Launch Pad

Activate your venture: The Tsai CITY Launch Pad is a 6-week incubator program designed to help early-stage ventures gain traction. Participants, whether founder or joiner, benefit from skill-building workshops, mentorship, and access to a vibrant community of innovators, providing the resources and support needed to grow ideas into impactful projects.

Hand with post-its and Sharpies

Activate your venture: The Tsai CITY Launch Pad is a 6-week incubator program designed to help early-stage ventures gain traction. If you have an early idea for a venture or if you’ve participated in other Tsai CITY programs and want to continue workshopping your project with the support of Tsai CITY, then the Launch Pad community is for you.

Resources:

  • Asynchronous and synchronous startup content such as venture development workshops and skill-building workshops to help you grow your idea
  • Access to one-on-one mentorship and coaching with early-stage startup experts and assigned coordinators to provide industry-specific advice, help you set program goals, and connect you to resources
  • Project support with student joiners
  • Opportunity to apply to Tsai CITY’s Student Exploration Fund and Student Milestone Fund
  • Invites to monthly dinner clubs with mentors and founders-in-residence
  • The chance to join an awesome community of innovators from around Yale!

Application and Criteria:

To participate in Launch Pad as a founder, you should meet the following criteria:

  • You must be a current Yale student
  • You can clearly articulate your idea and the problem you are trying to solve, for example:
    • You have researched it sufficiently to answer basic questions about your target customers and key competitors
    • You can describe how you might implement this idea in a way that is sustainable over time
  • You can commit to submitting biweekly updates to Tsai CITY staff on progress and meeting monthly with the assigned coordinator

The Launch Pad cohort will be capped at 40 ventures each semester. The cohort will be selected through a random lottery consisting of the founders who meet the above criteria. If you aren’t selected in the random lottery, you’ll be added to a waitlist. A random lottery will also be used to determine who gets removed from the waitlist if a spot opens up.

Want to work with a Launch Pad team?

Becoming a Joiner could be the perfect fit for you. Tsai CITY connects Joiners with early-stage ventures, offering hands-on experience in diverse roles. Joiners contribute to startups without necessarily being founders, often taking on multiple responsibilities. This opportunity provides valuable experience across areas like product development, sales, marketing, operations, and project management. For more information, visit this page.