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This program is Part 3 in our

Startup Accelerator Program

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Summer Launchpad

Summer '25 Dates TBA

NYU Summer Launchpad is a 9-week accelerator for scalable startups. Selected ventures receive one-on-one mentorship with successful founders and investors, deep dive workshops on topics from sales, to vision and values, to how to raise VC funding, pro-bono legal services, $10,000 in AWS credits, Ask Me Anything talks with notable founders and investors, 24/7 co-working space at the Leslie eLab, and $15,000 in non-dilutive funding, all in a dynamic and community-minded atmosphere. Between 8-10 teams get selected to participate each year.

Read about the ’24 Summer Launchpad teams here.

Application Deadline

Applications for the 2025 Summer Launchpad will open in February ’25. The deadline to apply will be in March.

Who Can Apply?

Open to all NYU student, faculty, or staff-led teams who have:

Validated their target customer segment and initial solution
Are building a highly-scalable, differentiated venture
Teams who have a proof of concept/prototype

Benefits

$15,000 in zero-equity, non-dilutive grant funding toward your venture.
A team of entrepreneur and investor mentors
Pro-bono legal guidance
24/7 co-working space and free lunch at the Leslie eLab all summer

Success Stories

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A platform that connects artists and venues to create unforgettable shows.

Mir Hwang

Co-founder

(CAS '19)

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Baton is a blockchain-enabled collaboration protocol designed to facilitate the future of creative digital exchange to help artists maintain control over their material and get the credit they deserve.

Gabe Warshaw

Founder

(Tisch '23)

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Resist Nutrition makes plant-based, keto protein bars filled with science-backed ingredients with functional benefits for hormone health and blood sugar support.

Drew Lederman

Founder & CEO

(Tisch '20)

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All-natural food products packed with endocrine supportive nutrients that can naturally improve menstrual symptoms.

Britt Martin

Co-Founder

(GSAS '17)

Meet the Founder

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Visura is a curated market-network for publishers to discover and hire the world’s top freelance visual journalists.

Adriana Teresa Letorney

Co-founder

(GSAS '21)

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By creating the world’s first tattoo that fades in a year, Ephemeral gives everyone the opportunity to express their individuality without fear or regret.

Anthony Lam

Co-Founder

(Tandon '15)

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Matching individuals with quality therapists to ease access to a personalized healing relationship and enable therapists to help more people.

Alyssa Petersel

Founder & CEO

(Silver '17)

Meet the Founder

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Offering affordable, deconstructable, and stylish furniture for modern and transient living with a focus on financial flexibility. Through a buy-back program, Sabai Design solves the headache of disposal/reselling and offers an even cheaper line of refurbished furniture.

Phantila Phataraprasit

Co-Founder & CEO

(Law '20)

By creating the world’s first tattoo that fades in a year, Ephemeral gives everyone the opportunity to express their individuality without fear or regret.

Founder(s)

Anthony Lam (Tandon '15) |
Joshua Sakhai (Stern '18) |
David Shin (Tandon '15) |
Brennal Pierre, PhD (Tandon '15) |
Vandan Shah, PhD (Tandon '16) |

Website

ephemeraltattoos.com

Social

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What You Can Expect

Get ready for a nine-week accelerator to help you set and meet your customer acquisition, product development, and team goals, and to launch your venture full-time. Each week the teams push to achieve key business milestones, to validate product-market fit, acquire customers, and solidify their business model. Summer Launchpad is deeply connected to New York City and the broader US entrepreneurial ecosystem (including from Boston and Silicon Valley), tapping mentors, coaches and potential investors who help teams accelerate from vision to scale. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:

