Dear Classmates,
A number of you relayed that you were interested in hearing more about the startup ecosystem at Yale and in the New Haven area.

Accordingly, in early February, I spoke with Josh Geballe, Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation https://provost.yale.edu/people/josh-geballe.

From the conversation:
Last year royalties to Yale (from “commissionable” IP generated by Yale faculty + affiliates) totaled some $50M, which he said was below that of peer institutions. He said that’s in part why he was hired a year ago, to head Yale Ventures which was launched in 2022.

Yale Ventures page: https://ventures.yale.edu/

Josh pointed to the $5M Roberts Fund as “a new initiative launched in 2022 to accelerate the engine of innovation at theYale School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS).” Quoted text from the website https://ventures.yale.edu/roberts-innovation-fund

Fund announced here: https://seas.yale.edu/news-events/news/yale-announces-5m-roberts-innovation-fund-commercialize-engineering-faculty-discove.

He encouraged any of us who are interested to attend the Yale Innovation Summit on May 31 / June 1 https://ventures.yale.edu/news/save-date-yale-innovation-summit-2023.

Finally, when I referenced how new ventures can benefit New Haven, he said New Haven is currently “booming,” with lots of new commercial and residential buildings in the “triangle” between the Med School, Union Station, and Wooster Square. And he pointed to New Haven being featured in the annual NYTimes photo feature “52 Places to Go in 2023.” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/travel/52-places-travel-2023.html New Haven is . . . #50 ! Text includes:

Connecticut’s third-largest city is a historic, mostly walkable and bikeable seaside town with distinctive neighborhoods, an encyclopedic collection of great American architecture, a thriving cultural life and one of the best food scenes in the country for a city of its size (134,000).

Founded in 1638, it’s a place where people have always tinkered with, mused about and challenged the status quo, which is why the New Haven Preservation Trust is now looking at saving the modernist buildings of the 1970s, which many see as disastrous examples of urban renewal. Discover one of the best of these brutalist concrete buildings by checking into the new Hotel Marcel, named for its architect, Marcel Breuer. Recently renovated, it’s become the first completely solar-powered, energy-neutral hotel in the United States.

Check out NXTHVN, a cutting-edge, community-focused arts center founded in 2019 in two abandoned factory buildings in the Dixwell neighborhood that has become the heart of a vibrant African American artists’ community. And then treat yourself to a great meal — maybe crispy artichokes with Parmesan aioli and pork belly with Tuscan cabbage and apple mostarda — at the recently opened Villa Lulu.

Best,
Ezra Doner