Columbia Technology Founder’s Track (CTech)
Founded by Dr. Song Li, PhD ’92, CTech gives technical Columbia MBA and graduate Engineering students the tools to become world-class entrepreneurs by providing them with curriculum, mentorship, and networking opportunities, guiding the launch and growth of Columbia-founded and venture-scale technology startups.
CTech is a selective, cross-disciplinary program open to Engineering graduate students and rising second-year MBA students with technical backgrounds who are dedicated to launching and growing a venture-scale technology startup while at Columbia.
CTech represents a university-wide collaboration between the Business School’s Lang Entrepreneurship Center, the Engineering School’s IEOR Department, and Columbia Entrepreneurship.
Prerequisites for Application
- MBA student candidates:
- Rising second-year CBS students
- Currently enrolled in or have completed Foundations of Entrepreneurship (CTech 101) prior to applying, or have received an exemption from this course
- STEM undergraduate degree or relevant work experience in a technology role
- Engineering graduate student candidates:
- Rolling admissions
- Preferably in first semester of Masters program and have taken Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (IEOR 4570), however:
- Students in their second or third term are nonetheless encouraged to apply. Requirements for entrepreneurship coursework and/or independent study will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
CTech Program Components
For MBA Students:
- Enrollment in (CTech 201) Launch Your Startup (3 credits).
- Acceptance to and completion of the (CTech 301) Greenhouse Accelerator program.
- Attendance of the Dr. Li Distinguished Technology Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.
- VC coursework or VC-related experience. This requirement could be satisfied by one or more of the following:
- Enrollment in Foundations of VC and/or VC Seminar
- A qualifying VC Workshop
- Acceptance and participation in the VC Fellows or Athena Fellows programs (administered by the Lang Center)
For Engineering Graduate Students (details decided on a case by case basis, but generally):
- Enrollment in CTech 201: either “IEOR E4578 Startup Fundamentals – Build and Launch” with Prof. Owen Davis, 3 credits; B8519-002 “Launch Your Startup”, 3 credits; or an independent study arranged by CTech leadership during the upcoming fall semester.
- Acceptance to and completion of the (CTech 301) Greenhouse Accelerator program.
- Attendance of the Dr. Song Li Distinguished Technology Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.
- VC coursework or VC-related experience. This requirement could be satisfied by one or more of the following:
Apply to CTech
- Applications are closed for this cohort.
Note: If there is more than one student in the same startup who qualifies for CTech and wants to apply (e.g. each team member is either a rising second-year MBA with a technical background or an Engineering Masters student), team members should apply separately.
Questions? Please reach out to Lara Hejtmanek at [email protected] and Dave Lerner at [email protected].
CTech Team Leaders
Angela Lee
Faculty Director, Lang Entrepreneurship Center
Angela's Bio
Angela Lee is a Professor of Practice and the Chief Innovation Officer at Columbia Business School. She teaches Venture Capital (Foundations of VC, VC Seminar) and Leadership (The Leader’s Voice) courses. She brings 20 years of innovation, strategy and entrepreneurship experience to the classroom. She started her career in product management and then moved into strategy consulting at McKinsey. Angela is passionate about entrepreneurship and has started several companies in the education sector. She is a startup investor and the founder of 37 Angels, an investing network that has evaluated 15000 startups, invested in 60, and activates new investors through a startup investment bootcamp.
Angela has spoken at the White House and NASA and is a sought-after expert on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, and Fox Business. She was recognized by Inc. as one of 17 Inspiring Women to Watch in 2017, by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of 6 Innovative Women to Watch in 2015, and by Craine’s as a Notable Women in Tech in 2019. Angela received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley and her MBA from Columbia Business School. ”
Angela has spoken at the White House and NASA and is a sought-after expert on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, and Fox Business. She was recognized by Inc. as one of 17 Inspiring Women to Watch in 2017, by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of 6 Innovative Women to Watch in 2015, and by Craine’s as a Notable Women in Tech in 2019. Angela received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley and her MBA from Columbia Business School. ”
Dave Lerner
Director of Entrepreneurship at Columbia University
Dave's Bio
Dave was appointed Director of Entrepreneurship at Columbia University in 2013. In his years with Columbia Entrepreneurship he’s helped launch the Columbia Startup Lab, the Columbia Design Studio, Startup Law Studio, CTech and a host of new tech programs and curricula throughout the university’s many schools. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School where he teaches the Greenhouse Accelerator Program, the Launch Your Startup class and at Columbia Engineering where he teaches the Entrepreneurship Bootcamps to incoming Masters students.
