Entrepreneurial Institute

Money and Mentorship to Accelerate your Startup this Summer!

Posted By Rebecca Silver
on Mon, Feb 8, 2021

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This summer we are offering two opportunities for NYU students and recent alumni to pursue their entrepreneurial journeys: the NYU Summer Startup Sprint and NYU Summer Launchpad. Both programs will be held virtually to accommodate participants globally! Alumni of these programs, including Pepper, Brooklinen, Govern for America, dathic, The Diversity Org, and others, have gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and grants, be accepted into prominent accelerators like Y-Combinator and TechStars NYC, and received student loan alleviation grants through the NYU Female Founders Fellowship! Sign up for an info session today to learn more!

Applications for both programs (joint application) will be due March 22nd at 6pm. An application link will be sent to info session attendees after the session.

NYU Startup Sprint (summer edition)

Startup Sprints are two-week programs that teach and support aspiring NYU entrepreneur teams to transform their ideas and inventions into businesses. During the program, teams will work intensively with expert startup coaches as they conduct rigorous customer discovery to refine their business models. Teams will be provided with skills-building workshops, grant funding, peer support from their cohort of startup teams, legal guidance from partner law firms and more!

  • Program Dates: Tue, June 1 – Fri, June 11, 2021 (9 days - 50+ hours per week per participant)
  • Who it's for: Current students and recent alumni (graduated in Fall '20 or after) at any stage of development (but prefer beyond idea stage). Strong preference for teams who have completed a NYU Startup Bootcamp (we use this opportunity to get to know each other).
  • Goal: To deeply understand their customer's needs and purchase behaviors, and test the value of their potential solution.
  • During the program, you will: Create multiple hypotheses for your business, test them by speaking to 50+ potential customers, and deep dive into all aspects of your business model.
  • Resources: $1,000 at the start of the program and eligibility for up to $1,500 in follow-on funding (reimbursable expenses), $5,000 in AWS credits, expert coaching, peer feedback, founder talks, workshops, and more!
  • After the program: Participating in a Sprint is a prerequisite for participating in the Summer Launchpad (unless given express permission to skip the Sprint by the Entrepreneurial Institute Directors). Participation in this program makes you eligible to apply to the NSF I-Corps program (for tech-ventures only), which provides $50K in funding for further customer development. All teams will have ongoing access to coaching and will be invited to participate in office hours with VCs, accelerators, legal firms and accounting firms.

NYU Summer Launchpad

NYU Summer Launchpad (SLP) is an immersive 9-week accelerator for highly scalable startups led by NYU students (including those graduating in '20) and researchers. 10 teams receive one-on-one coaching with NYC investors and experienced entrepreneurs, immersive customer development training, legal and accounting services via McCarter & English and EisnerAmper, and $10,000 in non-dilutive funding, all in a dynamic, community-minded atmosphere.

  • Program Dates: Mon, June 14 – Fri, Aug 13, 2021 (9 weeks)
  • Who it's for: Students and recent alumni (graduated in Fall '20 or after), ready to launch a highly scalable and differentiated venture full time (can be non-profit or for profit ventures). Beyond this we look for teams who have been actively working on their venture for several months (or years), who have validated problem-solution fit, (have evidence they have validated this with customers), have a solution prototype, and ideally have some customer traction (via having completed extensive customer discovery, establishing pilot partners, pre-sales etc.). NOTE: Participating in a Sprint is a prerequisite for participating in the Summer Launchpad (unless given express permission to skip the Sprint by the Entrepreneurial Institute Directors). So if you feel you're a fit for the Summer Launchpad but have not yet completed a Sprint you should apply to BOTH programs. Note that, by definition, teams who are a good fit for the Summer Launchpad will be much farther along than those who will be a good fit for the Sprint.
  • Goal: To refine your business model, achieve product-market fit and fully launch and scale your startup!
  • During the program, you will: Do a deep dive into and refine all aspects of your business model, establish and meet the milestones and metrics you’ll need to reach to launch your venture, run iterative experiments and build solutions to advance your technology/solution readiness level, refine each aspect of the business model, and learn advanced customer acquisition, business operations, and financial skills relevant to growing your startup.
  • Resources: $10,000 in grant funding, $15,000 in perks including legal services (free incorporation), banking services, accounting services (free accounting setup) and cloud computing credits ($10,000 AWS credits), expert coaching, peer feedback, founder talks, workshops, a pitch-off competition against Yale, a Demo Day at the fall NYU Entrepreneurs Festival in front of 500 attendees to present your startup to potential investors/the NYC startup community, and more!
  • After the program: Teams will be eligible and select teams will be invited to participate in the Ignite Fellowship, others will be encouraged to apply for the Female Founders Fellowship, and select team members will be invited to join the Leslie eLab Founders In Residence team. Teams will also be invited to participate in two "Demo Days" - a public demo day at the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival, and a private demo day to a select group of investors and alumni. All teams will have ongoing access to coaching and will be invited to participate in office hours with VCs, accelerators, legal firms and accounting firms.

In general for both programs, we are looking for multidisciplinary teams of 2 or more (full-time) founders (preference for teams with 1+ female founder or other underrepresented minority in tech/STEM) who are:

  • In love with a problem they want to solve, not committed to a specific solution
  • Looking to learn & seeking customer input
  • Capable of building & executing
  • Looking to build a business
  • Ready to commit their time and energy (both programs are FULL TIME for 2+ members of the founding team)

Attending an info session is mandatory before applying to either program, so make sure to RSVP (if you can't attend any info session time please email entrepreneur@nyu.edu for a recording):

We strongly encourage all interested teams to apply for a Startup Bootcamp so we can get to know your venture, in advance of submitting your Sprint and/or Launchpad application.

Applications for both programs (joint application) will be due March 22nd at 6pm. An application link will be sent to info session attendees after the session.

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