Dominick Perez · Draft for the Institute blog
On Tue, Oct 20, 2026, the Leslie Entrepreneurial Institute welcomed its newest Leslie Founders at Startup Day, the half-day orientation every admitted member attends before membership begins. By the end of the afternoon, the founders knew the space, had a plan for the year, and had told the Institute's coaches exactly where they needed help.
What Leslie Founders is
Leslie Founders is a membership community for NYU founders building ventures while at NYU. It runs through the fall and spring semesters.
- Members-only coworking space at the Leslie eLab
- A dedicated venture coach for 1:1 guidance
- A monthly Leslie Founders Roundtable with founders or investors answering your questions
- Office hours with investors, startup lawyers, immigration specialists, accountants, and accelerator staff from Techstars, ERA, and 500
- Application support for Startup Sprint, Summer Launchpad, and the Max Stenbeck Venture Equity Program
- $2K in Google Cloud credits, plus free access or discounts for Mercury, Airtable, Notion, and MongoDB
- A members-only Slack
A day built around the work
Jonas Guenter (Tandon ‘18), Senior Programs manager, opened the afternoon with an overview followed by Rebecca Silver, Director, with a road mapping session. Teams worked through who their customers are and what they’re trying to get done. After that, the teams pitched their ventures.
The ventures in the room covered a lot of ground. Among them, Peter Peekanone (NYU Shanghai '28) pitched Kirx, an AI front desk that answers calls and books appointments for salons and spas. Rushil Desai (Courant '28), a master's student and Interlinked's cofounder and CTO, walked through the team's wildfire command center, which turns live weather, terrain, and satellite data into response strategies in seconds.
Feedback started with questions. Who exactly is the customer, and how do they solve this problem today? Have you talked about pricing with the people you're working with? Coaches kept coming back to the same idea: the customer decides whether you're building the right thing, so the next step is usually more conversations with a sharper target, not more features.
From there, the advice got practical. Coaches encouraged teams to narrow their ideal customer, plug into tools and workflows customers already use, and lean on NYU's alumni, faculty, and founder networks for introductions. They also pointed teams toward the Institute programs that fit their stage. Those conversations are where each team's coaching for the year begins.
Apply by Tue, Nov 3
Leslie Founders is open to current NYU students in degree-granting programs at every school who hold significant leadership and ownership in their venture. Previous programs aren't a requirement, but applicants should have a proven scalable venture and validated an initial target customer. Teams can include up to two non-NYU cofounders.
The next application deadline is Tue, Nov 3, at 6PM ET. Founders admitted in this round begin at the next Startup Day on Fri, Nov 20.
