LaunchX Entrepreneurship Summer Program on Campus
About The Entrepreneurship Summer Program on Campus
The entrepreneurship summer program on campus bring students from around the US and world to the campus of top universities that allow us to offer resources and culture to support our young entrepreneurs. Students live in the dorms and go to sessions in university classrooms, embracing the innovative culture and surroundings as they start real companies for four weeks on campus.
Get Summer 2024 InfoHow You Will Learn
LaunchX students will connect with our community of passionate aspiring entrepreneurs, leverage the LaunchX resources, and build a REAL startup in 4 weeks.
Each day, you’ll learn from startup founders and industry experts who know first-hand what it takes to build a viable company. When you’re not in a classroom or mentor meeting, you’ll work with your cofounder team applying your newfound knowledge and skills to make continual progress on your company throughout the summer.
Learning In The Classroom
Learn from the people who have done it before. Whether you’re getting started with product development or branding or other topics, our instructors are experts in their fields, including guests from the entrepreneurial ecosystems and universities. The workshops and simulations are interactive—requiring you to engage during the sessions and apply the lessons directly to your business.
Learning from Experienced Professionals
LaunchX brings in seasoned entrepreneurs and top professionals to share their insights and answer your questions on market research, gaining traction, and scaling your company. Through founder talks and weekly mentor meetings, you’ll learn from the experiences of people who have been there. Your team will have weekly check-ins with both mentors and staff to ensure your company’s high performance through effective communication and collaboration strategies. Whether challenging your business hypotheses, urging you out and into the marketplace to collect more customer data, or helping you to refine your pitch, these professionals will push you at every stage to help your company grow.
Learning through Action
The primary way you will learn is through putting your lessons into action for yourself and testing it in the market and learning from results. There will be a lot of trial and error, going back with your team to review whether things worked as you expected (or not), and how you will adjust. You will also learn a lot from your peers at LaunchX as well! Each week, there will be opportunities to pitch to your peers for feedback, review lessons in your discussion groups, as well as informally discuss lessons to further engrain the concepts and how best to apply them to your startup.
Learn from the people who have done it before. Whether you’re getting started with product development or branding or other topics, our instructors are experts in their fields, including guests from the entrepreneurial ecosystems and universities. The workshops and simulations are interactive—requiring you to engage during the sessions and apply the lessons directly to your business.
LaunchX brings in seasoned entrepreneurs and top professionals to share their insights and answer your questions on market research, gaining traction, and scaling your company. Through founder talks and weekly mentor meetings, you’ll learn from the experiences of people who have been there. Your team will have weekly check-ins with both mentors and staff to ensure your company’s high performance through effective communication and collaboration strategies. Whether challenging your business hypotheses, urging you out and into the marketplace to collect more customer data, or helping you to refine your pitch, these professionals will push you at every stage to help your company grow.
The primary way you will learn is through putting your lessons into action for yourself and testing it in the market and learning from results. There will be a lot of trial and error, going back with your team to review whether things worked as you expected (or not), and how you will adjust. You will also learn a lot from your peers at LaunchX as well! Each week, there will be opportunities to pitch to your peers for feedback, review lessons in your discussion groups, as well as informally discuss lessons to further engrain the concepts and how best to apply them to your startup.
Program Location, Dates, and Fees
| Location | Dates | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Ann Arbor, Michigan | June 18th - July 15th | $9450* |
| Research Triangle, North Carolina | June 25th - July 22nd | $9450* |
*Location, dates, and fees subject to change at any time. Various factors can affect these changes. LaunchX shall inform you as soon as a changes becomes applicable.
Please note that international students will also be required to pay an administrative fee in addition to the program fee that covers costs such as international health insurance for the program (required).
Entrepreneurship Summer Program Process Overview
The key to entrepreneurship is bringing together innovation with commercialization. That means a lot of steps to identify the opportunity, validate it, and bring it to market successfully. No wonder so many startups fail. We’ve developed a robust process, though, with the support of top universities to increase your odds of success.
Here is an overview of the entrepreneurial process that you can expect throughout the program.
Note: While these are the components, this is not the schedule, and there is a lot of iteration throughout.
| Components | What You'll Learn | Output - Your Startup |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Opportunity Identification, Teaming, Keys to Startup Success, Work Planning, Feedback | Refined problem statement and work plan |
| Market Research | Customer Discovery, Interviewing, Customer Needs | Customer definition and persona |
| Strategy | Value Proposition, Entrepreneurial Strategy, Competition Differentiation, Traction Metrics, Company Next Steps | Competitive differentiation and Key performance indicators |
| Prototyping | Proof of Concept, Prototyping, Testing the Offering, Logistics, Product Planning | Multiple iterations on a prototype, Tested with the customer |
| Commercialization (Go to Market) | Intro to Sales, Selling CRMs, Closing the Sale, Marketing Materials, Go to Market | Minimum $250 sales |
| Finance | Financial Feasibility, Pricing, Financial Models, Financial Projections | Defined price and 1 and 5 year financial models |
| Pitching | Storytelling, Pitching | Elevator pitches and Demo Day pitch |
The application for the 2023 LaunchX Entrepreneurship Summer Program is now closed
For more information regarding the LaunchX Summer Program head over to our FAQ page or our Summer Program Page.
For Startup stories and tips check out our blog.
Get Summer 2024 Info