CCEI Summer Fellowship is UConn's Startup Accelerator. Open to student, faculty, staff and alumni founders, this 8-week intensive entrepreneurial experience helps participants develop the skills needed to bring new products, services, and technologies to market.
The Summer Fellowship Accelerator takes place June 3rd through August 1st with the selected startups spending 3 days a week over 8 weeks taking a deep dive into their business with the support of mentors, industry experts, and experienced entrepreneurs. These sessions help educate program participants on how to define their business, build their brand, and launch their venture, all while building a community with the other entrepreneurs participating in the program.
The highly competitive program only selects 10 startups to participate each year. As part of the program, these startups receive:
- $15,000 (non-equity, non-diluting) in funding for business development; up to $5,000 (per student) can be used to pay a member of the team (current UConn student or recent UConn graduate).
- Pro-bono legal, accounting, and marketing/branding services to assist in the proper establishment of your business and deciding how you want to structure your venture.
- One-on-one mentoring and guidance from industry experts and experienced entrepreneurs.
- Expert led sessions covering all scaling fundamentals – go to market strategy, pitch compilation, sales and fundraising to name a few.
- End of program celebration where judges choose 5 teams to advance to the Wolff New Venture Competition to compete for over $57,000 in funding.
Summer Fellowship alumni have gone on to raise over $275 million in follow-on funding, been selected to participate in accelerators like Techstars and Mass Challenge, been named Thiel Fellows and more.
This program is facilitated by the
Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI) at UConn. CCEI was founded in 2007, and is a focal point for entrepreneurial activity within the University. CCEI supports student, faculty, staff, and alumni entrepreneurs across all academic departments, schools, and colleges.
For more information, contact: Alycia Chrosniak at alycia.chrosniak@uconn.edu