Summer Founders 2025 Application

The Summer Founders program gives PA startup teams with at least 1 current Penn State student founder $15000 to work on their startup, social good, or non-profit over the summer in State College, PA.

Teams who meet the following criteria are eligible to apply:

At least one founding member must be an active full-time Penn State student in good standing working on a US-based business. Students from any Penn State campus or World Campus are eligible to apply.
Founders must commit to working full-time on their venture for the duration of the program - mid-May through mid-August in State College, PA.
We prefer teams of 2 or more but will consider single founders.
As an economic development resource for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, our services are designed to support new and existing PA startups. As such, PA startups/teams will have a preference over non-PA teams.
Please submit only one application. If multiple applications are submitted, only the first will be considered.

Benefits of participation:
In addition to the $15K grant, teams also have access to:

SEDTAPP Entern Program which provides $1500 to place an intern in your startup for 1 semester.
Mentors and other entrepreneurs to grow your network and accelerate your venture.
Access to startup tools and resources
The Happy Valley LaunchBox facility and space in one of our team rooms for 1 year, 24x7, with free Wi-Fi, coffee, and printing.
Weekly dinner meetups with other founders, experienced entrepreneurs and experts to discuss current challenges, share successes, and learn from each other.

Key Dates:
Currently all meetings and events will be held in person at the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub building in State College, PA.

Information Sessions: February 19, 2025
Applications Open: February 5, 2025
Applications Close: Mach 10, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.
Summer Program Period: Program runs from mid-May through mid-August

For assistance with this application, please contact Elizabeth Hay, elizabeth.hay@psu.edu.

Company name*

First name

Last name*

Email*

Company Wesbite

Have you created a formal business entity (e.g., an LLC or C Corp)?*

Yes

How Did You Find Out About Us?

Show us your demo! Share below a link (or links) to your website, recorded product demo (5 min max), pitch deck, or anything else that shows us your progress and ability to build.

Upload decks, videos, docs, etc to a shared drive and use hyperlinks to share access to these items. Be sure that you have enabled the proper permissions to view your links, we will NOT contact you if we cannot access your shared information.

Describe your company in 50 characters or less.*

Introduce your team and its members. Include the names, roles, and academic majors as well as a sentence or two about the most impressive thing each founder has achieved or built besides this startup.*

Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise? How do you know people need what you are making?

What is new about what you are making? What substitutes do people resort to because it does not exist yet?*

How far along are you? Do you have a beta yet? If not, when will you? Are you launched? If so, how many users do you have? Do you have revenue? If so, how much?*

If you’ve already started working on it, how long have you been working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written?*

How do or will you make money? How much could you make? (We realize you can’t know precisely, but give your best estimate.)*

What is the biggest challenge you are facing?*

What does your team expect to accomplish by the end of the summer?*

Tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)*