This week, I attended a Rose Cafe where I listened to Peter Cortle, the founder of Cornell EHub talk about his journey in entrepreneurship and what resources Cornell has to support start up companies on campus. Peter, as a Cornell undergrad ran a start up and continued to pursue start ups throughout his early adult life. His goal for founding EHub was to give a space for students from all disciplines to come together and work on a start up together. What I did not realize is that EHub is not the only initiative Cornell has to spark entrepreneurship on campus. Cornell also has an organization called Life Changing Labs (LCL) where students can get seed funding and support to start their own company. So if you wake up one morning and have a great idea for a company, LCL can help guide you on your way to making a fully fleshed out business.

I personally am not a very entrepreneurial person, so these tips may not have been for me. However, it was cool to hear about the origins of EHub and that Cornell really does a good job of helping students start their own businesses if they are so inclined. With the rising cost of tuition, starting a business is a great and very underrated way of paying for college. Starting a business can also pay dividends in building up soft skills, as getting seed funding and working on that initial pitch is a very difficult skill, especially since most start ups today are started by engineers rather than trained marketers. So if I do have a change of heart and have an idea for a new business, Peter made it clear what the best path to making that happen is at Cornell.