New WashU Olin outpost amid STL’s startup scene

We’ll use it for all the programming associated with the new MBA entrepreneurship fellowships. And it will also be space for the fellows and other MBAs to collaborate on new ideas.

—Doug Villhard, director of Olin’s entrepreneurship program

WashU Olin has established a new outpost in the heart of St. Louis’ entrepreneurship ecosystem. The space inside the Lewis Collaborative—less than a mile north of WashU’s Danforth Campus—serves as the headquarters for the school’s newly launched entrepreneurship fellowship program, which recently welcomed its inaugural cohort of five students.

The WashU-branded meeting space lies within the Lewis Collaborative—which also includes living space for the MBA entrepreneurship fellows. The new, branded meeting space accommodates about 10, with access to the larger TechArtista space for other events and meetings, according to Doug Villhard, director of Olin’s entrepreneurship program.

“We’ll use it for all the programming associated with the new MBA entrepreneurship fellowships,” Villhard said. “And it will also be space for the fellows and other MBAs to collaborate on new ideas.”

In addition to meetings among the entrepreneurship fellows, the space will also house events such as WashU Olin entrepreneurship faculty meetings and gatherings among MBA students working on startup ideas.

“Having an office for them and other entrepreneurial MBAs creates space for the great startups out of WashU Olin to form,” Villhard said. “And, hopefully, it will entice engineering, medical, arts and other students to collaborate, as well.”

Pictured above: The branded space in TechArtista’s Lewis Collaborative provides meeting space for about 10, with access to other space within the facility.