Breakthrough Lab (B-Lab) Venture Showcase

Brown University’s Breakthrough Lab (B-Lab) is a unique, intensive 8-week accelerator program that supports student entrepreneurs developing high-impact ventures. The Venture Showcase presentations are a significant milestone for the students who spent their summer in Providence and in the local community exploring, experimenting, and advancing their ventures. 

B-Lab provides students access to high-level sector specific mentoring, business and technical support, focused programming, and dedicated space. Our ventures span a wide range of disciplines including, bioengineering, sustainable and healthy foods, fashion, software, and publishing. In B-Lab, we value the personal and professional development of our participants alongside the development of their ventures, and in so doing we aim to continue building an ecosystem of next-generation entrepreneurs.

* Tickets will be released here, Thursday, September 6.

Schedule

5:30 PM    Doors Open

6:00 – 8:00 PM    Remarks from President Christina Paxson, B-Lab Mentor, Michael Kaplan ’95  & Venture Pitches 

8:00 – 9:00 PM    Reception

MICHAEL KAPLAN ’95
Michael Kaplan ’95 is the co-founder and CEO of Fashion to Figure, a leading plus-size fashion company dedicated to providing trend-driven fashion. Kaplan’s inspiration came from his great-grandmother, Lena Bryant, the revolutionary dressmaker who lead full-figured fashion over a century ago with the launch of Lane Bryant.

He is a senior advisor and mentor to XRC Labs, a venture capital incubator located at Parson’s School of Design and a partner at EB Capital, a growth equity and venture capital firm. He is also on foundation leadership council for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and on the board of directors for The Lost Explorer an adventure lifestyle and clothing brand. He graduated from Harvard Business School in 2002.