Skip to main content

Programs

Tsai CITY programs offer diverse entry points to innovation and entrepreneurship, from drop-in sessions to multi-week, application-only programs. Whether you have a big idea you’re ready to build on or just want to explore the tools of innovation, we can help you get there. 

Get inspired with talks from leading innovators, community events like pitch slams and fail nights, and other low-stakes opportunities to connect. Learn a new skill in a workshop, or take a deep dive into a specific topic in a semester-long intensive. Build on an idea — whether it's a concept for a venture, nonprofit, or some other innovative project — in our venture development sequence of programs, from the Tsai CITY Launch Pad to our Accelerator and Summer Fellowship. Take a look at our current lineup of programs.

Students pitch venture at event

Accelerator

Advance your venture: Tsai CITY’s Accelerator, which runs every fall and spring semester, guides students and teams with innovative ideas through the process of building effective organizations, projects, and ventures through workshops, mentorship, and funding.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
Three students talk in group activity

Community Building Events

Throughout the year, we offer one-off events to inspire new ideas and spark connections. These events invite our student community to gather in supportive, low-stakes settings.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Three students in brainstorming session

Innovator's Toolkit Workshops

The Innovator’s Toolkit is a series of free workshops focused on key skills for innovation.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
table planning

Intensive: Investing in Innovation

The Investing in Innovation intensive introduces participants to the mindsets, frameworks, and practices that investors use to partner with high-potential innovative early-stage ventures.

Pathways
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Students present on food carbon emissions in lecture hall

Intensive: Planetary Solutions Generator

The Planetary Solutions Generator is a CBEY and Tsai CITY Intensive that offers Yale students the opportunity to explore solutions to a planetary problem and their real-world application. If you have an idea or solution to a planetary problem, this intensive offers a structured way to explore it.

Pathways
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Hand with post-its and Sharpies

Launch Pad

Test and launch your venture: the Tsai CITY Launch Pad guides students and teams with innovative ideas through the process of developing their idea and preparing to prototype, through self-paced content, coaching, and community building. 

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
Joseph Tsai hi res

Pathways in Innovation

Join Tsai CITY as we explore innovation at Yale, through a series of interviews with student innovators.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Global Innovation Event

Planetary Innovator Speaker Series

The Planetary Innovator Speaker series highlights people who are innovators in the broadest possible sense of the word: from entrepreneurs to researchers to activists to investors.

Pathways
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Students talk around table

RAMP//UP

RAMP//UP is an advanced student founder program at Tsai CITY. Founders will have the chance to interact with a community of peers and mentors to gain valuable insight into growing their established ventures and developing as leaders.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Group cheers at demo day event

Summer Fellowship

Amplify your venture: The Tsai CITY Summer Fellowship is a multi-week, full-time accelerator to incubate new companies, nonprofits, and initiatives. The fellowship includes $15,000 for each team, along with a rigorous sequence of workshops, sprints, mentorship, coaching, and pitch opportunities.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
Storytelling with Spreadsheets Panel

Venture Project Associates

The Venture Project Associates Team is a team of students from Tsai CITY that can help grow or develop a part of your venture. Whether it's developing a brand guide, a new marketing strategy, or a new product, the Venture Project Associates Team can help!

photo of Meno on virtual WE@Yale event

WE@Yale Women Innovators Series

This speaker series is designed to foster community discussion, idea sharing, and best practices.

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Creative Creative
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Explorer Explorer
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur
Aerial view of Yale campus buildings

Wiggin Opportunity Initiative

Wiggin and Dana has committed to providing $10 million in free legal services to minority-owned businesses over 10 years through the Wiggin Opportunity Initiative (WOI).

Pathways
  • Civic Innovator Civic Innovator
  • Entrepreneur Entrepreneur
  • Intrapreneur Intrapreneur