Innovation Pathway Details
The Innovation Pathway is Boston University’s comprehensive entrepreneurship program for building scalable, innovation-driven ventures. It will guide you from initial idea validation through venture launch. Whether you’re exploring a business concept, social innovation, or nonprofit initiative, we provide the structure, funding, and support to help you succeed.
The Three Stages of the Pathway
You enter the program once you’ve identified and validated a sizable, important problem or opportunity that you’re passionate about. Once accepted, you’ll follow the Innovation Pathway’s “stage-gate” model, where you advance to another stage once you’ve achieved specific milestones.
1) Walk 
You’ll start in the Walk stage. Here, you’re finding problem/solution fit by exploring potential solutions to a problem, and experimenting to find which is most effective. This typically takes 2-4 months, during which you’ll work with Founders-in-Residence (FiR) for guidance. Your goal is a validated solution and deep knowledge of the stakeholders and segments who need it most.
2) Run 
Once you’ve developed and validated a solution that effectively addresses the opportunity, you’ll advance to the Run stage, where you’ll build a launchable version of the solution, and define the strategies you’ll need to build a venture to deliver it to market. Here, you’re matched with an expert coach in your industry who helps you develop a business model and go-to-market strategy.
3) Fly 
Finally, in the Fly stage, you launch and grow your venture. This is an ongoing phase where you get traction with real customers, supported by continued coaching and an expanded mentor network. Your goal is to generate revenue and create sustainable impact.
Entry Requirements
Who Can Apply?
The Pathway welcomes all BU students, from undergraduates through PhD candidates across all schools and colleges. Recent BU alumni who graduated within the last year are also eligible. You can apply as an individual founder or with a team, as long as at least one member is affiliated with BU. We support both for-profit and nonprofit ventures, and international students are very welcome.
Preparing Your Application
To enter the Walk stage, you need to demonstrate that you’ve identified and validated a large problem/opportunity that you’re passionate about. We’ve created a comprehensive 4-step guide to help you prepare a strong application.
Step-1: Problem Validation
You’ll conduct customer discovery interviews by speaking with stakeholders—not just with friends, but with people who actually experience the problem you’re trying to solve. Through these conversations, you’ll develop a clear problem statement that captures real frustration, and document evidence of people actively seeking better solutions. Our validation guide shows you exactly what questions to ask and how to identify genuine demand versus polite interest.
Step-2: Understanding the Alternatives
You’ll listen to stakeholders to understand how they attempt to solve the problem today, and why those approaches don’t work and leave them frustrated. You’re not yet comparing your solution to others because in most cases, you won’t have developed a solution yet. Our landscape guide helps you uncover gaps in the market and understand where opportunities lie.
Step-3: Opportunity Sizing
You’ll develop an understanding of how many people experience this problem, how frequently it occurs, and how severely it impacts them. Our opportunity sizing guide gives you a clear methodology to demonstrate the scale of the opportunity – which is essential whether you’re building a for-profit or nonprofit venture.
Step-4: Prepping for the Pitch
Using our proven 10-slide framework, you’ll create a compelling presentation that weaves together your validated problem, competitive landscape, and market opportunity. The pitch guide includes common Q&A questions and tips for building confidence through preparation and evidence.
Most successful applicants spend 2-4 weeks working through these steps.
Application Process
Start by working through our four-step preparation guide (above) to get your idea and pitch deck in tip-top shape. Each step builds on the previous one, taking you from initial problem validation through customer interviews to mapping existing solutions, sizing your market opportunity, and finally building your pitch using our proven template.
Once you’ve completed your preparation, submit your application with your validated opportunity. You’ll meet with a FiR who will give you feedback on your pitch and assess the strength of your application. After your FiR meeting, you can book an application interview slot (application interviews happen at least once per month throughout the academic year), where you’ll present your 10-minute pitch to the panel and answer questions about the opportunity. Within a week of your interview, you’ll receive a decision along with detailed feedback to help you improve. Interview slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so we recommend submitting your application early to ensure you can have your FiR review and guarantee an interview.
Application interviews happen every month. Dates for the 2025-26 academic year will be released soon.
Advancing Through the Stages
Moving between stages requires demonstrating specific achievements through a structured process. To advance to Run or to Fly, you’ll prepare with a FiR or your assigned coach to assess your readiness. Then you’ll deliver a 10-minute pitch presentation to an investment panel, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A where you’ll receive questions and feedback. Within a week, you’ll receive an advancement decision along with detailed feedback to help you improve.
Investment panels occur monthly, giving you regular opportunities to advance when you’re ready. There’s no pressure to rush—you move at the pace that makes sense for your venture.
Program Benefits
Financial Support
As you progress through the stages, you’ll unlock funding to support your venture development. When you advance from Walk to Run, you receive $1,500 to develop your solution. Moving from Run to Fly unlocks another $3,000 to launch your venture. This funding comes as non-dilutive grants—we don’t take any equity in your venture.
Personalized Mentorship
The program connects you with experienced entrepreneurs and industry experts who provide personalized guidance. In the Walk stage, Founders-in-Residence—successful entrepreneurs who’ve been through the journey themselves—help you navigate early validation. As you progress to Run and Fly stages, you’re matched with expert coaches specific to your industry or venture type. You’ll also have regular access to Innovate@BU staff and external experts through office hours, plus connection to a community of over 100 fellow student entrepreneurs.
Important Considerations
Academic Integration
While the Innovation Pathway provides valuable experience and funding, it doesn’t offer course credit. However, you can participate in the program while taking entrepreneurship courses. The key restriction is that you cannot receive Pathway funding while simultaneously earning course credit for the same project. You can still work through the Walk stage deliverables while in a course, but you’ll need to wait until the course ends before pitching for Run stage funding.
Intellectual Property
You retain full ownership of your ideas and ventures developed through the Innovation Pathway. We don’t require any confidentiality agreements for participation, though we recommend consulting the BU Law Clinic if you have specific questions about IP protection, patents, or other legal considerations.
Time Investment
Expect to dedicate 5-10 hours per week to working on your venture, including regular meetings with your FiR or coach (typically biweekly). The program is self-paced—there’s no fixed timeline for completion, and you advance when you’ve achieved the necessary milestones. Some teams move quickly through stages, while others take more time to thoroughly validate and develop their ideas.
Venture Types We Support
The Innovation Pathway is designed to help students develop innovative, scalable ventures, and it adapts to support different venture types and impact models. For-profit startups receive guidance on customer acquisition, revenue models, and scaling strategies. Social ventures get specialised support for impact measurement, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability planning. Nonprofit initiatives learn about funding sources, donor development, mission alignment, and so on.
Ready to Start Your Journey?
Here’s a quick way to assess if you’re ready:
- Can you describe a specific problem that frustrates real people?
- Have you talked to 10-15 people who experience this problem?
- Do you understand existing solutions and why they fall short?
- Can you estimate how many people this affects?
- If you answered yes to all four, you’re ready to apply!