What Is Café CoLab?

Café CoLab is a mobile incubator and experiential learning platform for emerging foodpreneurs. Residency offers participating Fellows the opportunity to test concepts, gain experience in revenue management, access mentorship and elevate their visibility.

How Does It Work?

During their residency, local entrepreneurs run their business from Café CoLab, Y.O.U. interns work alongside them, and the community gets to eat, drink and root for homegrown talent building something from the ground up!

To support this experience, Nestlé provides grant funding, food & beverage expertise and mentorship, while JumpStart provides the infrastructure, advising and partnerships to make it all work. Café CoLab is built to last — a sustainable, rotating model where each Fellow strengthens the next through shared learning, systems, branding, data and experience.

Entrepreneur
Operated

Rotating
Residency

Hands-On
Advising

Mentorship

Tech-Enabled
Tools

Supported
by Nestlé

Where Can You Find Us?

See Café CoLab? Stop.

Grab something delicious and support someone building something special.

Find the Café CoLab pop-up schedule and menu at cafecolabcle.com.

Meet Our First Fellow

E’Lyric Christopher didn’t stumble into entrepreneurship. She’s been at it since high school, spending 12 years growing Brie & Buttercream into a beloved local brand. Along the way she kept learning and evolving, and SoulPour is where that journey has taken her.

As a Fellow, she’s able to start growing her café and social lounge concept rooted in craft, culture and community, while gaining firsthand experience and testing new skills and concepts.

How Do I Apply?

Apply to be a future Entrepreneurship Fellow. Applications for the next season are coming soon.

Shared Impact

Café CoLab turns partnership into shared progress. Together, JumpStart and Nestlé are creating a hands-on platform where emerging entrepreneurs can test ideas, develop operational confidence and gain experience in revenue managament; interns can receive practical experience with JumpStart; and community members can discover and support local talent. Each residency strengthens more than one business, building a repeatable model for collaboration, learning and neighborhood-rooted economic opportunity.

If you’re looking for meaningful ways to connect with emerging entrepreneurs, engage your teams, test ideas in the community or invest in the next generation of business talent, we’d love to have that conversation. Complete the form below to get connected.