One cohort, two countries.
The Founder Challenge opens the studio’s first cohort to student teams in India and the United States. Enter with a team of two or three, a problem worth solving, and something we can try.
Six phases, one cohort
Founder Challenge · Not open yet.
Opens 14 Oct 2026, 18:30 UTC · 15 Oct 2026, 0:00 IST official
Closes 19 Nov 2026, 18:29 UTC · 19 Nov 2026, 23:59 IST official
- 01
Discovery
Webinars, learning resources, and help finding the people you will build with.
- 02
The Founder Challenge
Enter a team of two or three with a deck and something we can try — a demo video or a prototype. Pick a brief from the Idea Factory, or bring your own.
- 03
Partner interviews
Shortlisted teams meet the partners. Thirty minutes, about the work.
- 04
Studio batch
Selected teams run with a general partner and two mentors, reporting weekly.
- 05
Demo Day
You present when you are ready to.
- 06
Growth pathways
What comes after: accelerator readiness, introductions, and the studio staying with you.
What a selected team gets
- A general partner and two mentors, for the length of the batch
- Cloud, tooling and API credits from our partners
- The studio’s help with incorporation, hiring and going to market
- Introductions to investors at Demo Day, and after it
Who can enter
Current students at a partner university, in teams of two or three. One entry per person, and up to twenty entries from any one university.
You will need an account, so the entry is yours and your university is known. If your campus is not on Kampus yet, tell us — we onboard as we go. Read the briefs while you decide.
The Next Great AI Company Could Start on Campus.
Applications are open year-round, and cohort challenges run to their own dates. Whether you're building from your dorm room, remotely, or through a partnered Kampus Studio, Kampus helps ambitious university founders build Applied AI companies with operator mentorship, startup infrastructure, and investor readiness.