Being part of the NYU Leslie Entrepreneurship Institute was, by far, the best thing that has happened to me since I arrived at NYU.

My roommate and I had been sitting on an idea for a while; one of those projects you keep coming back to but never quite commit to. College felt like the right moment to actually try. So we looked into whether NYU had any support for that, had a couple of conversations with the coaches, and never looked back.

There's something hard to explain about being surrounded by people who are all building something and genuinely rooting for each other. Nobody here is competing with anyone; we help each other. And somehow, doing that while also building something from scratch makes both things feel more possible.

The good memories reflect that: the nights at the Leslie eLab, the founder dinners, the walks outside when you needed to reset, the happy hours, even the pranks. I hope future students get to experience some of that.

I also can't stress enough the events hosted at the Leslie eLab every week. They're great for when you need a break, want to learn something, or just need a bit of inspiration. It's not every day you get to meet the co-founders of Perplexity and Runway or get introduced to VCs.

But the part that actually changed how I think came from the coaches. And that's where I'd put the most valuable thing I got. I came in convinced that, given the times we live in, building fast and iterating toward the "final version" was the right approach. It's a real temptation. But it solves the wrong problem. Speed of shipping is genuinely an advantage, but treating it as a substitute for a hypothesis is a trap.

So, do your customer discovery. Correctly. First and foremost. You will lose a lot of time if you don't. That said, the founders in residence and coaches are the best resource you have access to here. They are GENEROUS. Use them as much as you can. Your venture will be in a different place if you do. The space, the tools, and the resources are all hard to find elsewhere.

It's no coincidence that NYU is a top 10 university for entrepreneurship in the US. A big part of that is thanks to the people working here at the Leslie Entrepreneurship Institute.