Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship
The Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship offers entrepreneurship training and practical opportunities aimed at preparing Colby students to be effective innovators and entrepreneurs—whether they are creating dynamic new business ventures or improving existing organizations or programs. The lab provides funding for students to start commercial and social enterprises, mentorship, as well as cocurricular and curricular programming. The lab heads the development of an entrepreneurship ecosystem involving alumni, faculty, staff, and Colby community members, as well as companies, organizations, and institutions.
Established in 2022, the Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship is the result of a generous gift from Trustee Emeritus Todd Halloran, a 1984 Colby graduate and Harvard Business School graduate who has spent the majority of his career investing in and working with accomplished business leaders and entrepreneurs and their growing companies.
The Halloran Lab’s 2026-2027 One-Credit Courses
- HL 199 Discover and Define: Problems to Venture Concepts in 11 Weeks
Every venture, nonprofit, or creative initiative begins with a problem worth exploring. This course focuses on identifying meaningful problems, generating ideas, and shaping them into well-defined concepts. You’ll work through ideation exercises and proven frameworks while hearing from founders on how their work began. Whether exploring entrepreneurship for the first time or returning with a new idea, build a foundation for a startup, nonprofit, creative project, or something without a name yet. It prepares students for Halloran Lab Ideate & Explore grants and further venture coursework.
- HL 198 Start or Scale: Ideas to Impact in 11 Weeks
A well-defined concept only becomes a venture through building, testing, and iteration. This course is a hands-on venture lab focused on turning concepts into working ventures through weekly sprints, customer discovery, business modeling, and pitch development. You’ll advance your own venture while learning from guest founders and giving and receiving peer feedback. Whether launching your first startup, nonprofit, or creative project, or scaling one already underway, you’ll make measurable progress and build an entrepreneurial toolkit applicable to any career. It prepares students for Halloran Lab Iterate & Expand grants, pitch competitions, and the spring Venture Showcase.
Unique Experiences, Funding Opportunities
Treks
Students are taken off campus to learn about innovation, entrepreneurship networks, leading-edge organizations, and to attend conferences and more. Some of our past treks include trips to the NESCAC Entrepreneurship Day at MIT, the Roux Institute at Northeastern University, Harvard Business School Africa Business Beyond Borders Conference, IDEA Conference at Boston University, and the TechCrunch Early Stage Conference. Future treks could include multiple-day explorations of startup ecosystems in thriving innovation epicenters such as Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Austin, Seattle, and the Raleigh-Durham area.
Grants
We believe early resources are critical to the success of any venture. The Carr Ideate and Explore Grant, the first grant stage, helps individuals/teams do the early, critical work of identifying and validating an unmet need. We invite both for-profit and nonprofit ventures to apply.
The Compagna-Sennett Iterate and Expand Grant, made possible through the generosity of Robert Compagna ’76 and Joan Sennett ’76 through their Compagna-Sennett Entrepreneurial Seed Fund, is intended for teams that have already identified an unmet need and are ready to test the value proposition of their product or service. This may involve building a prototype or a minimal viable product (MVP) to test the product-market fit.
Mentors
Our Colby Halloran Lab Mentors Program (CHaMP) is made up of alumni, parents, and industry experts eager to foster a vibrant and supportive community for aspiring innovators. Mentors play a vital role in creating a lasting impact and inspiring our students to reach new heights.
Students participate in a three-hour session, expert-led workshop on design thinking, customer discovery, and crafting investment pitches, all while learning about the specific needs of an emerging technology or industry. They gain insights from industry experts and corporate partners to evaluate the real-world challenges entrepreneurs are facing. In collaboration with fellow Colby students, they conduct interviews with potential customers and various stakeholders to identify market pain points and unmet needs. These insights are then used to develop pitches for potential solutions that address the critical needs of the industry in focus.
Final Pitch Competition
Halloran Lab Venture Showcase event: Each year concludes with a showcase event to highlight the incredible ideas and work of the most promising startups. All ventures that have qualified for this prestigious year-end pitch competition by successfully completing their Compagna-Sennett Iterate and Expand Grant Panels will have the opportunity to compete for a portion of $25,000 in grant funding. This event is open to all members of the Colby community, including faculty, staff, and students, as well as the general public.
Jan Plan
Jan Plan courses run in collaboration with the Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship. See our Jan Plan website for more details on each course that ran in 2025.
Clubs
In fall 2025, the new Colby Formula Electric Mule Motorworks Club was formed. It is a group of driven students who plan to compete in the educational engineering competition, Formula SAE, and create a lasting hub for hands-on, interdisciplinary innovation at Colby. Their goal is to design, build, and race in the Formula Electric Competition at the Loudon Speedway in New Hampshire in April 2027. The Halloran Lab supported their spring 2026 trek to Loudon to see firsthand how things go and to network with all the competing teams to prepare for their first race in 2027.
Taking off in 2024, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Club (I&E) at Colby is on a mission to build a vibrant student community around entrepreneurship and innovation. In 2025, the club kicked off their Colby Ventures Firechat Speaker Series. Since its inception, the I&E Club has hosted major events, including the Innovation Club Launch party, the Student Founder Social, and Match Madness.