Startup Lab

Startup Lab is an intensive course in product or service design, development, and launching, which culminates with an end-of semester pitch and demo to real-life customers and industry experts. Startup Lab is not about business plan writing—students will be challenged to identify a need, ideate, imagine, prototype, test, iterate, build, price, market, and launch a marketable product or service in under 15 weeks. There is no limit to what is considered a product or service: software startups, musical equipment products, performance festivals, publishing companies, dance or theater companies, or musical groups are all viable ideas for the Startup Lab. This demanding, results-oriented class is open to all College and Conservatory students, and the diversity of projects and students in the class will offer the opportunity for cross-discipline collaboration, discussion, and learning with an emphasis on product/service design, go-to-market planning, continuous iteration, and customer testing that will challenge students’ creative and analytical minds. Students taking the course will have the chance to interact with and learn from real-world entrepreneurs and visiting researchers from other universities such as MIT. This course is about the intense process of launching a product or service with each group being treated as a real, results-driven startup with real stakes and real pressures.