U of T’s Creative Destruction Lab to be replicated in NYC

Univ of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) concept has found its way to New York City as the university’s Rotman School of Management collaborates with the New York Univ's Stern School of Business. Stern associate professor Deepak Hegde says the business school had been searching for an approach to integrate AI, life science and fintech with the city's investment capital pool. Based on the original Rotman design, the New York CDL will enable startups to engage with a seven-member panel of seasoned entrepreneurs and investors to come up with objectives for fledgling firms in eight-week intervals. Ajay Agrawal, CDL founder, says the accelerator concept aims to help startups learn from the experience and judgment of experts. Agrawal says this is what startups need more than funding and business training. Aside from getting expert advice from Stern and its MBA students, entrepreneurs will also gain access to other NYU science and technology faculties. Startups that fall short of achieving their objectives will be requested to drop out. The CDL has been reported as responsible for generating $1 billion in equity value in its first five years. Applications for the first 25 startups for the New York CDL will be accepted starting January 1/18, and the program is expected to start in September 2018. CDL signed similar agreements with the Univ of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, HEC Montréal, Dalhousie Univ’s Rowe School of Business and the Univ of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business in the fall of 2016.