Summer Spark helps universities find their most entrepreneurial students, inspire them to build startups, and empower them through a fully managed, virtual summer accelerator.
Feedback from Silicon Valley Founders & Investors
Experiential, Action-Focused Curriculum
Diverse, International Cohort of Participants
Fully Integrated AI Tools & Resources
Flexible Structure mixing Live and Self-Paced Work
Global Pitching Opportunities for Top Performers
Summer Spark is designed to help universities:
Summer Spark isn't just a course: it is a multi-step process to help universities identify their most entrepreneurial students and inspire them to participate in university startup initiatives.
Summer Spark combines live sessions, interactive “AMAs”, and group work with self-paced business-building sprints and assignments.
Summer Spark kicks off with an inspirational deep-dive on the characteristics, mindset, and strategies employed by the world’s top entrepreneurs.
Week two covers all of the strategies and tactics experienced entrepreneurs use to test, challenge, iterate, and improve their initial startup ideas.
This week is all about talking to customers, getting feedback, building personas, and developing a full understanding of customer problems.
Week 4 provides a deep-drive on the strategies and methodologies top startups use to get their first customers, identify marketing channels, and scale their growth.
This week focuses on the components of great startup teams, skills audits, and strategies for finding and evaluating potential team members.
In preparation for the upcoming Pitch & Networking Day, this week provides students with a strong understanding and suite of proven frameworks for building a great startup pitch.
This week provides a crash course on the startup funding lifecycle and how startup investment and venture capital works.
Summer Spark concludes with a fun, energy-filled pitch session where all participants have the opportunity to give a final startup pitch to experienced investors and founders for feedback.
Top performing students from Pitch Day receive:
Students participate in Summer Spark using the Founder Institute’s powerful suite of learning management tools, custom built to provide:
Based in Silicon Valley, the Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009, FI's accelerators have helped new and early-stage entrepreneurs raise funding across nearly every geography, industry, and sector. The company's mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide.
7,500+
Portfolio Companies
$1.85BN+
Portfolio Company Funding
200+
Chapter Cities
100+
Chapter Countries
6
Continents
35,000+
Global Mentors & Advisors
The Founder Institute is the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. Since 2009, our structured accelerator programs have helped over 7,500 entrepreneurs raise over $1.85BN in funding. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 100 countries, our mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide.