Family Dinner Recap: January 25

by Elizabeth Savin ’25

On Tuesday, January 25, Residents of The Garage gathered together for the second Family Dinner of the quarter. Family Dinner is a core element of The Garage’s Residency program, offering students incubating their startups the opportunity to gather in person to develop a strong, tight-knit community. 

Like every week, Family Dinner started with the staff sharing announcements or any upcoming events. Students are also welcome to share announcements related to their businesses. Next, students shared successes and failures - another key piece of the evening. While we are so excited to celebrate wins and milestones alongside our student founders, the entrepreneurial journey is filled with no’s, mistakes, and missteps - but ultimately, these all result in learning. So, we invite students to openly and honestly share their failures with the rest of the community and what they learned along the way. They even get to follow this up with a confetti popper - celebrating the failure! In a world where students are focused on grades and classes, this is a welcome change.

So, what were some of the big successes? This past week, Mark IV Games received their first review of 5 stars from a Chicago-based board game photographer. Also, Harrison Larner of 8 in the Box Productions attended an NCAA conference and learned that the side meetings that happen before and after the conference are many times the most valuable.

After sharing their successes and failures from the week, students dove into the getting to know you game Hot Seat. Student Founders were put into groups of four. With just two minutes on the clock, they had the opportunity to ask each other anything they wanted. Students shared their favorite kinds of Oreos, their spring break plans, the Disney princess they were most like, and more information about their startups. Additionally, fun facts were shared. Did you know that three Residents have black belts in karate? How about the fact that there are three students who are from Seattle who didn’t know that about each other until the Hot Seat game? 

Students had a lot of fun and loved the opportunity to learn more about their fellow Residents. Student founders are looking forward to future speakers and continuing to get to learn more about other Residents at future Family Dinners this quarter. 

Elizabeth Savin ’25 is a Manufacturing and Design Engineering major from Wilmette, IL. She is a student aide at The Garage and is excited to become involved in the programs The Garage offers students. Her favorite thing about The Garage is that students have the opportunity to receive hands-on experience with entrepreneurship.