Harvard Innovation Labs—the university-wide program that encompasses the i-lab, Launch Lab X and the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab—has a new executive director.
Matt Segneri will take over from Jodi Goldstein in March, having spent the previous five years as director of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative. During that time, Segneri also served as co-lead of the HBS New Venture Competition; as an MBA Ombudsperson; and as a judge for and advisor to the President’s Innovation Challenge, MassChallenge and the MIT $100K Competition.
Segneri also has a background working directly with the City of Boston: He spent nearly two years as an advisor to the mayor shortly after earning his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 2010.
"My belief is that business exists to help people. It can be an incredible force for good," Segneri told me. "In order to create world-changing innovation, you have to work across stages and industries and organizational forms. We want folks who are building incredible companies, who are launching amazing nonprofits, who are changing companies and governments from within."
As director, Segneri plans to take the lessons he's learned from his years working with social impact startups and apply them to the vast array of startups working in the Innovation Labs at any given time.
I caught up with Segneri over the phone to talk about his aspirations for the program. The interview below has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Matt, you've been involved with, aside from of course Harvard, plenty of incubators and pitch competitions, including MassChallenge and MIT $100K. I'm wondering how these different experiences have shaped your thinking when it comes to early-stage startups and incubators.
I've been fortunate to see the Boston startup community from a number of different perches—here at HBS, at the mayor's office, through the lens of MassChallenge and other incubators and accelerators. At Harvard, it's an incredibly exciting time for the university. Right across from the Innovation Lab, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is moving across the street. The enterprise research campus is coming online in the next few years. First and foremost, it's a really incredible moment to step into the i-lab after the eight years of runway it's had. I was there when it opened in 2011, when I was working for the mayor, and it's been fantastic to see how it's brought the idea of One Harvard and brought the 12 different schools together to work across ideas and disciplines to build new companies and new nonprofits and a host of different organizations.
More generally, what is important for the city and the region is to build on the strengths of so many different sectors—education, health, increasingly data, AI, robotics and life sciences. To me, being at the intersection of all those things with the i-lab, Launch Lab X and the Pagliuca Life Lab is a really exciting moment to, within Harvard, be working on some of the sectors that are deeply important to the city and region.
Absolutely. Now, Harvard i-lab is one of the most well-known incubators in the state, possibly the country. As you mentioned, it's had a great deal of success since its founding. But despite that, how are you going to ensure there's continued innovation and bring the Harvard i-lab into the future?
It's a great question. I feel fortunate to be stepping in after my predecessors, Gordon Jones and Jodi Goldstein, have built it into something over the last eight years that really brings the best of the different schools within Harvard, but also members of the community of entrepreneurs at large, together to build these great ventures. Going forward, the first thing I want to do is deeply understand the entrepreneurs who are part of our venture incubation programs who are then joining in the middle of the semester, when there's a lot of teams underway doing great work. What's important is to both build and deepen connections across the schools and Harvard, but also to our entrepreneurial neighbors, including the citizens and residents of Allston and Brighton as well as the whole ecosystem of players. The real spirit of what the i-lab is aiming to do is build world-changing companies, solve complex problems and take the really impact-driven people that are part of this university and channel their energy toward building cross-disciplinary companies that solve some of the biggest, most complex problems we're facing.
If you were to look ahead to the next 12 months, are there any new initiatives we should be on the lookout for? Something you're particularly excited about?
I'll be stepping into the role in March. I'm looking to learn a ton and to build deep relationships with everyone who's part of the i-lab and broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. In terms of new initiatives or immediate plans, it feels early to say, but I'm excited to build on the foundation of strength and ensure that we continue to bring the best of this university to solving the challenges that the city and region face.
I'm glad you mentioned bridging the gap that that might exist between Harvard and some of its neighbors, because one of the criticisms, frankly, of Harvard i-lab is that it can be a little bit insular. I'm wondering what steps you're planning to take to make sure that the people who are working inside of the i-lab and the companies that result from the i-lab benefit the Greater Boston ecosystem.
It's a great point. To me, in my role, I obviously operate in service to our student and alumni entrepreneurs at the university, but I'd say most especially to this city. It's a city that I love and have been a part of for many years. I care deeply about ensuring that the work that we're doing, and the ventures we're creating, are highly effective, compelling, successful ventures, but also that they are benefiting directly not just the economy of Boston, Massachusetts, but really are developing products and services and offerings that are making people's lives better.
My belief is that business exists to help people. It can be an incredible force for good. I think that should be channeled most especially to people in the community that we're all a part of. Some of that means thinking about the programs, offerings, everything we do, both warranting our work and serving the world and region around us. We also want to be open and accessible to folks who are drawing on the resources of the i-lab. I think it has always been a real partner in the Allston-Brighton community in terms of programs and offerings that are open not just to the folks who are students here.
The questions I've had for you so far have been more forward-looking. But I'm curious about your time with the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, especially as you think it'll apply to your work with the i-lab going forward.
Within the five years I've been in the SEI, our work within the initiative has been at the cross-section of businesses for social impact, social enterprises, innovation in the public sector. What I've taken away from that is that in order to create world-changing innovation, you have to work across stages and industries and organizational forms. We want folks who are building incredible companies, who are launching amazing nonprofits, who are changing companies and governments from within. Working at the intersection of the public, private and nonprofit sectors in SEI has convinced me that innovation is important in every sector. The type of leader and entrepreneur we need is someone who has the capacity to work across all these different sectors to create value for every part of the business—the customers, employees, suppliers, partners. People have different names for this new form of business or capitalism. The Business Roundtable changed, in their statement on the purpose of a corporation, who businesses exist to serve. At heart, again, I believe business is a force for good, that it exists to help people. I'm really excited to be working with incredible leaders and entrepreneurs in the i-lab who are going to be doing just that.
Wonderful. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how everything goes. Is there anything else that you want to add?
It is a really exciting moment in time for the university and the city. We're a hub of innovation in so many different ways that it really feels like a privilege to be able to step into this role and continue to serve the university and city that I love.
