Apply to the Venture Advancement Program! Unlock your potential with 5 days at MIT.
MIT Innovation Leadership Bootcamps bring the rigorous, immersive, collaborative, action-learning experience of our in-person Bootcamps online. Over 10 weeks, you will learn and work with a global team of innovators carefully selected by MIT Bootcamps to build and deliver value through innovation. You will learn principles central to innovation directly from MIT instructors: problem discovery, ideation, user innovation, customer sense-making, and more. Your team will be coached by experienced MIT innovators. You’ll hear from entrepreneurs, investors, and others from MIT’s diverse innovation ecosystem. Start your application today!
By the end, you and your team will be able to answer questions like: Am I solving an important problem? Am I delivering a superior solution? Am I doing this in a financially sustainable way?
From a combination of live sessions with MIT instructors and guest speakers, coaching sessions with an MIT Bootcamps coach, regular meetings with your global team, plus your individual work, we expect active engagement from all participants. This isn’t a typical online course. It’s a dynamic, immersive learning experience where you build the foundations of a venture with a global team in just 10 weeks.
As the world has learned in 2020, effective virtual collaboration is a necessary skill now and for the future as workplace configurations adapt. In this Bootcamp, you’ll gain experience collaborating, leading, and innovating with a global team, virtually. Learn and practice “best practices” for effective virtual collaboration.
Over the last six years, MIT Bootcamps has carefully selected 1300+ changemakers from 100+ countries who have built an active and supportive global network of Bootcampers. In addition to your classmates, expand your professional network beyond your own Bootcamp team and cohort and receive continued access to content curated and developed by MIT Bootcamps, post-Bootcamp. When we can convene again in-person, we hope to meet you somewhere in the world at an alumni conference or Trek!
The MIT Innovation Leadership Bootcamp is different from most online courses. A combination of live teaching sessions and workshops with MIT instructors (which are recorded in case you can't attend live), a team-based project to build a venture with a global team, and regular team-based coaching from an experienced MIT entrepreneur, the Bootcamp is a hands-on, immersive, and rigorous learning experience. In 10 weeks, you’ll learn to identify an innovation opportunity, develop and deliver a superior solution, and select a business model to deliver value for a range of stakeholders.
Innovators often get “stuck.” Learn practical techniques to identify viable opportunity spaces and generate new ones.
Your end-users are at the core of your venture and you must understand them profoundly. Learn to identify their unmet needs - the opportunity to create value for them and your venture.
The problem defines the innovation opportunity and potential to create value. Learn how to frame and specify the problem opportunity so that you develop a solution that creates real value.
t takes four modules to even discuss the solution! This is because superior solutions are built on the foundation of a well-specified opportunity and knowing your end user well. Learn to develop a solution that works AND your end user will love.
Venture creation doesn’t end with creating a superior solution. It has to get to the end-user. Learn how the business model and other decisions you make can create value for your customer and your startup.
Communicating the value you are creating is key to engaging co-founders, employees, partners, customers, and investors. Learn to craft a story that engages a range of stakeholders and clearly communicates the value your venture will deliver.
Pitch your venture and receive feedback from MIT Bootcamps judges.
Admissions to Bootcamps are highly selective. Our selection criteria have evolved over the last six years to reflect characteristics embodied by our most successful Bootcampers. In addition to these criteria, we found successful Bootcampers display and articulate the following qualities: compassion, pursuit of excellence, are curious and dynamic, enjoy learning, and strive to make an impact personally and professionally. Be prepared to talk about your accomplishments and how you have dealt with challenges when you apply.
Learners will need frequent computer and internet access to participate in live sessions.
10 week online program divided up into six key learning modules. Expected time commitment is 10-15 hours per week. See a syllabus and schedule here.
Tuition includes access to all learning platforms and course materials. We are not able to offer scholarships at this time.
Your MIT instructors bring a lifetime of experience in entrepreneurship and innovation to you. As professors, innovators, entrepreneurs, and educators, they are here to provide guidance on your entrepreneurship journey.
The 'secret sauce' of the Bootcamp, our coaches provide expertise, mentorship, and direction during the Bootcamp.
The Innovation Leadership Bootcamp isn't just for entrepreneurs. Whatever your background, if you're passionate about creating value in the world around you - we are the community for you.
We are a global community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. Our community spans over 100 countries and over 1300 individuals. Our Bootcampers come to the Bootcamp to make a difference in the world. They leave with the support of a global community to inspire them, support them, and walk through the entrepreneurship journey with them. Learn more about our Bootcamps community.
In a handful of short weeks, MIT not only enables you to create a tangible and 100% applicable business plan, but they inspire you and give you the confidence to put it into action.-Ali Le Pierrès
Do you stay in contact with your Bootcamp team and cohort?
"Yes! Almost every day until now! We have totally bonded because we were meeting every day during the Bootcamp and we have become really good friends. We keep everyone updated where we are, sharing photos. I travel through them! We just had a catch-up via Zoom last week. It's priceless to meet like-minded individuals who continuously push each other to keep growing and learning."
What advice do you have for incoming Bootcampers?
Be disciplined and go prepared for your team meetings. The more you put in, the better the result at the end. Also network as much as you can. MIT Bootcampers have very interesting backgrounds and dreams and you never know who you might end up starting a business with one day.
Ali, born and raised in Montreal, Canada, came to the Bootcamp with a background in kinesiology and human performance improvement. Passionate about both domains, she was determined to combine her expertise into something that could help the enormous, aging population. In the MIT Bootcamp, Ali developed her business plan and gained the confidence to launch Jimmies Training Centre, the first training centre aimed at providing quality of life and autonomy for the 50-70 year-young.