Incubator Program

Incubator Roadmap

Are you a Virginia Tech student developing a startup idea? Already building your own venture on campus? The Incubator program is designed for you!

About this program

The Incubator program is designed to meet you wherever you are in your entrepreneurship journey and supports student-led startups with access to space + our community of student-entrepreneurs, mentorships and $ funding. The Incubator program operates on a rolling admissions basis year-round during the fall and spring semesters.

Applications are on a rolling basis each semester, Click here to view the Incubator application.

Got questions? Schedule office hours with a member of our team.

Program overview

The Incubator program provides a collaborative environment where students with a passion for building and launching a new business can meet other student founders, validate their business hypothesis, explore possible customer segments, identify early adopters and test potential solutions.

Student Consultants are available to teams for assistance in areas such as marketing, data and team building via the Office Hours program. Additionally, faculty mentors, as well as experienced alumni and industry mentors are available to provide feedback and industry-specific expertise.

Students in the incubator who have worked through the various aspects of their startup including problem validation, launching an Initial Product Release (IPR) and finding early adopters are then well positioned to apply to follow on programs from the Apex Center such as the Venture Founders program.

The workload in the Incubator program is self-directed, and keys to success include attendance at weekly programs led by the Apex Center and forming a team to help move your concept forward.

Program Resources

Benefits for Incubator teams by milestone

Incubator teams receive access to the following resources:

24/7 Open co-working at the Apex Center’s downtown space, 432 North Main Street, Suite 200, Blacksburg, VA (second floor, above PKs). Incubator $ Stipends (for qualifying teams based on milestone progression) to fund development of your concept, travel, and other expenses related to building and launching your startup

Advice and Expertise available to Incubator teams (eligibility determined by milestone):

Student Consultant office hours
Apex Center staff office hours
Apex Center faculty office hours
Entrepreneurs-In-Residence
Venture Mentors

Funding

Teams in the Incubator are not automatically provided with seed funding $ grants, rather Incubator teams are encouraged to apply for $ grants once certain milestones are met and when funding is needed to complete the next best-step. Typically, the primary constraint for early stage startups is not lack of funding but rather validating assumptions in their startup concept. Eg: “Does anyone want this thing I’m building and if so, exactly who will pay me for it?” Incubator teams are encouraged to focus first on making sure they have identified and validated a problem (via collecting real 1st person data) and identified early adopters of their solution before they begin to build a solution (at which point funding is required). *See Incubator info graphic for an overview of the benefits available, program milestones and eligibility requirements.

Who can be in the Incubator?

Any team with a Virginia Tech student team member qualifies for participation in the incubator program. At least one team member must be a current, full time, Virginia Tech Undergraduate or Graduate student from any Virginia Tech college, institute or program.

Incubator Roadmap Milestones