You don’t have to call yourself a founder to join the Student Founder Bootcamp.
In fact, mooooost students who join aren’t founders yet (they’re just curious).
Curious about how ideas become companies.
Curious about what it feels like to pitch to investors.
Curious about whether the startup world could be for them.
That’s exactly who this program is built for.
💡 So, what actually is the Bootcamp?
The Student Founder Bootcamp is a two-week virtual program that helps university students and recent grads experience what it’s like to start a company without needing experience, a team, or even a polished idea.
Tldr; It’s intense and super practical.
Over 14 days, find a problem worth solving, talk to real customers and build the first version of your product. By the end, you’ll submit a pitch to Startmate’s Investment Team and who knows maybe even go on to be part of our pre-accelerator, Launch Club.
🧭 A crash course in founding (minus ze pressure)
The Bootcamp is for students who want to explore entrepreneurship — not commit their lives to it.
Whether you’re studying engineering, arts, medicine or law, you’ll learn how founders think: how they validate ideas, test assumptions, and make things happen quickly with limited resources.
Even if you never start a company, you’ll walk away with:
- A sharper sense of what drives you
- Real-world problem-solving experience
- A network of future co-founders, mentors and investors
Because startup thinking (experimentation, adaptability, creativity) is valuable anywhere.
🤝 Who you’ll meet
Each Bootcamp cohort brings together 150–300 students from across Australia and New Zealand.
You’ll meet people from every discipline imaginable: designers, scientists, musicians, engineers, and marketers. You’ll team up, collide over ideas, and learn to build fast together.
It’s a collaborative, high-energy space where every conversation could spark something bigger.
⚙️ How it works
The Bootcamp runs twice a year during the winter and summer holidays and everything’s designed to fit around your uni schedule.
- Length: 2 weeks (approx. 15 hours total)
- Format: 100% virtual, with optional in-person socials
- Sessions: Afternoons, Mon–Thurs (recorded if you can’t make one)
- Coaching: Two 1:1 sessions with startup mentors, operators and founders
You’ll learn by doing: idea generation, validation, MVP building, and pitching.
And this year, we’ve introduced something new:
You’ll finish the intensive and then have the summer break to keep developing your idea before submitting your final pitch video.
This means you get more time to test, refine and grow before showing your work to Startmate’s investors.
🌏 Who it’s for?
The Bootcamp is open to all students and recent grads regardless of degree or experience. Students come from everywhere: arts, science, engineering, business, law, psychology, music.
What they share is curiosity. A willingness to try something new. And the desire to find people who think the same way. If that sounds like you, this is your launchpad.
🚀 The pathway: from Bootcamp to the Startmate Accelerator
The Bootcamp is just the starting line.
Teams that shine in their final pitch can earn a guaranteed spot in Launch Club, Startmate’s pre-accelerator - a hands-on program designed to help early founders find traction.
And from there? Some go all the way to the Startmate Accelerator, where companies receive $120k in investment and access to a world-class mentor network.
Lyrebird did. So did dozens of Bootcamp alumni who started as students just like you.
🫶 Why we think it matters
Startups aren’t just for business majors or tech geniuses. They’re for anyone who sees a problem and thinks, I could fix that.
The Student Founder Bootcamp gives you a safe space to explore that instinct - to test what being a founder feels like, surrounded by people doing the same thing.
You might build a company.
You might build confidence.
You might just build the network that changes your life.
Whatever happens, you’ll finish knowing one thing for sure: you gave it a go.
Apply to the Student Founder Bootcamp
The best way to explore being a founder (hey and no experience req.)
