-time staff, The Garage has "Entrepreneurs-in-Residence" to advise students. Notable Entrepreneurs-in-Residence include Christopher Steiner (author of Automate This)[5] and Lilia Kogan of Hyde Park Angels.

Facilities

The Garage is headquartered at 2311 Campus Drive, Suite 2300 on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois. Designed by architecture firm Gensler, The Garage is an 11,000-square-foot space within an existing parking garage and includes a co-working space, meeting spaces, and a classroom space.[6] Other amenities include a prototyping lab, augmented reality/virtual reality lab, 3-D printers, design software, and a cafe.[7]

Programs and Events

the garage at northwestern university
Students at work inside The Garage at Northwestern University

The Garage coordinates programs and events open to all Northwestern students to work on innovation projects and startups outside of their standard coursework.[8]

Residency Program

The Garage’s Residency Program is an incubation program for early-stage startups. Resident teams are selected on a quarterly basis using an application, and receive mentoring, classes, workshops, and events.[9] As of 2019, The Garage has incubated more than 300 student-founded startups.[10]

Propel Program

The Propel Program provides mentorship and stipends to women students interested in entrepreneurship and innovation.[11] Each student in the six-month program receives up to $1,000 to use as seed money to experiment with their ideas.[12] The program is a gift from Steve Elms, an alumnus of the Kellogg School of Management, and his wife Katherine Thomas Elms.[13]

Jumpstart

[1] is a full time pre-accelerator program for Northwestern students looking to launch a venture.[14] The program lasts 10 weeks and offers student startups workspace, mentorship, entrepreneurship curriculum, and a $10,000 stipend. All teams are assigned a “Growth Mentor” to guide the startup throughout the duration of the program.

VentureCat

VentureCat is Northwestern's annual startup pitch competition in which students compete for a total of $100,000 in prize money.[15] In the 2018 VentureCat competition, BrewBike won a $20,000 investment.[16]

NUSeeds

NUseeds is Northwestern’s $4M pre-seed/seed investment fund.[17] The funding comes from philanthropic donations to Northwestern, and is intended to accelerate the successful launch of innovations from Northwestern students and finance the most promising early-stage student ventures. NUseeds provides funding in the $10,000 – $100,000 range in exchange for equity.[17]

The Garage Alumni

Alumni of The Garage have gone on to work on their ventures as full time founders and CEOs. Other alumni have taken corporate jobs at tech companies including Google, Spotify, and Apple.[18]

References

  1. ^ Lange, Alexandra (2016-08-04). "The Innovation Campus: Building Better Ideas". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  2. ^ "The Garage at Northwestern". BizcastHQ. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  3. ^ Hustad, Karis. "Northwestern's New Garage Executive Director Aims To Create A Mini-Silicon Valley In Evanston". American Inno. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  4. ^ Stories, Local. "Meet Melissa Kaufman of The Garage at Northwestern in Evanston - Voyage Chicago | Chicago City Guide". Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  5. ^ "Meet 50 Northwestern alumni behind some of Chicago's top startups". Built In Chicago. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  6. ^ "Northwestern University, The Garage | Projects". Gensler. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  7. ^ Lange, Alexandra (2016-08-04). "The Innovation Campus: Building Better Ideas". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  8. ^ "How The Garage is committed to helping Northwestern students become the best entrepreneurial thinkers in the world". WGN Radio - 720 AM. 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  9. ^ Graham, Meg. "Northwestern's Garage aims to be engine for student entrepreneurs". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  10. ^ BroBible (20 February 2019). "Teaching College Students How To Fail As Entrepreneurs In A (Literal) Garage". BroBible. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  11. ^ "A Northwestern program looks to 'Propel' female entrepreneurs: BTN LiveBIG". Big Ten Network. February 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  12. ^ "A Northwestern program looks to 'Propel' female entrepreneurs: BTN LiveBIG". Big Ten Network. February 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  13. ^ "Steve and Katherine Elms Establish Program Promoting Diversity in Entrepreneurship: Innovation and New Ventures - Northwestern University". invo.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  14. ^ Hustad, Karis (2016-06-16). "Northwestern's Accelerator, Wildfire, Heats Up the Garage". Chicago Inno. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  15. ^ Hustad, Karis (2017-05-10). "Meet the 25 Teams Competing for $100K at Northwestern University's VentureCat". American Inno. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  16. ^ Davis, Katherine (2018-06-11). "Investors Put Their Money on Chicago Student Startup BrewBike as It Expands". Chicago Inno. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  17. ^ a b Marotti, Ally. "Northwestern launches 2 new funds for startups". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  18. ^ "After The Garage". The Garage at Northwestern. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
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