Applications are closing April 27 for a unique LaunchPad Summer Startup Fellowship that offers stipends from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation for the most inspiring student startups across the global LaunchPad & Techstars network. The eight-week Fellowship will make 50 awards of $5,000 in grant funding to support founders working on advancing their startup companies.
The Fellowship is open to all current students and recent graduates in the LaunchPad Network. Applicants will be judged based on the quality of their video pitch, articulation of realistic goals and milestones, quality and detail of the proposal narrative, description of next steps following the Fellowship, and need statement. Special consideration will also be given to ensure selected companies represent the diversity of the LaunchPad Network.
As with a typical Fellowship, this initiative is largely self-directed and independent of a strict curriculum. Because of this, it is critical that applicants have demonstrated the ability to work independently with little guidance or structure.
Applicants must:
- Be a current student (undergraduate level, graduate-level) or a recent graduate (2020) and active participant in LaunchPad programming on campus
- Have an existing startup company
- Be self-motivated and driven to complete work independently and with minimal oversight
- Have well-defined goals and milestones to be completed within the eight-week period of the fellowship
- Be past the idea-stage and already have a pitch deck, executive summary, a logo, a website, LinkedIn account, Twitter account, and ideally, a prototype
- Have traction such as early sales, MOUs, funding raised, customer interest, etc.
- Have demonstrated leadership in both executing the business and galvanizing support
- Have experience working with mentors, integrating feedback into their venture, and show coachability
It is strong advised that you reach out to the LaunchPad at Syracuse University to discuss this opportunity if you are applying. Contact us by at LaunchPad@syr.edu so we can help track Syracuse University applicants.
Application link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DZ65Q2C
Key Dates:
- Applications close: April 27
- Students notified of selection: May 10
- External team announcement: May 17
- Fellowship runs June 14 -August 6
Workshop Topics and Tentative Dates:
- Onboarding: June 15
- Workshop 1: June 22
- Social 1: June 24
- Workshop 2: June 29
- Workshop 3: July 6
- Trivia: July 8
- Workshop 4: July 13
- Workshop 5: July 20
- Social 3: July 22
- Workshop 6: July 27
- Completion Call: August 3
Upon receipt of final report, program deliverables, and completed financial documentation, payments will be issued in August 2021