Innovation laboratory & academy
Menlo Labs is an innovation laboratory and a new kind of academy — building communities of innovators equipped to turn transformational technology into lasting good, in the age of AI, space, and quantum computing.
The Why
Menlo Labs exists because technology is arriving faster than the communities receiving it are prepared for. We build the readiness — and we are candid about the conviction underneath the work.
Menlo Labs is founded on Christian principles supporting the restoration of community. We believe technology needs moral boundaries, and that Christian heritage has something durable to offer the methods by which people learn and build. That conviction shapes what we take on and what we decline.
“You will be like a well-watered garden… you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”
What we do
Micro-credential and certificate programs delivered through Mission-Based Learning, in person or live virtual. Training that strengthens both technical and durable skills — a holistic approach that develops the whole practitioner, not just the technical half.
Patterned loosely after the modern venture studio. We curate and advance a small number of companies that use technology in service of community, providing processes to mature product, market, and team, and to craft an exit strategy that returns on the investment.
Companies gain the collective expertise of our Advisory Council and their network.
Methodology
Mission-Based Learning is our methodology: participants work a real mission with real constraints and real stakes, supported by structured rubrics and a rapid ecosystem development backbone.
It was fully developed and documented through the UAE Space Challenge and refined across programs in several countries. The methodology, the rubrics, and the ecosystem development backbone are Menlo Labs intellectual property.
Where we work
We work in sectors where a global readiness gap exists that traditional academic institutions are not filling.
Preparing organizations and workforces to adopt AI with judgment.
The commercial space economy: operations, supply chain, and the businesses forming around orbit.
Space science and exploration are the domain of the Milo Space Science Institute; Menlo Labs works the commercial side of the line.
On the horizon, and we are building toward it.
We see particular opportunity to build community in emergent regions, including the Global South.
Who we are
Founder
David is Professor of Practice at the Milo Space Science Institute in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where he works in science diplomacy and university-led space programs. His international work has spanned programs and partnerships across the Middle East, the Global South, and beyond, including U.S. Department of State and Fulbright-affiliated space diplomacy programming.
Menlo Labs is a trusted environment where nascent ideas can mature. We take on a small number of programs, partners, and companies — enough to do each one properly. If the work is a fit, we would like to hear from you.
Contact
Whether you are commissioning a program, considering a certificate, or building a company we should know about — tell us what you are working on and we will reply.
Direct hello@menlolabs.org