If you have an idea, let Brown EP help bring you to the next stage in launching your venture through University backed grants, fellowships and mentoring. We operate according to a simple premise: learn by doing.

PRE-IDEA: Nelson Center and Resources

Nelson centeR

"Making entrepreneurship a central part of the Brown experience. We provide curricular, co-curricular, and venture support to a diverse Brown entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Providence and around the world."

Take a look at the Nelson Center Calendar of Events!
Sign up for the Nelson Center weekly newsletter!
Meet with other members of the cofounding team!

Other Helpful Resources

Find the best articles ever written about building great companies and careers, now fully searchable and discoverable in First Round.
Explore Startup Stash—A curated directory of resources & tools to help you build your Startup

POST-IDEA gRANTS & Fellowships

Click here to learn more about grants from the Nelson Center

eXPLORE

Explore Grants serve the Brown community by encouraging student entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into new ventures. These grants provide seed money (up to $500) for new, promising ventures at the earliest stages when funding is so difficult to secure from investors. They also offer these ventures the opportunity to apply for three levels of progressively increasing funding using a gated award system.

We accept applications and administer grants on a rolling basis. Please see here for the grants application and more details about the Fund.

Engage

The Social Innovation Fellowship is an award-winning program that provides 15-20 students with $4,000 to build a social venture over the summer, supported by a year of intensive skills training, complementary coursework, and a community of social entrepreneurs offering mentorship and critique.

EXPAND

Expand Grants serve the Brown community by encouraging student entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into new ventures. The purpose of Expand Grants are to support the continuation and/or expansion of testing, implementing or achieving critical milestones that will allow the project to reach a new level of impact and sustainability. Students may apply for as many Expand Grants as they need to develop their venture during their time at Brown, with a maximum of $2,500 granted per venture.

embark

The Embark Fellowship supports graduating students seeking to pursue their entrepreneurial ventures as full-time endeavors post-graduation. The mission of the Embark Fellowship is three-fold:

Encourage students to see entrepreneurship as a viable career option.
Create support structures to help ventures gain traction after graduation.
Build a connected alumni community to support new graduates in field.

The goal of Embark is to support one commercial and two social ventures each year that present the most compelling case for potential impact after graduation. Embark provides fellows with financial resources, structure, coaching, professional services, and connections with a network of alumni and local innovators necessary for recent grads to pursue their venture full time after graduation. Our goal is to advance Embark ventures within one year to the point of raising their own sustainable funding. We provide fellows with direct funding combined with opportunities for fundraising that are sufficient for fellows to pursue their venture as a full-time vocation — approximately $35,000 for individuals and $50,000 for teams.

BROWN VENTURE PRIZE

The $50k Brown Venture Prize is designed to empower the most advanced entrepreneurial ventures by Brown students. It supports teams who have identified a significant opportunity, and whose ventures have the potential to create “impact at scale”. Winners will receive prize money, critical mentorship, and access to leaders in the Brown entrepreneurial community and beyond.

MENTORSHIP & Accelerators

Entrepreneurs in residence

Have an idea that you want to bounce off of a professional? Schedule an appointment with our Peer Entrepreneurs in Residence. Learn about them here.

B-LAB

Brown University’s Breakthrough Lab (B-Lab) is an intensive 8-week accelerator program designed to support student entrepreneurs developing high-impact ventures. Each participating team receives access to custom mentoring, a peer cohort of dedicated founders, and co-working space. For teams that require it, B-Lab will also provide access to lab facilities and relevant technical support.