This program is Part 3 in our
Startup Accelerator ProgramSummer of 2027
The 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 how to raise VC funding, pro-bono legal services, $25,000 in Google Cloud 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. The program concludes with a finale demo day in front of investors and mentors. Between 8-10 teams get selected to participate each year.
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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:
Open to teams of NYU entrepreneurs from any school or college:
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:
Each team will receive funding and perks to put toward their venture, including:
No. Our preference is the founding team is composed of graduating students (those graduating in Fall ’24 or Spring ’25), but others are welcome to apply if at least one member is a current student, recently graduated within the past year (Spring ’24), or is a current faculty, researcher, postdoc or staff member. Faculty, researcher and postdocs working on hard tech/life science ventures may instead be interested in participating in the sister program – the NYU Technology Venture Program – which is designed just for faculty-led ventures commercializing technology developed at NYU.
The Summer ’25 program will be held in person in New York City, and if participants will be required to be located in NYC during the program.
Summer Launchpad is intended for all types of startups which have high growth potential and are highly differentiated from competitors. Whether focused on social innovation, software, medical devices, physical products, hardware, or other areas, all are welcome to apply. Both for profits and non-profits are welcome to apply as well (and several non-profits and B-Corps have participated in the program in the past).
See above in “Who It’s For” and “Selection Criteria” for more details.
Summer Launchpad is highly selective, accepting only ~10% of applicants each year. Ventures which are less developed (you do not have demonstrated problem-solution fit, or a proof of concept/prototype) are encouraged to consider applying to a Startup Bootcamp or Startup Sprint instead.
Exact dates for the Summer ’25 program are TBA. Prior to the program teams will also participate in an orientation at the end of April and will come in for Venture Coaching to establish individual team-based milestones for the program. Teams will also receive post-program mentorship and prep in advance of the NYU Demo Day in October.
All core co-founders members must be committed to their startup full time (during and after program), and thus to pursuing their startup via NYU Summer Launchpad full-time. However teams may include some non-core founding members or advisors who have outside obligations such as faculty appointments or internships, but they are only eligible to participate in some Summer Launchpad program activities.
We will be hosting team hunts each semester (visit the calendar section of this website to sign up!).
While you may submit as many applications as you like, if your team is selected for the program, we expect teams to be fully committed to the venture they are selected to participate with (both during and after the program).
The application for the 2025 Summer Launchpad will be available in mid February.
Teams will be notified within a week and a half of the application closing date if they’ve been selected to interview for the program. If you’re invited to interview, you’ll receive final notice of your acceptance around the middle of April.
Yes. Many ventures have raised funding prior to starting Summer Launchpad.
The NYU Entrepreneurial Institute and NYU Innovation Venture Fund team will review all applications and lead all interviews. At least two members of the Institute team review each application to ensure a diversity of opinions are considered. Personally identifiable information within applications will not be shared with any external parties for any reason, in accordance with University policy and federal regulations (FERPA).
Typically, we do not give specific feedback on applications. However, we’d be happy to meet with your team to give more general feedback and guidance about your startup through our coaching program.
Yes! We’ll publish the full question list at the same time as the online application goes live.
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