Investor Mentorship: Boardroom-style feedback from a personalized advisory council of VCs. See below for a list of some of the past program mentors.
Entrepreneur Mentorship: 1:1 Mentorship with dedicated experienced entrepreneurs and subject matter experts, and weekly hands on guidance from the coaches at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute.
Guest Founder Talks: Talks from preeminent founders and Venture Capitalists. Recent speakers include Scott Harrison (CAS), founder of Charity: Water; Nobu Nakaguchi (Tisch), founder of Zola; Caren Maio (Gallatin), founder of Funnel Leasing; Rich Fulop (CAS, Stern), founder of Brooklinen; Ragy Thomas (Stern), founder of Sprinklr; Dennis Crowley (Tisch), founder of Foursquare; and Di-Ann Eisnor (Steinhardt), founder of Core and Neighborhood Start Fund.
Workshops: Led by experts across the NYU and NYC startup communities, workshops teach relevant skills in finance and capital raising, customer acquisition, product development, business operations, and other topics selected to help you succeed in your venture.
Customer Development: Get closer to product-market fit through customer validation by “Getting out of the Building” and engaging directly to prospective users, customers, and partners.
Accelerator and Investor Office Hours: Office hours with numerous later-stage accelerators, angel, and seed-stage investors throughout the program.
Community: You’ll work alongside, learn from, and contribute to a community of NYU startup founders and fellow SLP participants.
NYU-Yale Pitchoff: Six teams from NYU and Yale present to an audience of ~300 of their peers.
Public Demo Day: All teams will have the opportunity to pitch in October at the NYU Demo Day to 500+ attendees, as the capstone to the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival.
Friends and Family Demo Day: For select teams, this is an opportunity to pitch to angel investors, venture capitalists, and others.

Who the Summer Launchpad is For - Your Team

Open to teams of NYU entrepreneurs from any school or college:

Attending an Info Session: We want to know you understand what you’re signing up for. Therefore, attendance at a Startup Accelerator Program info session is mandatory.
Progress via Coaching: Teams must have demonstrated they’re making continued progress on their venture AND demonstrate they clearly benefit from coaching and are receptive to feedback.
Completed a Startup Sprint, (you may apply for the Summer Startup Sprint and Summer Launchpad simultaneously) .
2+ Team Members: At least two team members must be able to participate in the program full time. Only one team member needs to be a founder.
NYU affiliation: Only one founder has to be an NYU student/staff member or recent alumni (having graduated in Spring 2024 or later).
Right Skillsets: Preference will be given to well-rounded, multi-disciplinary teams whose skills/experiences match the venture they’re creating and who are deeply passionate about the problem they’re solving for their customers.
Commitment: Teams of two or more must be committed to their startup full time (at least 40 hours per week) and able to participate in ALL program activities for the nine weeks (absences need to be disclosed in the application). Teams must be committed to launching their venture after the program (if not before).
Buy-In: Understand the requirements of the program and have an openness to customer development and the work required by the program.
Community-Minded: Demonstrated willingness to help other startup teams and interest in being part of a community.

Who the Summer Launchpad is For - Your Venture

Ventures should have the potential to be highly scalable and differentiated, including scalable tech, non-profit and social ventures. Beyond that we look for ventures with:

A validated initial target customer segment (validated via customer discovery/experiments).
Solving a Meaningful problem: The problem you’re solving with your venture has the potential to bring substantive, scalable, and tangible value to customers and other beneficiaries, with potential to scale value/impact to a large market/beneficiary sector in the future.
Strong hypotheses for your business model.
Proof of Concept/Prototype: We’ll look at your proof of concept and your plans for how you’ll take your solution to the next level to validate it with customers during SLP (getting you to product-market fit). Prototypes can take many forms depending on your venture – a website, Figma prototype, sketch, MVP, demonstration project, or white paper – depending on the nature of your business.
Strong awareness of the competition and evidence that your venture is differentiated.
For all above, we’ll look for real progress and traction. A pitch deck is much less helpful then actual customer testimonials and results from solution tests.

Benefits

Each team will receive funding and perks to put toward their venture, including:

Funding: $10,000 in zero-equity, non-dilutive grant funding toward your venture.
Cloud Computing: $10,000 in Amazon Web Services credits for participation in the program.
Coaching and Mentorship: Office hours with VCs, Angel Investors, and expert mentors.
Legal Services: Pro-bono legal guidance from Brown Rudnick to help you incorporate the right way to kickstart your company.
Accounting Services: Pro-bono accounting services.
Access to Future Programs: Select teams will be invited to participate in the Ignite Fellowship, apply to the Female Founders Fellowship and Grant programs, as well as the Max Stenbeck Venture Equity Program, and will have opportunities to meet with later-stage accelerators and incubators to help grow their ventures after completion of Summer Launchpad. Select founders will also be invited to incubate their companies at NYU, as Founders in Residence at the Leslie eLab.