Why Vogel Labs is Bigger than Just Space #1: The Vogel Labs Fellowships

Vogel Labs will be up and running on July 1st.  To make this happen, I’m constantly talking to people about it, why it’s completely different than anything that exists in Boston, why Boston needs it, and why it’s the ideal working environment.  Vogel Labs isn’t about space.  It’s about atmosphere.  Vogel Labs is about community, energy, love.  I kid you not.  Vogel Labs is much bigger than what you’ll find within its walls.

Communicating fluffy concepts like energy and community isn’t easy.  It’s even more difficult too convince someone why it’ll be at a certain place.  It’s also hard to tell someone how valuable it is before they feel it at such a magnitude.  Consequently, I’ve decided to give tangible examples of why the Lab will produce such intangibles and will be bigger than what is within its walls.  Here’s the first one:

Starting February 11th 2011, Vogel Labs will start taking applications for the “Vogel Labs Fellowships.”  The concept is simple: give an ambitious and creative individual (AKA someone who is entrepreneurial)  ~$2500 to pursue whatever it is that matters most to them. They don’t necessarily even need to know what exactly that is, but you can spot passionate people, even if they don’t quite know what the object of their passion is. They would then work in the Vogel Labs space and be exposed to a lot of startups and entrepreneurs at the ground level, meet a lot of people in the Boston community, and build real skills that they are personally motivated to use. (And hopefully they’ll begin the road that leads to a $50 Billion dollar home run.)

Anyone can apply.  Age doesn’t matter.  It’s never to late to start working on something you love.  However, by design, it’s more suitable for students and younger  people.

So how valuable can such a thing be by only supplying such a small amount of money?

The best thing I ever did in the course of my education was to take a summer to pursue what I cared about most.  I didn’t even know what that was at the time, but I had some ideas I wanted to get started on.  Before I even really knew it, I started being an entrepreneur.  I had no clue what I was doing, but I started building valuable skills by just pursuing a wild idea I had that I cared about.

In order to make this happen, I searched high and low for grants at MIT that would allow me to work on what I wanted.   I got lucky.  I was somehow able to get $1500 bucks from the MIT Political Science department.  I then got a part-time job teaching 4th-8th graders at the MIT Edgerton Center math/science stuff for $9 an hour. This was enough to live on.

So why not offer more money?  Part of learning to be an entrepreneur is learning to scrap and claw; a big part of it is learning to be a hunter out in the wild.  This is why you can’t learn how to be an entrepreneur while in school.  You’re too safe.  It’s also why I’ve seen big shot consultants fail when they try to found a company.  Resources are scarcer in the wilderness.  (But this doesn’t mean there isn’t support to take advantage of, you just have to go hunt it down ….or build it yourself.)

So through MIT, the Boston entrepreneurial community acquired an entrepreneur for $1500. Will this be a good investment of community dollars?  I’d say so.  Why did it work?  Because I was able to take this money and use it to find and pursue something that was important to me.  And that’s at the root of it all.

How often in your life have you been able to focus primarily on finding and pursuing what you care about?  But at the same time, would you say having some time to do this is very important?  It was a full-time endeavor for me that came with heavy costs and a lot of perceived risk. Let’s lower that a bit.

Now, why does this make  “good business sense” for Vogel Labs (which is the only way to make such things sustainable)? Well, it comes down to the spirit of these Fellowships and what the Fellows will embody: ambition, energy, passion, pursuit of something that matters.  Are there people out there willing to pay an extra 50 bucks a year to be around these things and what these people represent?  I think so.  In fact, I know so.  People are already agreeing to pay to be a part of an atmosphere filled to the brim with these intangibles.

-Kevin
6.1.2010

Vogel Labs is located in Porter Square and opens July 1st. You can have a full-time dedicated desk for $350 a month.  If you’d like to come and go and work part-time, it’s a $100 a month.  There is also more traditional office space (dry wall, carpet, sectioned rooms) available on a square foot basis.  We’re working towards delivering free space to the people that really need it.  Come by this Friday at 9:30AM or 3PM to see it.