Some people daydream about starting a company. Others just try it for a week.
That’s what the Founder Challenge is a part of the Student Founder Bootcamp to help students experience what founders actually do: find problems, talk to people, and turn curiosity into ideas.
You don’t need experience. You don’t need funding. You just need an open mind and about seven days.
🧭 The why
Most students hear “startup” and think of unicorns, pitch decks and billion-dollar ideas. But founders rarely start there. They start by noticing things that could be better and doing something about it.
The Founder Challenge gives you a safe, fast way to practice that muscle. You’ll pick a problem, test a solution, and share what you learned.
It’s the same framework real founders use compressed into a week.
⚙️ How it works
It’s deliberately simple:
- Choose a problem.
It could be anything, something at uni, in your city, or in your daily life that frustrates you. - Design a scrappy solution.
Don’t overthink it. Write it, sketch it, mock it up in Notion. The goal is to make your idea visible enough to test. - Talk to people.
Ask at least one real person what they think. Listen more than you pitch. - Reflect and record.
Capture your learnings in a short video pitch (1–2 minutes). What surprised you? What would you do next?
That’s it. No judges, no grades, no right answers, just action.
💡 What you’ll get out of it
- A crash course in creative problem-solving.
- The confidence to take messy first steps.
- A story you can talk about in applications, interviews, and pitches.
- And, most importantly, a clear sense of whether this “founder stuff” actually excites you.
Many students finish the Challenge thinking, I want more of this. That’s where the Student Founder Bootcamp comes in a two-week deep-dive where you join a team, build a prototype, and pitch to Startmate’s Investment Team.
🔁 The pathway
Here’s how it flows:
1️⃣ Student Founder Bootcamp > your 2-week build sprint with the Founder Challenge
2️⃣ Launch Club > your pre-accelerator, if your idea sticks
3️⃣ Accelerator > where founders raise capital and scale
You don’t have to go all the way - but this is the proven route for students who want to explore, experiment and maybe, just maybe, start something real, Lyrebird and Promosync did.
🌱 The mindset shift
The Founder Challenge isn’t a test. It’s a mindset builder.
You’ll learn that ideas aren’t fragile — they’re flexible. That asking is more powerful than assuming. That progress beats perfection, every time.
And even if you never start a company, that way of thinking will make you stand out anywhere — in interviews, projects, or your next big leap.
👊 Now. is. your. chance.
If you’ve ever wondered, Could I be a founder? The Student Founder Bootcamp is how you find out.
No experience. No stakes. Just 2 weeks of building something that might exist tomorrow.
Apply for the Student Founder Bootcamp
