Enstitute: Apprenticeship + Cohort = Applied MBA

Tomorrow this Financial District apartment turned dorm room will house 11 aspiring entrepreneurs between 18 and 24 that will begin a two year experience working in NYC’s hottest tech startups.
Enstitute is a new way to think about post-secondary learning. The two year on-ramp to the tech sector could occur before, after, during, or instead of a traditional college experience. The program combines the learn-by-doing benefits of an apprenticeship with individual and cohort learning experiences–an applied MBA.
As recent graduates of American universities, Shaila Ittycheria and Kane Sarhan decided to build an alternative. “Higher ed is not working,” Kane said (in March), “but internships do.”  Formed as a nonprofit organization, E[nstitute] seeks to create transformative learning experiences for young people.  Kane and Shaila are fundraising to launch and scale the program but think it can become largely self-sustaining in the future.
Katie Vander Ark (my daughter) has been hard at work building furniture, raising money, planning events–whatever it takes to make this new pathway a valuable experience for Fellows.
Every city should have an Enstitute.  It’s a talent pipeline for tech startups.  It’s an alternative for young people that want to jump into a startup rather than sitting in a classroom.
The following NYC entrepreneurs agreed to review applications for apprentices:

• Alexa Vontoble, Learnvest
• David Kidder, Clickable
• Mark Davis, Kohort
• Hillary Mason, Bit.ly
• Ben Lere, Thrillist
• Nate Westheimer, Picturelife
• Hayley Brna & Katia Beauchamp, Birchbox
• Wiley Cerilli, Singlplatform
• Brian Schechter & AAron Schildkrout, Howaboutwe
• Brian Snyder, Everything Butt Art
• David Bloom & Felix Sheng, Ordr.in
• Fabian Pfortmuller, Holstee
• Jonathan Stein, Betterment
• Daniel Klaus, K2 Labls
• David Kidder, Clickable
• Irving Fain, Crowdtwist
• Jason Berman, Unified
• Jonathan Stein, Betterment
• Philip James, Lot 18
• Reece Pacheco & Dan Spinosa, Shelby.tv
• Sascha Lewis, Flavorpill
• Michael Smith, Streeteasy
• Matt Shampine, Wework labs
• Nora Abousteit, Burdastyle
• Philip James, Lot 18
• Inaki Berenguer, Pixable
• Caren Maio, Nestio
• Chantel Waterbury, Chloe + Isabel
• Lee Hoffman, Veri
• Mark Davis, Kohort
• Nihal Mehta, Localresponse
• Tony Haile, Chartbest
• Vic Singh, Tracks & Eniac Ventures
• Neil Capel, Sailthru
• Neil Blumenthal, Warby Parker

For more, see this 4.4.12 HuffPo feature on E[stitute].