Startup Project

Startup Project is a cross-disciplinary studio in which small teams of designers, engineers, and writers build a brand and product from zero over fourteen weeks. The studio is structured as a compressed founding sprint: weeks one through three are dedicated to opportunity framing and customer research; weeks four through eight to brand, product, and service design; weeks nine through twelve to building a working prototype; and the final two weeks to launch and review. Teams are intentionally mixed across disciplines so that no single craft dominates the conversation. We focus on the moments where design, technology, and storytelling have to make decisions together — naming, pricing, onboarding, the first email a customer receives. Each team is paired with a mentor from industry who joins critiques every other week. Readings are short and practical: pieces from working founders, case studies of well-known launches, and historical examples of small ventures that grew into cultural institutions. The deliverable is a working prototype, a complete brand system, a go-to-market plan, and a fifteen-minute pitch delivered to an invited audience. The studio rewards clarity over ambition and prefers a small idea executed convincingly to a large idea sketched roughly.