Michael Raspuzzi

Michael Baum, founder and CEO of Founder.org, gave his "8 Secrets to Building a Billion Dollar Company" presentation to students recently at the Popshop in Collegetown, sponsored by Life Changing Labs, which is offering a summer incubator program for students and young alums.

A new incubator in Collegetown will offer eight weeks of mentorship, office space and other resources for student and alumni startup businesses this summer.

The Summer Startup Incubator Program from Life Changing Labs is supported in part by Entrepreneurship at Cornell and plans to serve six to eight teams this summer. Applications are due April 10.

“In the past there has not been a structured program or high level of support during the summer for Cornell student founders. Students had to figure out their own plan and pull together resources,” said Michael Raspuzzi ’16, president of Life Changing Labs, an organization of students and alumni that helps entrepreneurial students gain hands-on experience in early ventures. “Summer is the best time to be pushing forward startups for student founders. It is a time when they can focus solely on growing their ventures without having to worry about all of the other obligations of being a full-time student during the semester.”

Startups involved in the incubator will receive free resources from partners such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web services, Microsoft Bizspark, Github, Braintree, Proto.io and Envision, Raspuzzi said.

“The program will entail weekly dinners, modeled after Y Combinator, where we bring together all startup founders and team members to interact and provide updates of their progress,” Raspuzzi said. “We will also have top entrepreneur and venture capitalist guest speakers give weekly ‘Life Changing’ talks to our teams.”

Mentorship will also be provided through a network of experienced entrepreneurs based on the needs of each company. And space will be provided at the Popshop, a co-working space for students in Collegetown.

Students without startup ideas or teams are invited to take part through the organization’s internship program, where they’ll be matched with a startup based on their skills, Raspuzzi said.

Interested students can apply at the Life Changing Labs site.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for Entrepreneurship at Cornell.