An invitation to alumni, investors, and founders
Meet Purdue's next founders.
Entrepreneurship Kickoff 2026
When
Thursday, September 3
6:00 – 8:00 PM
Where
The HIVE
On the floor
20+ orgs
programs and funds
Coming
Open to everyone
100+ Purdue students and 20+ organizations. No cost to attend. Co-hosted with The HIVE.
What we’re asking from you
- Come and talk to students. That is the entire ask.
- No presentation, no panel, no preparation.
- No sponsorship expectation attached to attending, now or later.
Two hours, free, and leave whenever you need to.
Who you'll meet
Student founders
Building prototypes and early companies right now.
Technical builders
Engineers and designers looking for problems and cofounders.
Purdue and Indiana organizations
The programs, funds, and communities backing those founders.
Hosted by buildpurdue, Purdue's student-run entrepreneurship community, with The HIVE.
Who will be there
Organizations bringing a table.
Premium Partners
Featured on the official Kickoff shirt
Premium partnerHIVE
Premium partnerbuildpurdue Cohort
Premium partnerMitch Daniels School of Business
Premium partnerCertificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Premium partnerFortitude Fund
Premium partnerNextBetter Ventures
Premium partnerAmplify Purdue
Partners
Purdue Innovates
Commercialization, licensing, and startup funding for Purdue innovators.
16Tech
Indianapolis innovation district — 300+ innovation entities, labs, and makerspace.
Elevate Ventures
Early-stage VC investing pre-seed through Series A.
Roll Tack Ventures
Venture firm, and a buildpurdue partner.
VisionTech
Indiana angel investing group, with chapters in Lafayette, Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Fort Wayne.
Venture X
Two-semester venture sequence. Up to $5,000 per team.
Anvil
Purdue’s home for student entrepreneurs. BoilerLaunch, the Forge, the Boiler accelerator.
Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition
Purdue’s venture concept competition for student founders testing a business idea.
Springer Certificate
A Purdue entrepreneurship certificate program.
Hacking for Defense
Purdue course where student teams work real defense and national security problems.
Greater Lafayette Commerce
Greater Lafayette’s chamber of commerce and economic development organization.
MatchBOX
Coworking studio in downtown Lafayette.
Networking room
Purdue student clubs, in their own room alongside the main floor.
Humanoid Robotics Club
Purdue student club building humanoid robots.
ML@Purdue
Purdue’s machine learning club — projects, workshops, and mentorship.
Boiler Blockchain
Purdue student organization for blockchain and Web3 builders, researchers, and founders.
Purdue Venture Consulting
Student-led consulting for Purdue student ventures and local entrepreneurs.
Purdue Stack
Purdue Vital
Join us as a guest.
Thursday, September 3, 2026 / 6:00 – 8:00 PM / The HIVE / No cost to attend
Mentoring, or supporting the night? Email Nandini Katragadda | buildp@purdue.edu. Bringing a table is the partner page.
Why this room
Meet builders early
Purdue students already building, before the accelerator applications and the recruiting cycles.
See the whole room at once
The campus programs, Indiana funds, and support organizations working with these founders are all here. Meeting them individually takes a semester.
Make your experience useful
One conversation, one introduction, or one honest answer changes what a student founder does next.
Builders you'll meet
Software and AI
Tools, apps, and models. The most common first build.
Hardware and robotics
Mechanical, electrical, and robotics students with a prototype on a bench.
Aerospace and defense
Aero and adjacent engineering students, including work that started as a lab project.
Agriculture and food
Ag tech and food systems, often by students who grew up around it.
Health and life sciences
Pharmacy, biomedical, and health students building around care and diagnostics.
Consumer and campus businesses
Brands and services that started by selling to other students.
Where they’re at
Students place themselves on this ladder and partners say which rungs they serve. The room skews toward the earlier end.
- No startup knowledge or experience
- Knows about startups, does not know where to start
- Looking for an idea worth building
- Building and iterating a prototype
- Early traction, first active customers
- Pre-seed and investment ready
Questions
Who is organizing this?
buildpurdue, Purdue University’s student-run entrepreneurship community, co-hosted with The HIVE. We run a founder cohort, Nightshift co-working, workshops, and speaker events through the year.
What is the difference between a guest and a partner?
A guest is a person we invited to spend the evening with the students. A partner is an organization bringing a table. You can be either, or both.
Is there a cost to attend?
No. The event is free for guests and for students.
Can I bring colleagues?
Yes. The form has a field for their names and emails.
Anything not answered here: Nandini Katragadda | buildp@purdue.edu.
Not joining as a guest?
Two other ways into the same night.