Building Startups and Transformative Innovation in Corporations

CMU’s Corporate Startup Lab (CSL) was founded with the unique belief that startups can exist and thrive anywhere, including in large corporations. Not only can they exist within a company, startups are critical to ensure competitive advantage, growth and even survival for corporations.

Fundamentally, a startup within a company is the same as one inside a garage: a group of entrepreneurs trying to make the world a better place using new ideas and inventions. However, growing an internal startup requires a unique understanding of venture best practices in startup incubation, acceleration and investment and how to apply them to the unique challenges (and advantages) of larger corporations.

CMU’s Corporate Startup Lab, a Swartz Center - Tepper initiative, advances the mission of startup growth within corporations by bringing together leaders and innovative approaches from across venture, academia and industry. CSL delivers this through several multi-disciplinary programs which include education, events, roundtables and sponsored student projects and fellowships. 

The CSL team brings significant real-world experience to this mission and all of our programs. The team has founded and invested in startup ventures across multiple stages of growth, built new businesses within existing companies and created nationally ranked accelerators (including corporate accelerators) across the major technology verticals.