# buildpurdue > buildpurdue is a Purdue-focused builder community helping students and early-stage founders learn, meet collaborators, attend startup events, and build companies. buildpurdue serves Purdue students, student founders, builders, and people exploring entrepreneurship at Purdue. ## Core public pages - [Homepage](https://www.buildpurdue.org/): buildpurdue's main public entry point. - [About](https://www.buildpurdue.org/about): Organization context and mission. - [Cohort](https://www.buildpurdue.org/cohort): buildpurdue cohort information. - [Events](https://www.buildpurdue.org/events): Startup and entrepreneurship events. - [Nightshift](https://www.buildpurdue.org/nightshift): Builder community and coworking-night information. - [Resources](https://www.buildpurdue.org/resources): Public startup resources and guides. - [Blog](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog): Founder playbooks and guides for Purdue student founders. ## Founder guides (blog) - [How to start a startup at Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/how-to-start-a-startup-at-purdue): A practical guide for Purdue students exploring startup formation. - [How to find a cofounder at Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/find-a-cofounder-at-purdue): How Purdue founders meet builders, test the fit, and choose a partner. - [How to validate a startup idea at Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/validate-a-startup-idea-at-purdue): How Purdue students test an idea with real users before building. - [Purdue entrepreneurship clubs and startup communities](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/purdue-entrepreneurship-clubs): A guide to student clubs, founder communities, and university startup programs at Purdue. - [How to price your first product](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/price-first-product): A practical way to set and test an initial product price. - [Before you hire, build a 13-week cash forecast](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/13-week-cash-forecast): A weekly cash-flow test for an early hiring decision. - [When to hire your first salesperson](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/hire-first-salesperson): A readiness test for handing founder-led sales to a first hire. - [Should your startup hire a product manager yet?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/first-product-manager): How to tell whether a first product manager will remove a real bottleneck or add distance from customers. - [Should you hire a contractor before a full-time employee?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/hire-contractor-before-employee): How to choose between scoped contractor work, durable employee ownership, and a bounded paid trial. - [Should you treat a customer LOI as proof of demand?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/customer-loi-proof-demand): How to test whether a customer letter of intent represents real buying commitment. - [How to choose your first customer segment](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/choose-first-customer-segment): A practical way to compare customer groups by urgency, reachability, buying behavior, and competitive room. - [When to charge for a startup pilot](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/charge-startup-pilot): How to scope an early customer pilot, decide when to charge, and avoid one-off custom work. - [Should you offer annual pricing before you understand usage?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/offer-annual-pricing): How to test an annual plan after customers reach repeatable value without mistaking upfront cash for lasting demand. - [How to decide whether a customer request belongs on your roadmap](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/decide-customer-request-roadmap): A practical way to evaluate feature requests before promising custom work. - [How to test a startup partnership before you build around it](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/test-startup-partnership): A bounded test for deciding whether a partnership can create repeatable customer value. - [Should your startup offer a free trial?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/should-startup-offer-free-trial): How to decide whether a free trial fits your product and design a measurable first test. - [Should you scale acquisition before you understand retention?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/understand-retention-before-scaling): A practical test for deciding whether to spend more on acquisition before you know which users find lasting value. - [Which distribution channel should you test first?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/test-first-distribution-channel): How to choose one reachable customer-acquisition channel, run a bounded test, and learn before adding more. - [Should you manually onboard your first customers?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/manual-customer-onboarding): How to use hands-on onboarding to learn the path to customer value before automating it. - [Should you raise money before you need it?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/raise-before-needed): How to decide whether fundraising will buy a specific next milestone or only postpone a harder product problem. - [Should your startup join an accelerator?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/should-startup-join-accelerator): How to evaluate an accelerator's fit, network, terms, and value against your next milestone. - [Should you build a marketplace before you have both sides?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/build-marketplace-before-both-sides): How to test a two-sided marketplace manually before building platform complexity. - [Should you build a waitlist before you have a product?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/build-startup-waitlist): How to use a prelaunch waitlist to learn from customer behavior without mistaking signups for demand. - [Should you create a startup advisory board?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/create-startup-advisory-board): How to test whether an advisor will solve a specific expertise or access gap before formalizing the relationship. - [Should you sign a founder agreement before you build together?