“CSL gave me the affirmation I needed to ignore the fluff and commit to my real dreams.”
– Vignesh Karthik ’26SEAS, who went on to raise $4M with fellow CSL Uptowner Connor Lee ’26SEAS after pivoting and honing his startup.
There are two ways to get involved this semester: CSL Community (general) and CSL Incubate (advanced). Check out the criteria below to see what looks like the right fit for where you are in your entrepreneurship journey!
CSL COMMUNITY
Currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students at Columbia and Barnard are welcome to send their Names, UNIs, Anticipated Graduation Year, and School Affiliation (SIPA, Engineering, etc) to cslmorningside(at)gmail.com to join the community.
For those who are interested in entrepreneurship, curious about startups, and/or who may be in the ideation stages or earliest stages of a new venture, and want to learn more about startups, entrepreneurship, the various entrepreneurship events on campus, we have you covered.
This is all about jumping into the community and meeting others, exchanging ideas and building bonds. We will get to know one another, have entrepreneurs and investors give talks from time to time and learn as much as possible about startups, venture capital and using the latest AI tools to get moving.
MEETINGS: NOON – 1:30 PM @ CSL most Fridays (you will receive an email confirming each weekly session, please check before attending).
For the Fall 2025 semester, this will begin Friday, September 19, 2025 through Friday, November 21.
CSL INCUBATE:
Application only for active members of the CSL Community group, rolling admissions through early Fall. Currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students at Columbia and Barnard welcome to apply.
CSL INCUBATE is a highly selective, application-only, accelerator-type program that helps students propel their businesses forward. The program provides individualized support and mentorship throughout the semester, access to experts in key fields, a focus on helping student founders get to product/market fit, refine their story and approach to customers and/or investors. There is a particular emphasis on seeking talented founders who are inclined to help others in the program so that the teams can all leverage each others’ experience and networks.
The program is not for idea-stage startups. Rather it is for more advanced efforts with robust customer engagement and product development.
CSL INCUBATE meets Fridays, 10:15am – 11:45AM in CSL Uptown. For the Fall 2025 semester, this will be Friday, October 3, 2025 – Friday, 21, 2025. If you have been accepted into CSL INCUBATE, you will be informed before the first session.
Sessions Include:
- An Accountability Framework: Meetings begin with weekly updates from each startup, and end with agreed-upon KPI’s for the following week.
- Lessons in Corporate Hygiene: How to set yourself up for success from beginning, including founder agreements/vesting schedules, bringing on team members, and corporate structure.
- Opportunities to Leverage Networks: Founders will produce monthly updates on their work to the CSL INCUBATE cohort, supporters, and contacts.
- Cultivation of Superb Communication Skills: practice pitching and clearly describing your story and your startup over and over again.
Additional PERKS:
- Use of the CSL Uptown breakout space throughout the week in order to work on your startup.
- Use of the main CSL Uptown when space is available
- Access to selected CSL Soho events/workshops
- Dedicated “hackathon” sessions later in the semester, where you will get support to accelerate building phases of your product.
