Innovation Lab Looks to Help Start-Ups

Speaking before an audience of about 50 undergraduate and graduate students on Thursday, Gordon S. Jones—the director of the Harvard Innovation Lab—predicted that the forthcoming Allston facility will reduce the University’s shortcomings in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

The $20 million project—slated to open Nov. 18—will provide a space where local businesses, non-profits, entrepreneurs, and University affiliates can discuss and realize their business plans through collaboration and instruction provided by the Small Business Administration, Service Corps of Retired Executives, Center for Women & Enterprise, and the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network.

The facility is “Harvard’s attempt to say where can we, as a very disconnected or decentralized university, try to actually see some power in the ‘One Harvard’ President Faust talked about,” Jones said. University President Drew G. Faust has repeatedly said that she would like to break down boundaries between Harvard’s different schools and departments.

The I-Lab will be equipped with a coffee shop and a 24/7 public meeting space and will host networking events, presentations, and lectures for residents, small business owners, faculty, and students across Harvard’s schools.

According to Jones, the I-Lab project was sparked by members of the Harvard community who “realized that entrepreneurship and innovation is an area that the University has at best been neutral in—perhaps we can even say very unhelpful.”

He added that the I-Lab is also an initiative to redefine Harvard’s role in the larger Boston innovation community.

Right now, Jones said, Harvard’s entrepreneurial community is sometimes viewed as “being very closed, or not really open to playing ball with the neighbors, so to speak.”

The Lab will occupy 125 Western Ave., where the WGBH radio station building used to sit. The location is almost directly across from the now paved-over five-acre plot that was intended for the Allston Science Complex, a project that has been indefinitely halted due to financial constraints.

Although he joked that he “would love nothing more than to blow up a building in Harvard Square and put this building there,” Jones predicted that “thirty years from now this location could be the geographic center of this campus.”

Jones’ talk came at an Office of Career Services-sponsored event designed to give Harvard students an opportunity to learn more about the I-Lab.

Pulak Goyal ’15 echoed Jones’ remarks, saying he believes Harvard needs to do more to facilitate the work of budding entrepreneurs.

“I’ve noticed that the school doesn’t really foster the entrepreneurial spirit like MIT or other schools,” Goyal said.

Vidal U. Ekechukwu ’12, who attended the event and has been working on a start-up of his own, said he welcomed the I-Lab as a much needed workspace on campus.

“One thing that I’ve really wanted consistently is a place to go and work on [my start-up]. That’s one of the biggest challenges you face when you’re starting something up,” Ekechukwu said. “You need somewhere to go where the people have the same spirit as you. This seems to be exactly that.”

—Jose DelReal contributed reporting to this article.

—Staff writer Nathalie R. Miraval can be reached at nmiraval@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction.

CORRECTION: SEPT. 16, 2011

The Sept. 16 article "With November Launch, Innovation Lab Looks to Help Start-Ups" incorrectly described the Innovation Lab as a Harvard Business School organization. While the group is headquartered on the Business School's campus, it is a Harvard-wide organization.