# buildpurdue vs The Founders Club — What Purdue's Founder Club Offered Before It Dissolved > The Founders Club (formerly Purdue Founders) ran weekly founder meetups, a venture guide, and an annual Demo Day at Purdue. It has since dissolved. Here's what it offered and how buildpurdue compares today. By BuildPurdue Team · August 21, 2026 · Updated August 23, 2026 · 4 min read Source: https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-founders-club --- **The Founders Club at Purdue has dissolved and is no longer active.** While it operated, it was one of Purdue's closest peers to buildpurdue: a community of student founders built around weekly meetups, a guided venture program, and an annual Demo Day. If you were counting on it, here's what it offered, what it accomplished, and where to go instead — buildpurdue's weekly [Nightshift](/nightshift) and selective [Cohort](/cohort) are the closest current buildpurdue options for those needs, and both are running today. ## Key takeaways - **The Founders Club has dissolved.** It is no longer an active Purdue organization. - **While it ran, it offered a full founder-community stack** — weekly Saturday meetups, a self-guided venture program called the Portal, an annual Demo Day pitch showcase, and Catapult, a 36-hour hackathon it co-ran with Machine Learning @ Purdue. - **buildpurdue has current options for students looking for similar founder support.** [Nightshift](/nightshift) is buildpurdue's open weekly co-working night — no application required — and it reports **50+ attendees** on its [partner page](/partner). The selective [Cohort](/cohort) reports **20 founders and 14 active ventures**. - **Some of The Founders Club's pages and channels may still appear online.** A website and Discord server can keep running for a while after an organization stops operating; don't take either as confirmation of current programming. ## What The Founders Club was Founded in 2023 as "Purdue Founders" and later rebranded to The Founders Club, it described itself as a community "navigating the earliest stages of starting a company," built around a few core programs: - **Weekly meetups** — Saturdays at 2 PM at Dudley Hall (or Discord), for idea-sharing, pitch practice, and roundtable discussion on topics like finding a co-founder, customer validation, and fundraising. - **The Portal** — a self-guided walkthrough of ideation, building, and launching a first venture, plus a member and startup directory. - **Demo Day** — an annual showcase where founders got 90 seconds each to pitch to investors, alumni, and professors at the Wilmeth Active Learning Center. - **Catapult** — a 36-hour AI and entrepreneurship hackathon it co-ran with Machine Learning @ Purdue. At its LinkedIn peak it described itself as "450 members and counting," and a member startup, Uniform Sierra Aerospace, was acquired — a real, concrete outcome for the community while it was running. ## How it compared to buildpurdue | | The Founders Club (historical) | buildpurdue (current) | | --- | --- | --- | | Status | Dissolved | Active | | Open weekly gathering | Saturday meetups at Dudley Hall | [Nightshift](/nightshift) — free, no application, 50+ attendees | | Structured founder track | The Portal (self-guided) | [Cohort](/cohort) — selective, 20 founders, 14 active ventures | | Joining | Discord + weekly meetup | Open sign-up for Nightshift; application for Cohort | ## What to do now If what drew you to The Founders Club was an open, low-stakes place to work on an idea alongside other founders, buildpurdue's [Nightshift](/nightshift) is built for exactly that — [free for all Purdue students, no application, pitch, or polished plan required](/nightshift). If you wanted the more structured side — a guided founder program, mentorship, and a tighter peer group — the closer current match is the [Cohort](/cohort), a [selective build program for Purdue teams turning a real problem into tested work, week after week](/cohort). Cohort members have launched apps used by 200+ people, landed accelerator placements including Y Combinator, and moved from zero customers to paid pilots. ## FAQ ### Is The Founders Club still active at Purdue? No. The Founders Club has dissolved and is no longer an active organization. ### Is The Founders Club the same as Purdue Founders? Yes. "Purdue Founders" was its earlier name before it rebranded to The Founders Club. ### What did The Founders Club offer while it was running? Weekly Saturday meetups, a self-guided venture program called the Portal, an annual Demo Day pitch showcase, and Catapult, a hackathon it co-ran with Machine Learning @ Purdue. ### I was part of The Founders Club — what should I use instead? buildpurdue's [Nightshift](/nightshift) is the closest match for the open weekly meetup, and the [Cohort](/cohort) is the closest match for a structured, mentored founder track. ### Can I still find The Founders Club's website or Discord online? Some pages or channels may still be reachable — organizations often leave a digital footprint online after they stop operating. That isn't evidence the club is still active; treat it as archival, not current. ## Other Purdue options to consider - [buildpurdue's Nightshift](/nightshift) — the open, current, weekly co-working night. - [Purdue entrepreneurship clubs, programs, and startup communities](/blog/purdue-entrepreneurship-clubs) — the full landscape of options. - [buildpurdue vs The Anvil](/blog/buildpurdue-vs-anvil) — another active Purdue startup hub. - [buildpurdue vs Purdue Hackers](/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-hackers) — a large, currently active open builder community. ## Meet Purdue builders at Entrepreneurship Kickoff 2026 **Entrepreneurship Kickoff 2026** is scheduled for **Thursday, September 3, 2026** and brings together Purdue's entrepreneurship ecosystem in one room. [See the Kickoff details and register](/kickoff), or come to the next [Nightshift](/nightshift) session to get started sooner.