By background he’s an entrepreneur (2 exits) and angel investor in 100+ companies. His personal blog, www.davelerner.com/blog, explores the worlds of university entrepreneurship, angel/venture investing, and startups and he’s a frequent contributor to many other publications, including Business Insider, whose SAI group recently named him both one of the “top 100 most influential New Yorkers in the digital business community” and “one of NYC’s top 100 early stage investors.”
By background he’s an entrepreneur (2 exits) and angel investor in 100+ companies. His personal blog, www.davelerner.com/blog, explores the worlds of university entrepreneurship, angel/venture investing, and startups and he’s a frequent contributor to many other publications, including Business Insider, whose SAI group recently named him both one of the “top 100 most influential New Yorkers in the digital business community” and “one of NYC’s top 100 early stage investors.”
Lara Hejtmanek
Director, Lang Entrepreneurship Center
Lara's Bio
Lara is Senior Associate Director in charge of on-campus events, programming, and curriculum for the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center. Lara has experience as an angel investor, focusing on early stage social enterprise companies.
Prior to joining the Lang Center, she worked at several early stage companies in strategy and planning roles, and has over 20 years of experience in digital marketing. Most recently she founded and led the Insights & Planning practice for 360i – named the #1 digital agency in the country by AdAge for four years in a row – serving major brands for clients in CPG, travel and retail. There she led her team in bringing together consumer insights with emerging technologies to identify high impact opportunities for clients, spanning social media, mobile, search, paid media, and overall brand strategy. Lara holds a BA in Art History from Vassar College and an MBA from Columbia University.
Prior to joining the Lang Center, she worked at several early stage companies in strategy and planning roles, and has over 20 years of experience in digital marketing. Most recently she founded and led the Insights & Planning practice for 360i – named the #1 digital agency in the country by AdAge for four years in a row – serving major brands for clients in CPG, travel and retail. There she led her team in bringing together consumer insights with emerging technologies to identify high impact opportunities for clients, spanning social media, mobile, search, paid media, and overall brand strategy. Lara holds a BA in Art History from Vassar College and an MBA from Columbia University.
Yvette Miller
Director of Marketing and Communications at Columbia Entrepreneurship
Yvette's Bio
In her role as CE’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Yvette gets the word out about Columbia’s culture of innovation, dynamic entrepreneurship initiatives, and its world-class entrepreneurs.
Yvette has 13+ years of experience in the public, private, and education sectors. She started her career leading communications at an early-stage startup, and has built outreach strategies from the ground up a few times since. She has prepared senior staff at startups and major companies for media interviews, congressional testimony, and events, and garnered coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, USA Today, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNET, and more.
Yvette has 13+ years of experience in the public, private, and education sectors. She started her career leading communications at an early-stage startup, and has built outreach strategies from the ground up a few times since. She has prepared senior staff at startups and major companies for media interviews, congressional testimony, and events, and garnered coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, USA Today, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNET, and more.
Meet the Current Cohort
Martim De Mello ’21BUS
Co-founder and CEO of Changing Room
Martim's Bio
Martim is an MBA student at Columbia University and CEO of Changing Room. Prior to that, he graduated with a Master’s degree in civil engineering, majoring in hydraulics and sustainability. More recently, he paired this specialization in sustainability with fashion by co-founding Changing Room, a startup that aims at fostering sustainable practices in the fashion industry. To engage in this journey, he draws on digital transformation expertise gained at McKinsey & Co. Additionally, he nurtured his strong interest in sustainability by working with clean-tech startups for an Australian accelerator named EnergyLab. Changing Room aims to empower consumers into making informed sustainable purchases and elevating environmental transparency within the fashion industry. Changing Room measures the environmental impact of individual garments throughout the production line and provides a marketplace where consumers can compare and shop for garments based on eco-friendliness indicators.
Sarvadnya Kulkarni ’21BUS/SEAS
Co-founder of FleetCharge
Sarvadnya's Bio
Sarvadnya Kulkarni is the co-founder of Fleet Charge and a current student in the Management Science and Engineering cohort of 2021. He comes from a family of Entrepreneurs and was previously the project manager at a fast growing VR Tech startup called Teooh. He is very passionate about tech and e-mobility and comes with a lot of experience in management. He holds a B-Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and Masters in Management from London Business School.
