DELTA V OVERVIEW
MIT delta v is the capstone educational startup accelerator that is run by the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. The name “delta v” itself is a nod to MIT’s strong technical legacy. In Physics, “acceleration” is defined as the rate of change of velocity (“delta v”) with respect to time. And so, our program name itself means “acceleration” in the language of technologists.
Delta v is a full-time, immersive summer program for MIT startup teams. It runs from June to early September. Delta v culminates in a series of well-attended Demo Days, where students, alumni, entrepreneurs, investors and mentors in Cambridge, NYC and SF area.
We kick off the program in May with a social mixer. From June to early September, teams work full time in the co-working space at the Trust Center at MIT, or at the New York City Startup Studio held at 2 Sigma in NYC.
Throughout the summer, teams will define and refine their target market, conduct primary market research and build knowledge about their customers and users. They will run experiments to validate or invalidate their key hypotheses with potential customers. They will be building and nurturing their founding team. They will make progress on the mechanics of starting their venture.
To support all this, we provide programming and support to the teams to help them acquire entrepreneurial skills. This includes workshops, coaching and mentoring, scheduled check-in, peer sharing and learning and more. We also encourage students to participate in social events that helps them build strong personal relationships that will stay with them long after they leave MIT.