Veterans Future Lab launches in Industry City

A new startup incubator is set to join the Brooklyn scene, with the launch of the Veterans Future Lab, to be located in Sunset Park’s Industry City.

The incubator will be for veterans of the U.S. military, and will join NYU Tandon’s other Future Lab incubators: the Urban Future Lab, Data Future Lab, and Digital Future Lab.

NYU Tandon is partnering with Barclays, which will offer mentorship and guest lectures for the founders in the lab. All accepted founders will receive subsidized office space at the lab, and scholarships for Tandon’s take on a post-bacc-for-engineering program.

1st NY State #entrepreneurs incubator launches for #veterans. Thanks @BarclaysIB, @nygov https://t.co/KC6ixgl3sR #NYU pic.twitter.com/7eA93XcCsC

— NYU Tandon (@nyutandon) November 13, 2017

“The challenge that veterans face is access to professional networks and resources when they come out of the service,” Tim Lawton said in an email. Lawton is a veteran and the cofounder of the Brooklyn-based data science startup Frontier7. “The toughest challenge for veterans is understanding how their experiences and training apply to entrepreneurship. The Veterans Future Lab will help veterans with that translation.”

Lawton said that he experienced those challenges himself, although he says going through business school helped him a lot.

“Even now I find myself having ah-ha moments about some of my previous experiences applying directly to what I’m doing, in a leadership sense and otherwise,” he explained.

The lab received $1 million in funding through a Regional Economic Development Council initiative from the state and will have room for 15 startups.