Nathan Hammerschmitt Le Gal

TuckLab Part 2

In case you missed my first post, here it is! 

So, how did my TuckLab experience end? Well, my team and I met early on a Sunday morning dressed in professional business attire (very professional), and practiced our presentation in a glass room on the bottom level of the Computer Science and Engineering Center (you can reserve rooms around campus, which is really convenient), and then gave our final pitch to a combination of fellow students and judges. 

This was our final "Shark Tank-style" pitch and the fate of our five week-old startup was dependent on our performance. 

You might think this was a pretty uncomfortable situation—to stand at the front of a lecture hall in the Tuck School of Business, sweating in formal attire, with an audience of expectant students and veteran judges. And if I told myself even two years ago that I would be in such a position, I probably wouldn't believe myself. The reality is, however, that TuckLab—and Dartmouth as a whole—feels like a place where everyone is pursuing something, where everyone is open and eager. I think TuckLab brought this quality by offering a place for the communal exploration of entrepreneurship because as the weeks of the program progressed, I was inspired and motivated by the guest lecturers and my fellow students. Thus, when the time came to present, my team and I felt like we were really doing something. We also knew our presentation inside and out. By spending five weeks developing each part of our startup (covering topics such as the lean canvas model and financial plan) we'd been building up until this moment for a while—and each team member had a set of strengths they'd developed by focusing on a certain part of the pitch. 

The outcome? We placed as a semi-finalist and earned $250 in seed funding!

Though we did not win first place (which earns $1,000), I'm satisfied with the result, considering we were a team of practically all first-years; we placed 2nd out of 14 teams and learned a TON in the process. We plan to continue developing our idea (which, very briefly, is a modular running shoe with interchangeable soles). Our next steps are to continue prototype development and seek new sources of funding through the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship. 

TuckLab Entrepreneurship was ultimately a greatly rewarding experience that I would highly recommend—if you can put the effort into it. The opportunities to get involved in startups and build something are here, but doing so requires self-agency. The good news is that the Magnuson Center has nice advisors who can help you get started, and there are lots of friendly upperclassmen who are more than willing to produce guidance!    

I should also mention that there are more than one TuckLab program. Currently, there are two other offerings: TuckLab Energy and TuckLab Social Entrepreneurship (which I'm sure are just as awesome as TuckLab Entrepreneurship!)

That's all for TuckLab!