The NYC Small Business Consulting Fellowship at Columbia Business School provides support to MBA and EMBA student leaders of teams that complete semester-long projects for NYC small business clients. Students typically work in strategy consulting teams of 4-6 for clients over an 8-10 week period, offering tailored solutions to challenges in operations, marketing, finance, growth strategies, technology and more. This fellowship program is supported by the Tamer Institute’s advisory board and is part of the Inclusive Entrepreneurship Initiative, which aims to create entrepreneurial ecosystems within local communities through bridging social, digital, and economic divides.
Questions? Contact: [email protected]
Eligible Projects
Projects should be semester-long starting in the fall or spring semester, and must be completed by the end of April. Team leaders selected for projects that are part of the Small Business Consulting Program are eligible to receive this fellowship, upon successful completion of the project.
Student team leaders that independently source their own proposed project should contact us before starting the project, and provide a project description that includes the key questions for the project team, data sets (if applicable) and sources of research to explore, faculty or organization contacts the team will work with, a timeline, and deliverables. These projects will be approved on a case-by-case basis based on having:
- A clear purpose of the project and its use of business knowledge and skills, practices, or approaches;
- Clear expectations, realistic scope and deliverable(s) given the semester timeline;
- Collective skillset of the team that applies to address the project needs and timeframe;
- Clear team roles, client contact, and any advisors that have agreed to work with the project team.
Award and Team Obligations
The fellowship provides $1,000 which will be disbursed as an award to the team leader of the project. An additional $500 in award funding is available if the proceeds (or some portion) of the award will be used to benefit the small business client.
As well as the final deliverables specified in the project description, the team leader must:
- Provide a short written summary of the project and its impact, to be made available online;
- Deliver a project presentation in February (for fall projects) or April (for spring projects), which may be open to students, faculty, alumni, supporters, and external organizations;
- Complete a short online survey about the project experience; and
- Attend (schedules permitting) and invite clients to attend an inclusive entrepreneurship reception held on campus, hosted by the program at Tamer Institute.
For potential client organizations
If you are interested in working with a pro bono small business consulting team of MBA/EMBA students, please visit the Small Business Consulting Program website and check the application deadline (typically at the start of the fall and spring semesters). These projects may address strategic questions, market/customer segmentation growth, product development, or operational/supply chain/financial issues faced by your small business. Students can typically work up to 5-10 hours per week on projects during the academic semester.
Please note that if you are matched with a student team, they will be required to make a presentation about their project that is open to the public, and provide a short written description of the project for the Tamer Institute's website. Clients should work with student teams to determine what information should be shared. In addition, student teams should not be asked by clients to sign confidentiality agreements.