Episode 53: Jodi Goldstein - Executive Director at Harvard Innovation Labs

Welcome to Episode 53 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Jodi Goldstein, Executive Director at Harvard Innovation Labs. The Harvard i-lab is an incubator and ecosystem to help Harvard students build their startups and gain valuable connections. Since starting seven years ago, the i-lab has helped incubate over 1,200 companies, and altogether, they have gone on to raise over $1.5 billion. This includes companies like Handy (which was just acquired), Lovepop, Catalant, and Artlifting. Another amazing statistic from the companies participating in the i-lab is the fact that 50% of their founders are female. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: -Jodi’s background going back to her early foundational years in Vermont, being part of an entrepreneurial family in the hospitality industry, and what that taught her. -Why she choose the startup path out of HBS, and the details behind early-to-market companies that ended up being precursors to Facebook and Instagram. -What led her down the path of starting her own company, Drync, one of the first apps in the App Store. -How she got involved in the Harvard i-lab, the mission behind this initiative at Harvard, and why they don’t take equity in companies. -Her views on what are the best measures for success, and how they are striving to give students an unfair competitive advantage. -Advice for founders who are looking for a technical co-founder. -Plus, a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!