We are a department of Oregon State University-Cascades that helps innovators turn their ideas into reality.
At the same time, we train tomorrow's innovators by giving them experiential learning opportunities where they help your business or non-profit grow.
We work with innovators, creators, founders, and managers in the community as well as within the university. We work with:
New entrepreneurs that wants to launch or grow their business;
Aspiring nonprofit founders;
Managers that want to launch a new product or service at an existing company or nonprofit; and
Managers that need help with a project.
Our services are available to the public.
We help our clients build and sell new, amazing things. As a result, we create jobs, help our clients get funding, and grow the economy in Oregon.
At the same time, we train our students with the real-world skills that they need to enter the workforce.
When building anything new, it's easy to fall victim to analysis paralysis. Finding the right information or support can be difficult when there are millions of books, workshops, courses, coaches, consultants, mentors, and trade groups. Also, finding the time to learn, build, and launch can be difficult or impossible. As a result, innovators can spend years thinking about creating instead of building.
The Co-Lab provides you with a roadmap to turn your idea into a reality by giving you the most relevant information, helping you create, and giving you mentorship. Unlike other workshops, books, videos, and online courses, we help you refine your idea and create an action plan that is customized to you. Then we help you create.
We give you access to an online education tool and then help you build a customized action plan for your project.
The Co-Lab can help you manage your project and execute on your action plan.
Our Executive Director provides one-on-one coaching and can help you find additional mentors, mentor groups, or resources that work for you.
Co-Lab Sprints are structured bursts of learning, work sessions, and action that help you:
Our sprints are interactive and help you learn by doing. We use a simple process:
We ask you questions based on your unique needs, and provide the most relevant information to teach you based on your responses. Then, we ask you a series of questions to help you create an action plan, and you get a draft Action Plan emailed to you as a Google Document that you can edit. This Action Plan includes links, templates, and other information that are relevant to you.
Next, we help you refine your goals, address your questions, and discuss additional resources that may help you in a work session with our staff and Co-Lab interns,. Additionally, we talk about common mistakes, concerns, and best practices.
Co-Lab staff and interns help you refine your Action Plan so that you can use it to take action yourself or work with a consultant. Our goal is to help you build a document that can be used as the basis of a Scope of Work, Request for Proposal, or other documents that you can use with your employees or outside software developers, business consultants, marketing consultants, or freelancers. If relevant, we add other information, such as:
You get an "Action Plan" that you may use to take next steps, find help, and find additional support for your business.
The following items are covered by other Sprints.
If you need help with finding help beyond these topics, please join our Special Project Sprint, and we will help you find available resources.
Our sprints aren't passive lectures. They help you learn about the topic, your needs, and how to take action. They are work-shops. Here's how it works:
You may start at any time. Once you complete the pre-work, we send you a link to schedule a one-on-one meeting with our Executive Director.
Where will the Sprint be held?
You do the work online, and your sprint session is held online via Zoom.
TBD
If interested, email adam.krynicki@osucascades.edu
You will get an action plan document that you may use as a Scope of Work or Request for Proposal with developers. We will also provide a list of developers that may develop your project. You may also qualify to use the Co-Lab consultancy that can help you with:
The following items are covered by other Sprints.
If you need help with finding help beyond these topics, please join our Triage Sprint, and we will help you find available resources.
Our sprints aren't passive lectures. They help you learn about the topic, your needs, and how to take action. They are work-shops. Here's how it works:
The sprint will be held online via Zoom.
May 2022
$975
If interested, email adam.krynicki@osucascades.edu
You will get an action plan document that you may use yourself as a checklist as guide. You may also use this as a Scope of Work to use the Co-Lab's student consultancy to help you with your pitch deck, business plan, grant skeleton, etc.
We unfortunately don't cover pitching, business planning, or grant writing as part of this Sprint. They are covered by other Sprints or you may use the Student Consultancy and mentorship from our Executive Director for these tasks.
Also, please note that the following items are covered by other Sprints.
If you need help with finding help beyond these topics, please join our Special Project Sprint, and we will help you find available resources.
Our sprints aren't passive lectures. They help you learn about the topic, your needs, and how to take action. They are work-shops. Here's how it works:
The sprint will be held online via Zoom.
May 2022
$150
If interested, email adam.krynicki@osucascades.edu
Co-Lab clients can get access to a group of student consultants that can help with their projects. For example, students can:
Develop Prototypes
Develop Websites
Build Apps
Perform Market Research, Create Surveys, Analyze Information, Draft Reports
Generate Sales Leads
Create and Run Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Act as a Virtual Assistant
To get started with the consultancy, a Scope of Work is needed. You may create a Scope of Work through our design sprints or by working with the Executive Director. Please note that the cost of working with the interns is $17/hour.
The Co-Lab's Executive Director meets with clients one-on-one to help them. Advising hours are exclusive to Co-Lab Consulting clients. To get started with the consultancy, please attend a Sprint and Register to become a Co-Lab Consultancy client. Additionally, the Co-Lab works on the following mentorship initiatives:
For more information about these initiatives, please contact the Co-Lab's Executive Director.
Get access to the space, resources, and coaching you need to launch your new venture.
If you are interested in working with the Co-Lab, please contact the Executive Director.
The Innovation Co-Lab is located at the Graduate Research Center on the second floor.