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Catalyze CU is a summer startup accelerator for teams with the most promising ideas and technologies developed atÌýthe university.ÌýThe program—open to CU Boulder students, faculty and staff—runs for 12 weeks during the summer, beginning in mid-May andÌýculminating in August.
Catalyze staff and mentors lead you through aÌýcustomized assessment of your company, leading to a personalized experience including:
- weekly goal setting and accountability sessions
- skill and concept workshops
- networking events
- intentional mentor connections
- pitch coaching
- funding options
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Get Involved
Participate
Catalyze CU teaches student, faculty and staff innovatorsÌýtoÌýlevel up their founding team's startup skill set by helping themÌýgo from idea to impactÌýand prototype to production.
Catalyze CU relies onÌýthe support of community members to help prepareÌýuniversity startups to thrive once they leave the university. Want to lend your expertise?
Support
Catalyze CU would not be possible without the generous contributions of our partners. Interested in supporting CU Boulder innovators and startups?
Head over to the official Catalyze CU podcast to gain insight and advice from experienced engineering professionals.
Startup Stories
informuÌý(2016) was created by the intrepid, hard-working duo of Lang Mei (Leeds, 2017) and Rishabh Berlia (CEAS, 2017).ÌýThe two international students, from China and India, respectively, joined forces to add Prerna Nayyer (CEAS, 2017), an international student also from India. This team worked tirelessly to address the issue of lost items; those valuables that are accidentally left behind. The Mu tag, their product, connects to a users phone or smart watch and sends a notification when the user is further than a given distance their valuable item. informuÌýstaged a successful Kickstarter campaign in spring of 2017Ìýand raised their seed round in December the same year.
StatelessÌý(2016) was founded by the electrical and computer engineering research team of PhD student Murad Kablan and Assistant Professor Eric Keller. Their revolutionary technology makes even the most sophisticatedÌýnetworks simple to manage.ÌýAfter completingÌýCatalyze CU, they were accepted into Techstars Boulder in the spring ofÌý2017. They were awarded an NSF SBIR grant in the summer of 2017Ìýand by winter of that same year, they had completed their first round ofÌý. In February of 2019,ÌýStateless announced a Series A financing round of $11.33 million, the most by any Catalyze CU alum to date.
SpecdrumsÌý(2017) was founded in 2015 by Steven Dourmashkin to address his own problem as a lifelong drummer—he wished he could bring his drum set with him everywhere. The result was Specdrums, a wearable ring that allows the user to tap colors to trigger sounds. After assembling Jenna and Jack as co-founders and participating in Catalyze CU, the Specdrums teamÌýlaunched a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, bringing in almost $190,000Ìýin the fall of 2017. The team competed in, and won, the CU Boulder New Venture Challenge in 2018, and shortly afterwards wasÌý, marking the second acquisition of a Catalyze CU alumni startup.
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