Hosted by the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute and the Convergence of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) in the MakerSpace at the Tandon School of Engineering, the Summer Accelerator Program conducted its first round of info sessions on Monday, March 5th, 2018.
The Summer Accelerator Program will offer all NYU entrepreneurs two programs to choose from: (1) A intensive 2-3 week Summer Startup Sprint for students graduating in 2019 or later; and (2) an immersive 9-week Summer Launchpad Accelerator, primarily for students graduating this year. Building on the amazing track record of the most recent Summer Launchpad, plus the incredibly successful 2-week J-Term Startup Sprint, these programs will continue to build on a legacy of design, innovation, and inclusion that dozens of previous NYU entrepreneurs have helped foster.
At the session, Rebecca Silver, the Assistant Director of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, shared her experience from last year’s Summer Launchpad with prospective entrepreneurs. Overall, Silver helped capture the excitement of creating prototypes and working passionately with a team in an environment that offers incomparable resources, such as mentors and industry professionals. Like previous programs, the two upcoming summer programs will focus on the customer development process, including Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, as well as Customer Creation culminating into Company Building.
As one of two bi-annual Startup Sprints for NYU undergrads, grad students & postdocs alike. the 2-3 week Summer Startup Sprint will run from May 30th through June 8th, 2018, with an optionally week until June 15th. Through their collaboration and partnership, the CIE and the National Science Foundation (NSF) with VentureWell will provide an unparalleled platform for NYU entrepreneurs who also seek to promote diversity in STEM. The Summer Startup Sprint will be an opportunity for early-stage teams to test the value of their solutions with potential customers through customer discovery and experimentation. As far as support, the Summer Startup Sprint will provide a $350 grant (for two-week participation) or a $700 grant (for three-week participation), plus an opportunity for select teams to receive up to $2,000 in additional funding, and an invitation to participate in the Fall Ignite Fellowship at the culmination of the program. Teams can also expect a co-working space, professional and industrial mentorship, $5,000 in Amazon Web Services credits and many other perks.
As an alternative to the Summer Startup Sprint for students graduating this year, the Summer LaunchPad (SLP), running from June 11th – August 10th, will provide teams of NYU student entrepreneurs the experiential opportunity to bridge their part-time dedication to their startups while in school, with a full-time commitment after graduation. Each year, around 10 teams chosen from over 100 applications all across NYU are selected. In terms of support, the SLP provides teams $10,000 in zero equity grant funding. Teams also will receive mentorship from leading NYC entrepreneurs and investors, pro-bono incorporation and legal services, $10,000 in credits from Amazon Web Services, 24-hour co-working space for the summer term, and much more. To motivate, support, and encourage all the graduated participants, select SLP teams will also have the opportunity to pitch their prototypes to an audience of angel investors, prominent accelerators, and NYU friends and family in the first ever SLP Demo Day!
Ultimately, for both these programs, preference will be given to well-rounded, multi-disciplinary teams (i.e. representing multiple NYU schools!), and extra consideration will be given to teams with at least one co-founder who identifies as either female and/or represents an underrepresented minority in STEM tech/entrepreneurship.
Applications are open now, and are due by April 6th at 5:00pm. Apply here! Interested, but missed the mandatory info-session? Don’t worry! We are conducting more sessions in the future. For more details, please see below.
Attend an Info Session!
We will be hosting multiple info-sessions, along with a co-founder hunt in the coming weeks. It is mandatory that at least one person from every team that applies attend one of the info sessions. Details below:
- Mon, March 26, 4:30-5:30PM: Info Session 4 @ Leslie eLab RSVP
- Note: Since campus closed due to weather, the Info Session planned on Wed, March 21, will be rescheduled. An update will be provided with the new date and time for the rescheduled Info Session.