Thank you for your interest in applying to B-Lab 2024! Below you'll find information about how to complete this application. Please read it carefully before submitting. We are excited to learn about your venture!
BACKGROUNDStarted in 2015, B-Lab is the University's premiere venture accelerator which empowers students to develop high-impact ventures. More than 120 teams have participated in B-Lab since its inception and have addressed challenges across a range of industry sectors and problem spaces. Many B-Lab teams are still operating and have raised funding, launched products, built teams, and received regional and national recognition for their efforts. For most of these teams, B-Lab was their first meaningful step as a venture and allowed them to develop their fledgling idea and put it on the path to becoming an actual real-world success.
The program is 8 weeks long and runs through June and July right here in Providence, RI. Accepted students will have access to actionable, sector-specific mentoring, a peer cohort of dedicated founders, co-working space at the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, an award of $4,000 (for currently enrolled Brown, or RISD undergraduate and graduate students), and much more!
VENTURE EVALUATION
B-Lab applications are evaluated by an esteemed group of Brown alums who are experienced entrepreneurs and investors. Judges are asked to evaluate teams in the following areas:
- The Problem: Is the team working on a validated unmet need?
- The Solution: Does that team have a plausible solution to the problem they’ve identified? Have they taken any steps to test that solution?
- The Business Model: Is the team’s venture feasible and is there a workable and sustainable business model? Does the venture have the capacity to achieve “impact at scale”?
- The Team: Does the team have the requisite passion and skills to make this venture successful? If not, what is their plan for addressing this?
- Connection to Brown: How much Brown DNA is there in this venture?
- B-Lab’s Impact: Will B-Lab make a meaningful difference for this venture and its prospects for success?
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
In this application we are going to ask you for the following things:
- Basic information about your venture
- Basic Information about your team
- A link to a short 3-minute video of your team introducing yourselves and what you are working on
- Longer, more substantive written answers to some of the topics referenced above (Problem, Solution, Business Model, etc.)
Applications are due
Friday, February 2, 2024, at 1:00 pm ET. Before you start the process, read these guidelines carefully:
- Review the entire B-Lab application first and write answers to all questions in a separate document before entering them into this form. You will have to complete this application in one sitting (no “save and return”). Give yourself enough time to allow for unexpected technical difficulties with the Google form, creating and uploading your video, etc. We cannot accept late applications.
- Only one application for the venture should be submitted. All founding team members should be identified in this form.
- Record the required 3-minute video, upload it to YouTube, and have the link ready to insert in the application. Do NOT wait until the last minute to create and upload your video to YouTube.
- To preview the written application questions, click here.
- You can include supplemental information in your application, but we cannot guarantee that these materials will be reviewed by the selection committee. Do not use supplemental pages as a means to extend your answers beyond the word limits.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES- Read over our FAQs at https://entrepreneurship.brown.edu/b-lab/
- Visit our new resources guide at https://bit.ly/3pCU9Cq.
- If you are also applying to the Brown Venture Prize (BVP), note that the application questions and requirements for the video are different from B-Lab’s. Do not submit the same materials in both applications.
There are also several other Nelson Center grants that may be a good fit for your venture depending on what you are working on. In particular, the Center also provides dedicated grant funding to student ventures addressing climate change/sustainability and anti-Black & systemic racism. We partner with the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA) to inspire students to focus on these important sectors. (Visit our website to learn more: https://entrepreneurship.brown.edu/partners/climate-change-grants/ & https://entrepreneurship.brown.edu/resources/addressing-anti-black-systemic-racism-venture-grants/).
If you have any questions, email Jonas Clark, jonas_clark@brown.edu
We look forward to learning about your exciting venture!
