hi I'm Jason Harry I'm the director of
the breakthrough lab which is a program
in the Nelson Center for
Entrepreneurship at Brown University
the breakthrough lab is an accelerator
for student ventures they bring exposure
to problems in the world and solutions
that we could never have conceived of
ourselves I never thought of myself as
an entrepreneur I always thought that
entrepreneurs are people are creating
tech companies or just a business one of
my mentors said that as long as you're
providing something new and trying to
solve a problem you're an entrepreneur
we actually went together to the B lab
pitch night my freshman year when I got
to see the people there talked about
their ideas and talked to them
afterwards I thought that was so cool
and I want it to be them what's great is
that we attract students from all over
the university from the medical school
from cognitive science from music from
history looking forward ventures that
when they scale they'll have a big
impact thinking about like how efficient
and how like how safe we can make a
device but also how we can make it as
affordable as we come here we are in the
fifth year of the breakthrough lab and
it's the first year that B lab has run
inside of the brand new Nelson Center
for Entrepreneurship what's really great
about it is that the students are housed
in a co-working space together this year
for the first time and it gives them an
opportunity to interact on a very
personal and friendly basis you
all these people that you're starting
off boring from the program from like
week 1 to week 8
okay this is like the serfs are those
we're just trying to help each other out
and trying to like you know bring us
together we are productive we keep each
other on our toes and we're always
challenging each other I love that we
always disagree if we focus on each
other's strengths and link felt
something and it's always exciting and
always cool for that reason and what's
really amazing about the space is that
literally every piece of it is
purpose-built for student
entrepreneurship the walls move the
furniture moves the a/v moves it's an
open and closed concept where they can
feel private but also part of the larger
cohort I love the building so much we
have really taken advantage of the space
a really good thing is we can invite
people to come and we have a meeting
room there's a lot of strong interaction
not only with staff but also we bring in
amazing talent to speak with the
students each week people who are
experienced entrepreneurs they can give
you some know-how and just provide
immense amount of just free advice
honestly we also bring people who can
help with the nuts and bolts of
early-stage venturing in business we
bring the ventures all together again
after B lab is formally concluded for
something we call the breakthrough lab
showcase we want to see ventures
progress to a point where they could
attract outside capital I am so grateful
for B lab it's a sort of validation in
the sense that Brown is supporting this
and believing that we will have impact
being surrounded by like-minded people
as motivated and passionate as you as
helping me in this journey I plan and go
into Madagascar and pilot the program
that I've been working on during the
summer getting to do something that's
for me and now for someone else is
really special
gives me the ultimate freedom to to be
me and to make the impact I want to make
I feel like I've learned so much just
from the people who've been kind enough
to give me their time over the summer
you have one job and that job is to
validate your business and grow your
business it's really high-energy it's
really fun it's really educational and I
think for many of the students who are
in B lab it can really be truly
life-changing
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