A ‘playground’ for innovators: Entrepreneurs bring ideas to life at Richmond space

Peggy Stansbery, Staff Writer

VCU students, alumni and community members push, experiment with and showcase their innovative ideas at Shift Retail Lab. 

The Shift Retail Lab provides current and former VCU students a space to test and sell their products and services, according to Garret Westlake, founder of Shift Retail Lab, associate vice provost for innovation and executive director of the da Vinci center at VCU. 

“Shift Retail Lab has been my idea and something I have wanted to bring to students for a long time,” Westlake said. 

Westlake had worked with student entrepreneurs at a couple of universities and noticed there was no place for them to do business and test their new products and services, Westlake said. 

“If you look at the sciences we teach biology and then you have a biology lab. We teach entrepreneurship but there was never a lab for students to practice,” Westlake said. “What they really needed was not another pitch competition but what they really needed was a place to sell and test products.”

He said the Shift Retail Lab was built on a black box theater concept so it could be changed into a variety of different configurations. The space’s flexibility has allowed the diversity of VCU students to be reflected, according to Westlake.

“The different ideas and backgrounds and experiences of our students really come through in the Shift Retail Lab, and that has been so rewarding,” Westlake said. 

Shift Retail Lab’s doors officially opened in January, according to Westlake. Since then 115 different organizations have used the space and 5,910 people have come through the doors. 

Director of Innovation and Design at VCU da Vinci Center and Shift Retail Lab Lloyd Young helped co-found and refine the idea for the space, according to Westlake. 

Young helps oversee Shift Retail Lab and the brand and communication for da Vinci and Shift Retail Lab as well, according to Young. 

Young said she started working with Westlake to create a “playground” for participants to test and present their ideas at any stage. 

“Shift Student Storefront is a multifunctional retail space where past and present VCU students can showcase their work to gain insights and test their products, services and ideas with real world customers,” Young said. 

Students, alumni and community partners due so through the program called “Shelfies,” according to Young. Participants in the Shelfie program apply for and join a three to four week cohort where they get to network and share insights and co-host a pop up market, according to Young. 

“This programming has been so fun to watch the growth of everyone’s ideas and build community,” Young said.

Within its first year, Shift Retail Lab has been named by Fast Company as an honorable mention in the Urban Design category of the magazine’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards, according to Young. 

Beyond the “Shelfies” program, Young wanted to create a place for all students at Shift Retail Lab, Young said. 

“I am passionate about cross-disciplinary experiences and education,” Young said. “While I love what we’ve built for entrepreneurs, I also wanted to create an opportunity for students from all disciplines to engage with Shift Retail Lab.”

Young co-taught Shift Innovation 591 with VCU assistant professor Jessica Collins, where students worked together to create a magazine that celebrates Shift Retail Lab and student entrepreneurship, according to Young. 

15 students from different disciplines came together to create a 90 page magazine in a semester, according to Collins.

“It’s a completely brand new course. We all built the magazine together from start to finish,” Collins said. “There was absolutely no example. The first day of class we brainstormed what we wanted to see in the magazine only knowing that the focus would be on Shift Retail Lab and the idea of student entrepreneurship.”

The magazine is having a launch party for the first issue on Dec. 8, according to Collins.

Pre-medicine graduate student Malique Middleton is a Shelfie at Shift Retail. Middleton said he applied to be a “Shelfie” because he wanted the opportunity to experiment with retail spaces for his skin care line, Gewd Botanicals. 

“It was the first time I got to see how my products would look on the shelf, which was one of the best aspects,” Middleton said. “It was an inspiration for me to keep going.”

The Shift Retail Lab helped grow and support his business by giving him the resources to create surveys to get customer feedback and the platform for customers to interact with his products in person, according to Middleton. 

Middleton said he enjoys the collaborative, diverse environment at the Shift Retail Lab as well. The Shelfies come from various sectors and paths of the entrepreneurial industry and have the opportunity to network with each other and help each other solve problems.

“More people need to be able to take advantage of this opportunity because it is literally a storefront right there on broad street.” Middleton said. “It’s a prime location for a lot of entrepreneurs to start off their journey and figure out what the next best step is or even to just test out their ideas.”