Stanford Ignite

Formulate, develop, and commercialize your ideas with a suite of certificate programs designed for innovators.

Engage directly with the same renowned faculty that teach in the Stanford MBA Program. Participate in real-time lectures, case evaluations, Q&A sessions, small group discussions, workshops, panels, and team projects. You’ll also hear from guest speakers from leading companies, many of whom become venture-project mentors.

Project-Based Learning

The team venture project is key to the Stanford Ignite experience. Working in teams of five or six, you’ll develop a new product or service for an existing organization or a new venture. It’s a unique opportunity to put theory into practice, enabling you to reinforce and apply business concepts learned during the class sessions. 

Venture Project Idea Selection

All venture project ideas come directly from Stanford Ignite participants. You can propose new or existing ideas in any stage of development.

The venture idea submission process begins prior to the start of the official program, allowing time to submit and narrow the list of ideas that will eventually become the team venture projects. Here’s how it works:

• Submit ideas via an online educational platform
• Review ideas and vote for your favorites to create a short list
• Idea generators for short-listed ideas create brief video presentations
• Idea generators give short presentations to the group on the first day of the program
• Rank which ideas you would most like to work on
• The faculty director will assign you to a team, based largely on your rankings

Idea generators own their ideas coming into the program and also have the first right of refusal to carry ideas forward beyond the program. Idea generators do not automatically become team leaders. The leadership role is rotated among team members for each project assignment.

Guidance

To help you and your team stay on track during the venture project, you’ll also participate in weekly individual and team assignments. In addition to team advising sessions with the faculty director, you and your team will receive guidance from mentors, investors, and industry experts.

Presentations

To help you learn how to successfully present your ideas, each team will participate in a daylong communications bootcamp. Midway through the program, teams will give an elevator pitch to a small panel and get feedback on their venture idea.

At the culmination of the program, each team will give a fully developed presentation to a panel of venture capitalists, angel investors, industry experts, or experienced entrepreneurs. The goal of these presentations is to receive feedback from panelists, such as the viability of the venture idea business plan, for educational purposes.

Time Commitment

Stanford Ignite provides approximately 100 hours of instruction, including class lectures, coaching sessions, advising sessions with the faculty director, and panels. In addition, the program requires approximately 100 to 150 additional hours of preparation for class sessions and teamwork on the venture projects.