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/sign-founder-agreement): How to document roles, ownership, vesting, intellectual property, and departure decisions with a cofounder. - [Should you incorporate before you have customers?](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/incorporate-before-customers): A practical test for deciding when a startup needs a legal entity, and when to keep testing first. - [Get free stickers at Purdue with this AI skill](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/purdue-stickers-ai-skill): Use a free AI skill that turns a sticker idea into print-ready files and walks through Purdue's free Knowledge Lab sticker-printing process. - [buildpurdue vs The Anvil](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-anvil): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and The Anvil for Purdue students choosing an entrepreneurship community. - [buildpurdue vs Purdue Venture Consulting](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-venture-consulting): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue Venture Consulting for Purdue students deciding between building their own startup and consulting on someone else's. - [Every way to build at Purdue — the Fall 2026 Entrepreneurship Kickoff](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/entrepreneurship-kickoff-2026): The official announcement of the Fall 2026 Purdue Entrepreneurship Kickoff on September 3 at The HIVE. - [buildpurdue vs The Founders Club](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-founders-club): What The Founders Club (formerly Purdue Founders) offered before it dissolved, plus a comparison to buildpurdue. - [buildpurdue vs Purdue HIVE](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-hive): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue HIVE for Purdue students weighing an open founder community against a selective engineering incubator. - [buildpurdue vs VCPurdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-vcpurdue): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and VCPurdue for Purdue students choosing between building their own startup and practicing venture-capital investing. - [buildpurdue vs StartUp Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-startup-purdue): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Deloitte's StartUp Purdue competition for Purdue students choosing between a 3-day pitch sprint and an ongoing startup-building community. - [buildpurdue vs the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-burton-d-morgan-center): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship for students choosing between the certificate and competition that share its name and an ongoing startup-building community. - [buildpurdue vs the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-entrepreneurship-certificate): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue's Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation for students weighing a 15-credit-hour academic credential against an ongoing startup-building community. - [buildpurdue vs the Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-burton-d-morgan-venture-concept-competition): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue's own 10-week Venture Concept Competition for students choosing between a recurring pitch competition cycle and an ongoing startup-building community. - [buildpurdue vs Purdue Innovates' New Venture Challenge](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-innovates-new-venture-challenge): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue Innovates' six-workshop, cash-prize New Venture Challenge for later-stage student startups weighing a structured program cycle against an ongoing startup-building community. - [buildpurdue vs Purdue Solutions Consulting](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-solutions-consulting): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue Solutions Consulting for Purdue students choosing between building their own venture and general management/technology consulting for outside clients. - [buildpurdue vs Boilermaker Consulting](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-boilermaker-consulting): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Boilermaker Consulting for Purdue students choosing between building their own venture and case-interview-based pro-bono consulting for corporate clients. - [buildpurdue vs Venture X](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-venture-x): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue's Venture X for students weighing a credit-bearing, faculty-guided venture-creation sequence against an ongoing startup-building community. - [buildpurdue vs PurdueTHINK Consulting](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purduethink-consulting): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and PurdueTHINK Consulting, Purdue's oldest student-run consultancy, for students choosing between consulting for Purdue's own institutions and building their own venture. - [buildpurdue vs Momentum at Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-momentum-at-purdue): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Momentum at Purdue, a cross-disciplinary Finance/Engineering/Software project club, for students choosing between semester-long skill-building projects and building their own venture. - [buildpurdue vs 180 Degrees Consulting Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-180-degrees-consulting-purdue): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and 180 Degrees Consulting Purdue, a chapter of a global student consultancy for non-profits, for students choosing between mission-driven client consulting and building their own venture. - [buildpurdue vs Alpha Kappa Psi](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-alpha-kappa-psi): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Alpha Kappa Psi, Purdue's chapter of the nation's oldest co-ed professional business fraternity, for students choosing between a career-development network and building their own venture. - [buildpurdue vs Product Management Club @ Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-product-management-club-purdue): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Product Management Club @ Purdue, a form-based club preparing students for product-manager careers at existing companies, for students choosing between career prep and building their own venture. - [buildpurdue vs Purdue Scope Consulting](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-purdue-scope-consulting): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Purdue Scope Consulting, a Junior Enterprise consulting outside clients from local businesses to startups, for students choosing between client consulting and building their own venture. - [buildpurdue vs Consult Your Community (CYC) Purdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/blog/buildpurdue-vs-consult-your-community-purdue): A side-by-side comparison of buildpurdue and Consult Your Community Purdue, a national nonprofit's chapter delivering pro bono consulting to local small businesses, for students choosing between client consulting and building their own venture. ## Startup resources - [Purdue startup community](https://www.buildpurdue.org/resources/purdue-startup-community): An overview of the Purdue startup and builder community. - [Purdue startup events](https://www.buildpurdue.org/resources/purdue-startup-events): A guide to finding Purdue startup and entrepreneurship events. ## Canonical site - [buildpurdue](https://www.buildpurdue.org/) ## Notes buildpurdue's public website is the source of truth for current program details, event dates, applications, and eligibility. Pages that require authentication or contain private application data are intentionally excluded from this file.