Diana Nleya, ‘21BUS
Founder and CEO of Gwara
Diana's Bio
Diana is an MBA student at Columbia University and Founder & CEO of Gwara. Gwara seeks to transform access to cross-border finance for millions of borrowers in frontier markets locked out of traditional systems, beginning with educational finance. Prior to business school, Diana worked as a data scientist at Barclays’ consumer banking division before transitioning into impact investing across frontier and post-conflict markets across Africa, most recently at CrossBoundary. Diana received a BSc. In Actuarial Science from North West University in South Africa.
Scott Reddy ’21BUS
Founder and CEO of Meerkat
Scott's Bio
Scott is an MBA student at Columbia University. Prior to business school, Scott spent time working as a data scientist, and more recently, he worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, supporting companies in their digital & analytics transformations. Scott received a Bachelor’s degree from Union College, where he studied Mathematics and Managerial Economics.
Karam Singh Sethi ’21BUS
Co-founder and CEO of Terra
Karam's Bio
Karam Singh Sethi is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Terra, a first-of-its-kind video storytelling platform for mission-driven creatives. He is an award-winning writer and creative director. His work focuses on documentary-style cross-platform storytelling for video, photography, motion, and copy. Prior to launching Terra, he led creative marketing campaigns for IBM Originals, IBM’s first in-house creative agency.
Abhirat Shinde ’21SEAS
Co-founder of FleetCharge
Abhirat's Bio
Abhirat is the co-founder of FleetCharge, a smart sustainable electric mobility integration company for modern logistics. He is a student of the Management Science & Engineering program at Columbia and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Economics and a Bachelors in Engineering. He has worked on clean tech projects and policies in India and has previously founded a company. He believes in leveraging technology to expedite the energy transition.
Lara Vartanian ’20BUS/SEAS
Co-founder and CEO of FormSpotter
Lara's Bio
Lara Vartanian received a M.S. degree in Business Analytics from Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering. She holds a B.S. in Statistics and B.A. in Business/Economics from UCLA. She is also a certified personal trainer from NASM.
She is fascinated with the health & fitness space and is passionate about helping others unleash their potential with the right mindset. Having experienced this herself, she truly believes fitness is an excellent framework for self-improvement as it exposes people to the central tenets of personal growth. Whether it be good habit formation, humility, discipline, challenging oneself, these are all qualities people can acquire through fitness to transfer over to other areas of life to help them achieve their greatness in life.
She is fascinated with the health & fitness space and is passionate about helping others unleash their potential with the right mindset. Having experienced this herself, she truly believes fitness is an excellent framework for self-improvement as it exposes people to the central tenets of personal growth. Whether it be good habit formation, humility, discipline, challenging oneself, these are all qualities people can acquire through fitness to transfer over to other areas of life to help them achieve their greatness in life.
Barry Wise ’21BUS
Founder and CEO of FileMaster
Barry's Bio
Barry Wise is a Product and Project Management technology professional with experience in the Financial Services and Insurance industries where he led numerous digital transformation projects. A student of Columbia Business School, Barry also received a B.S. degree from Penn State University and an M.Div. degree from New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
Jeremy Yao ’21BUS/SEAS
Co-founder and CTO of Changing Room
Jeremy's Bio
Jeremy currently pursues a dual M.S. degree from Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering, where he specializes in the field of machine learning. He is passionate about the intersection of fashion and Artificial Intelligence on which he extensively researched at UCL, where he undertook his undergraduate studies. As the Chief Technology Officer of Changing Room, he benefits from his prior experience working on projects at Louis Vuitton and Rent the Runway combining data analytics to supply chain logistics. By co-founding Changing Room, he is eager to advance the fashion industry towards more sustainable social and environmental practices namely thanks to data science. Changing Room measures the environmental impact of individual garments throughout the production line and provides a marketplace where consumers can compare and shop for garments based on eco-friendliness indicators.
Saron Yitbarek ’21BUS
Founder of Disco
Saron's Bio
Saron is a developer and a 2x founder. She founded CodeNewbie, which was acquired late last year. She's currently building Disco, an online education platform for audio courses. She's also a speaker and podcaster.