Mission Statement

City Startup Labs' primary focus is to teach entrepreneurship and innovation to returning citizens or formerly incarcerated as well as African American millennials and reimagines them as a new class of entrepreneurs and innovators.

Description

CSL conducts a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Entrepreneurial Competency, Innovation and Leadership (CoE) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The CoE accepts up to 25 students, for a 16+ week startup accelerator, where they learn about researching, planning and launching a new venture. Following the accelerator, the participants have the opportunity to craft and pitch the vision for their business. Selected ventures will be incubated for up to six months in a lean-startup laboratory (the "labs" of City Startup Labs). Financial counseling and micro-finance are available to qualified graduates.