Any full-time, currently enrolled Brown (or RISD) undergraduate, graduate, or medical students is eligible to apply to B-Lab and if accepted receive the $4,000 scholarly award. Students who graduate in December and May are eligible to apply and receive the scholarly award as well. Please note, that if you are on Brown leave in the spring semester, but you are returning as a full-time student in the fall semester, you are still eligible for B-Lab. All returning students (and accepted students into our program) need to complete an I-9 no later than the first week in May.

Alumni and non-Brown/RISD students are eligible to apply and participate in the summer program if accepted, but are not eligible for the scholarly award.

Yes! We are excited to return in-person B-Lab programming and workspace to Providence for June and July each year.We recognize that some ventures or members of your founding team may benefit from not operating in Providence during B-Lab. If you have a compelling business reason or significant personal extenuating circumstance why you need to operate elsewhere, include a brief description in your application. If approved, we will provide for virtual participation in B-Lab. Please note this may preclude you from cohort bonding and in-person networking events and opportunities.

You can receive mentorship from an alum or entrepreneur who is familiar with mentoring ventures and with our selection process. We also recommend reaching out to our Peer Entrepreneurs in Residence.

Not really. Our expectation is that B-Lab is your only major workday time commitment. As a serious entrepreneur, you’ll be putting significant energy into your venture. Other big distractions from that during normal work hours (UTRA’s, RA programs, summer courses (or the summer semester), etc.) aren’t really compatible with your venture’s, and B-Lab’s, goals. That said, we want you to live a full and fun life in Providence (or wherever you live) in your free time. And we’ll help that along with great B-Lab social events! We generally discourage students from being concurrently involved in other accelerators while participating in B-Lab, however, we will not use this as a determining factor of eligibility.

We are not looking for the next Martin Scorsese or Ava DuVernay; just a simple 2-minute video featuring you and your team will do. This is not a video production contest, but rather an opportunity to learn more about you, your passion for the problem, and why you are the team to solve it. Upload your video to YouTube. Don’t mark it as private or disallow embedding on YouTube, so we are able to see it. Then include that link in your final application. Do not wait until the last minute to upload your video to YouTube. Give yourself enough time to allow for unexpected technical difficulties. We will not accept late applications. Here’s examples of what we are looking for. Questions? Or not sure how to do this? Email: entrepreneurship@brown.edu.

Definitely not! B-Lab fosters “high-impact” ventures that are commercial, social, for-profit, non-profit, or, in many cases, a blend of these.

While we don’t have a strict rule against it, we strongly prefer applications with a founding team, and ideally a team that has worked together prior to B-Lab. Entrepreneurship is a tough undertaking and we have found that a diverse team of people is better able to build a successful venture. The ability to work well together is probably one of the highest predictors of success. Hence the old adage: an ‘A’ team with a ‘B’ idea is better than a ‘B’ team with an ‘A’ idea.

Since we are situated within the University, we value our role as educators of entrepreneurs alongside our charge to advance high-impact ventures. We see B-Lab as a springboard for ventures to go on to larger, national accelerator programs, and indeed many B-Lab ventures do. Teams have gone on to Venture for America, MassChallenge, Techstars, and others!

Yes you can! However, the Brown Venture Prize is designed to empower the most advanced entrepreneurial ventures founded by Brown students. It supports teams that have significantly validated an opportunity, and are nearer to creating “impact at scale.” We recommend, but do not require, participating in B-Lab before applying to the Brown Venture Prize. Many of the past BVP top contenders and winners have been B-Lab participants. To learn more about the Prize, click here.

In truth, a venture doesn’t need to be that far along to be ready for B-Lab. A good idea is a great place to start, though we do prefer teams that have taken some thoughtful and concerted action on that idea (talked to prospective users, started building an MVP, etc.). It’s also great when a team has taken the time to think through what the roadmap to success might look like and how to get there (knowing, of course, that things can, and do, change quickly when building a venture). We highly recommend Y-Combinator’s Startup School as a starting point to learn more about venture development.

Yes, most definitely! We regularly have RISD participants in B-Lab, and often on several B-Lab ventures. In fact, we believe that the Brown/RISD connection is a great source of entrepreneurial activity and innovation. Let’s keep it going!

Yes, of course! We just ask that interested applicants visit the Office of International Student and Scholar Services (OISSS) early in the spring semester to ensure that they have filled out all the necessary paperwork to stay in Providence over the summer.Domestic students are not subject to withholdings, international students are subject to tax treaty benefits if applicable.

Yes, definitely. We recognize that ventures require a wide variety of support, including those that are working on deeply technical problems. In fact, we work hard to provide as many technical resources as possible (including lab space, technical advisors, etc.) and to tailor the program to the specific needs of each venture.

Being in the cohort means that you will participate in all B-Lab related activities and programming for the 8-week period, including the opening 2-week boot camp, mentoring and venture meetings, and special events. Failure to be fully engaged could be reflected in a reduction in payments of the scholarly award.

If you previously applied but were not accepted into a cohort, you for sure can (and should!) apply again. If you already have participated in B-Lab, you can not apply again. Consider applying to the Brown Venture Prize.