Tell Me More: A Conversation with Your I-Corps Team: Dario Vasquez Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Design, Columbia University
- NYC RIN
- Jun 17
- 6 min read
Where did you grow up, and what sparked your interest in entrepreneurship and the work you do now?
I’m originally from Queens, New York, but my family moved to rural Pennsylvania; that’s where I went to high school and attended college in PA as well. I received my undergraduate degree from Dickinson College, a BA in Environmental Studies and Sociology.
The first spark I had towards entrepreneurship came from meeting the CEO of Monster Worldwide, the parent company of Monster.com, Andrew McKelvey, when I was a high school student. At the time I was playing a lot of soccer and had started a soccer camp with some of my teammates. In a sense, that was my first startup.
McKelvey really opened my eyes to the world of entrepreneurship. He’s also a tremendous philanthropist; I applied to and benefited from a scholarship initiative from the McKelvey Foundation that supports students at 10 schools in rural PA. McKelvey was really an “anything is possible” kind of person, and he inspired me to be a good steward of that philosophy.
During college I studied abroad. When you see more of the world, you get a better understanding of different places and cultures and how people value being connected with one another. I believe you understand yourself better by meeting people on the ground. That really was fundamental to my direction after college.
With my background in environmental science, I spent many semesters traveling and exploring flora and fauna—literally. I spent time in the Southern states, where I learned that many local environmental problems come from upstream via the Mississippi River, and saw how that affects policies, people, and places that are literally downstream. It helped me to better understand how things are interconnected.
Eventually I started working in education. First, I was at the Institute of International Education, managing grants for foundations, awarding scholars and changemakers working on projects with a potential for deep impact in people’s lives to address global problems. I was introduced to the world of philanthropy, meeting experts in bio-stewardship, peacebuilding and security, publishing, arts, and business. That’s also where I met Rob Garris, a dear mentor over the years.
And then I came to Columbia. I’ve always loved universities and education—it’s the backbone of my upbringing. It’s a very sacred place for me, where you get to learn from others and explore different topics and get to think about things from a perspective you may not have previously considered. It’s great to be in this community, meeting with researchers in the public and private sector—it’s a real hub for exploring and innovating new ideas.
Tell me about I-Corps at Columbia. What motivated you to become an I-Corps instructor?
After I came to Columbia, I started working with Ivy Schultz, the senior director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Design at Columbia. We run all kinds of entrepreneurship events on campus. In addition to awarding money and bringing people together, we launched the Start Me Up bootcamp, which is what we call our regional I-Corps program.
It’s so important to get people out of the building to learn. Getting out of your comfort zone and into a new framework is critical for anyone who wants to explore a new idea and its potential impact and see what the realistic pathways forward might be. We provide a blank canvas for people to quantify different metrics and see how what they are building might respond in the market, and to learn to identify the real time headwinds and tailwinds in different industries.
While working at Columbia I also attended and graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), which gave me an opportunity to explore innovation and management globally. I was able to learn about how startups can have meaningful impact across different countries. I traveled with Ivy to Tunisia, Morocco and other parts of the African continent, where we sought to support entrepreneurship ecosystems through educational programs for early-stage founders on the ground.
Along with running the Start Me Up Bootcamp, I work to promote engineering and the NSF I-Corps program as a hub for entrepreneurial activity through outreach and collaboration at Columbia. I’m also actively working on strengthening relationships with organizations across the broader NYC entrepreneurial ecosystem to support mentorship opportunities for Columbia’s startup founders.
What question do you wish entrepreneurs asked?
It’s helpful to constantly ask yourself, who in my network would be helpful to me? Pick out those strategic people early on and bring them into your world to inform your next steps. Sometimes people start to work together without fully realizing what everyone brings to the table, and then they must have an uncomfortable conversation when they determine they need more. It’s also never too early to have conversations about funding etc
Entrepreneurs are often focused on the present, but they should always be forward thinking. Ask, is there a market for what you are building, what do things look like in five years, is the market growing, is funding getting hit or growing. Those questions go hand in hand with not being married to your idea. You need to be willing to pivot and look at things from another perspective, now and in the future.
Remember also that nothing is going to be perfect in the first go, and that’s ok. Scientists and researchers like things to work, but people are not robots, and it’s ok to be slightly imperfect. That gives you the range and flexibility to evolve.
I enjoy that at least 50 percent of the teams we work with learn to step back and ask, how can I evolve, how can this develop into something else? Often successful products have different solutions than what they were originally meant for.
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve experienced as an I-Corps instructor?
I try to remind myself that we are not training people to be startup founders—that’s not the business we are in. We are really in the business of challenging teams and researchers, changing how they perceive the marketplace, and giving them confidence.
Even over the short two-week program of our I-Corps, you can see the teams find their way. It might be a radical a-ha moment, or it might be a lightbulb about their product, team, or themselves using the I-Corps learning principles. They are learning to understand things in a different way; the program gets them talking to people. We need more of that, getting people to understand others’ perspectives. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and learning to adapt and see things from other perspectives are valuable life skills.
I also love that we can work with other universities in such an impactful and meaningful way; I don’t think that happens often enough. It’s great to get together on calls and in networking meetings with the other Hub schools to learn best practices from each other and understand what’s working well. It’s a nice way for higher education institutions to come together and improve.
What advice would you give to I-Corps participants?
Meet people in person! Especially post-Covid, there are more opportunities that you can have in person, whether going to trade shows or conferences, etc. When you sit down with someone face to face, you learn more than you ever would reading an article that may have been published months ago. Doing things in person sharpens your communications skills and creates value in your relationships.
Can you share a recent accomplishment (or two)?
I’ve been running the Start Me Up bootcamp since 2018; we are getting more teams and more visibility on campus. It’s great to see it grow. We’ve had over 175 teams go through our cohort; collectively, that means over 3,000 interviews conducted. It’s great to take stock of the impact.
We recently celebrated milestones from two Start Me Up teams. Sara Technology, won the 2025 New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) grand prize of $25K for its AI-powered platform expanding access to pediatric speech therapy. Sara Technology participated in the bootcamp at Columbia last year and won first place in the Open track in Startup Columbia 2025.
Additionally, the Columbia Engineering team CIPER was recognized for the potential of their invention to create a device that autonomously administers IV medication for nurses, helping to reduce errors in healthcare. Receiving $20,000 in non-dilutive funding, CIPER participated in VentureWell’s nationally recognized Early-Stage Innovator Training Program, which provides student teams with the training, coaching, and peer networking opportunities that will help them launch their innovation.
What are you reading (or hoping to read soon)?
I’m reading Good Energy, by Dr. Casey Means, about metabolic mitochondria, being healthy, and the human body. I also recently read Good Awkward by Henna Pryor; it’s about a young woman dealing with shyness, and where that took her. The book’s message is that it’s ok to be awkward; that can make you stand out. It’s a very helpful notion that aligns with the I-Corps process—don’t try to be perfect, just be who you are.
What do you do to relax?
I take a lot of spin classes! I’m also a big fan of Broadway and I try to see a show at least once a month. I think that’s part of being a New Yorker, taking advantage of the arts, as there’s so much great stuff to see. I recently saw “Hell’s Kitchen”—it’s a great show about New York City and its thriving arts community (and Alicia Keys!).
