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

Rolling applications are open 01 September – 01 April.  Apply Now!

Got questions? Drop us a note: apexcenter@vt.edu or schedule office hours with a member of our team.

The Startup Hokies Incubator program provides a collaborative environment where students can meet other student founders, validate their business hypothesis, explore possible customer segments, identify early adopters and test potential solutions.  

Student Consultants from our Startup Hokies program are available to teams for assistance in areas such as marketing, data and team building via the Office Hours program. Additionally, alumni Venture 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.

Benefits for Incubator Teams

Incubator teams receive access to the following resources:

• Access to hot desking space at our coworking location in downtown Blacksburg (432 N. Main St, Suite 200 above PKs)
• Incubator $ Stipends (for qualifying teams) to fund development of your concept, travel, and other expenses related to building and launching your startup
• Pro bono legal services | No cost advice from experts on corporate structure & documentation for qualifying teams

Funding

Teams in the Startup Hokies Incubator are not automatically provided with seed funding $ grants, rather Incubator teams are encouraged to apply for $ grants at any point in their journey when funding is needed.  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 and identified early adopters of their solution before they begin to build a solution (at which point funding is required).  

Teams in the incubator who have reached these milestones and are in need of funding to test solutions are eligible to apply for Incubator stipends in the form of equity-free seed $ grants.  These grants typically range from $250-1,500* and are awarded on a competitive basis.  See Incubator stipend application in Startup Tree for details.

*Seed grant awards are limited to a maximum of $5,000 per startup concept per fiscal year (July 01-June 30)

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.

Got Questions? 

Book Office Hours with a Student Consultant

Contact us: at apexcenter@vt.edu or drop by our coworking space downtown (432 N. Main Street, Suite 200)

Ready to join the Incubator?

• Click here to apply!