Our Team

Collab's team combines backgrounds in both startups and community organizing in New Haven.

Caroline Smith, Co-Founder & Co-Director

Caroline Smith is a co-founder of Collab, a community-centered accelerator for Connecticut entrepreneurs and project builders. Before Collab, she was the Co-Director of Marketing at SeeClickFix — a civic technology company that connects citizens with their local governments. She also founded New Haven Bike Month — an effort to build bicycle justice through neighborhood empowerment. Currently, she was elected the Chair of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team. She’s received the New Haven Biz Women in Business Award, Connecticut Magazine 40 Under 40, City of New Haven Individual Innovator Award, Yale Presidential Public Service Fellowship, and Yale Seton Elm-Ivy Award for her work.

Margaret Lee, Co-Founder & Co-Director

Margaret Lee is a co-founder of Collab, a community-centered accelerator for Connecticut entrepreneurs and project builders. Before Collab, she was the Co-Director of Marketing at SeeClickFix, a New Haven civic technology startup. Before that, she worked at the Yale Entrepreneurship Institute (now the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale) where she managed Yale’s academic year and summer accelerators, seeing through more than 100 student and faculty ventures. She is the former Chair of the Elm City Innovation Collaborative and currently serves as Commissioner of the Economic Development Commission. She received the New Haven Biz Women in Business Award for her work.

Advisors

James G. Boyle

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Yale Entrepreneurial Institute

Anika Singh Lemar

Clinical Associate Professor, Yale Law School

Domingo Medina

Founder, Peels & Wheels Composting

David Salinas

Founder, District

Karla Lindquist

Economic Development Officer, City of New Haven

Andrew Alden 

Senior Vice President for Investments, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

David Goldblum

President, The Hurley Group

Leela Bhashyam

Head of Impact, Liberty & Co.

Lee Cruz

Community Outreach Director, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

Slate Ballard

Co-Founder, The Grove
Co-Founder, The State House

Genevieve Walker

Chief Operating Officer, ConnCAT

Matt Storeygard

Director of Investments, CT Innovations

Reverend Kevin Ewing

Founder and CEO, Baobab Studios
Acting Minister, First Church of Christ

Scott Hurwitz

Partner, Hurwitz & Hurwitz LLC

Sade Jean-Jacques

Founder, Pascale’s Body Care