Build your startup at Brown
Innovation Dojo is Brown’s startup incubator, bringing together ambitious students to turn bold ideas into real ventures. Over the semester, students form teams, learn from experienced founders and mentors, and build their businesses from the ground up, culminating in a final pitch to a panel of judges for funding to take their venture further.
Learn by doing
Throughout the semester, teams are guided through the key steps in building a startup. Participants don’t just learn what goes into making a startup: they experience what it’s like to build a company from scratch.
- Finding the right startup ideas
- Talking to customers
- Iterating on ideas
- Designing a business model
- Building a product
- Developing a go-to-market strategy
- Crafting a compelling pitch
- Learning how to communicate effectively
Mentors who did it last semester
Each team receives hands-on mentorship from Dojo Mentors — former participants who return to help lead the program and guide the next generation of founders.
Founders, investors, operators
An ongoing guest speaker series puts students in the room with accomplished founders and investors. Past speakers have included leaders from Sequoia-backed startups and Fortune 500 companies.
What people say, and what they built.
“We killed our first idea in week three. Nobody told us to — the customer calls did.”
Started as a spreadsheet of surplus gear in one department. Ended the semester with paying labs on two campuses.
“I came in with no experience. I left knowing how to find out if an idea is real.”
Forty interviews before a single line of code. Now used across three dining halls.
“My mentor was in my seat a year earlier. That changes the advice you get.”
Pitched at Demo Day, funded, and still running two semesters later.
“The speaker series was the part I didn’t expect. You ask a founder a real question and get a real answer.”
Next cohort starts at the beginning of the semester.
Ready to build something?
Open by application. No experience required.
