How Founder-Fellow Connections are Fueling the Impact Studio Fire

By Katie Moore (BA ’25) and Erica Yang

As November rolls around, the Impact Studio is reaching a key midway point in the semester. Impact Studio Founders and Applebaum Impact Design Fellows have been split into cohorts led by expert coaches for the semester. Unlike last year, where each Founder was assigned a Fellow, Fellows now float between Founders within each cohort to provide specific expertise as ventures encounter challenges. Beyond Coworking Fridays, these small duos or trios meet together throughout the week to develop their businesses. With a new, dynamic structure, Impact Studio participants have settled into their groove and are preparing for an upcoming visit to BCG’s office in Detroit, where they will get to pitch their ventures and receive feedback from consultants. In their hard work, founders and fellows alike have reached new and unexpected heights in their ventures.

“We did a lot of things I never would’ve thought to do on my own,” said Aaron Slater (MBA ‘26), founder of Rerooted: A Black Birthright, a venture aiming to create a birthright program for Black youth. “We created an interview directory and guide, and a template to reach out to people. We figured out what orgs are doing similar things to what we’re doing. We also developed our mission statement and entire overview.”

The Impact Studio has been pivotal to helping ventures meet their milestones. “The Impact Studio has been the perfect place for our growth,” said Olive Ren (BSI ‘25), co-founder of Conmodous, an edtech startup aimed at easing the learning curve for entry-level engineers and just beginning to get into user testing– a milestone they never thought they’d reach in just a few months. “Sometimes you don’t want to do anything, but you walk in here and they feed you, and there are people who give you honest opinions but they’re still kind. The cohort is also really good at keeping me accountable — thinking about the fact that I need a demo at some point really pushed me.”

“What I appreciate about the Studio and coaches are the deliverables we have to make, so it keeps you on track,” echoed Molly Townsend Cho (MBA ‘27), the mind behind CollectiveZ, which endeavors to connect gig economy workers to healthcare plans. “It’s really helped from ideation to execution.”

Not only did the Studio implement a new structure of cohorts of Founders and Fellows led by expert coaches, but the Studio has also been bringing in guest speakers for monthly Evening Coworking sessions. The addition of these new resources has really pushed this year’s entrepreneurial students to go above and beyond. “Just in comparison to last year I think is an interesting dynamic, mainly because last year you were just with your Fellow or Founder and this year there’s so many more people you can tap into,” noted Tiara Julien (MBA and MSI ‘25), back for her second year as an Applebaum Impact Design Fellow. “I like that we have the opportunity to go and present in front of consultants this year… Even the speakers we have in the Studio, it’s great to get their perspective… [and] it’s a motivational factor for everyone else.”

This motivation has fueled stronger Founder-Fellow connections than ever before, even with an increased pool of expertise. “First and foremost, my fellow’s amazing,” said Slater when asked about the reasons behind recent successes with his venture. “She can create a roadmap to make a vision become a thing so I think we work really well together… At first we were meeting once a week, but when we figured out what we want to achieve this entire year, we increased the frequency of visits and now we’re on track to get more done than previously thought. I’m really happy to have her as a partner because I would’ve made a lot more mistakes”

“I’m definitely most grateful for my Fellows and for their labor and expertise,” added Cho. “Something that I love is that our subject matter expertise is in different areas, and I think we really complement each other well. For example, right now Tanisha Kelly [a Fellow] is doing qualitative survey data while Felipe [another Fellow] is doing market research, neither of which I have a strong background in. Meanwhile, I’m conducting interviews to take an informative, qualitative approach. We all get to play to our strengths.”

Impact Studio work is even helping build connections outside of the cohort. “I found a person in my research [at the Studio] who had a similar template, so I asked if I could use some of his code,” said Ren on the rapid development of her prototype. “Using ideas from my founders was also super helpful — highly recommend finding a co-founder!”

From engineering to education startups, the Founders and Fellows alike are reaping great rewards from the Impact Studio. “Honestly, I’m so grateful,” said Ren. “I’ve made connections for a lifetime.” As to where these connections and growth go from here — only time will tell, and we are excited to see what comes next!