Author – Ethan Bochicchio
Over the course of 54 hours, Trojan entrepreneurs moved from early ideas to final pitches during the 2026 USC and Techstars Startup Weekend, a three-day innovation experience coordinated by the Office of Research and Innovation (OORI) in partnership with Techstars. Throughout the weekend, USC students, faculty, staff, and alumni came together to pitch startup ideas, form interdisciplinary teams, build minimum viable products, receive mentor feedback, and deliver final presentations. The event brought together USC students, staff, faculty and alumni, generating 51 startup ideas from 11 teams, and 10 final presentations representing 10 schools across USC’s innovation ecosystem. Once again, Startup Weekend was universally seen as a success.
Startup Weekend is one of three core pillars of the USC and Techstars Partnership, alongside the USC and Techstars University Catalyst pre-accelerator program and the USC and Techstars Accelerator. Together, these programs form a structured pipeline of support for founders, guiding them from early ideation through venture development and into full startup acceleration. As the entry point to the USC and Techstars Partnership, Startup Weekend immerses participants in the fundamentals of startup thinking. Participants learn to collaborate under pressure, conduct customer discovery, work with mentors, and pitch ideas clearly and quickly. The program is intentionally designed to expand access to entrepreneurship across the USC community, bringing together individuals from a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds and linking emerging founders to resources within USC’s broader innovation ecosystem.
Over the three-day experience, participants rapidly progressed from idea generation to final presentations. On the first day, participants connected with fellow builders, pitched startup concepts, and formed interdisciplinary teams. The second day focused on building minimum viable products with support from mentors and industry experts, complemented by workshops and one-on-one feedback sessions to help teams sharpen customer validation, business models, and product direction. On the final day, teams refined their work, prepared presentations, and delivered final pitches to judges, while also networking with mentors, peers, and members of the broader startup community. The ideas pitched spanned AI, HealthTech, FinTech, EdTech, fashion, space, and other emerging fields.
The weekend showcased the breadth of entrepreneurial energy across USC, bringing together 68 USC-affiliated participants from 10 schools and academic units. Undergraduate and graduate students worked alongside alumni, faculty, and staff to form interdisciplinary teams and build new ventures over the course of the weekend. Participating schools included the Viterbi School of Engineering, Iovine and Young Academy, Marshall School of Business, Rossier School of Education, Keck School of Medicine, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, School of Cinematic Arts, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, and the USC Shoah Foundation. The event underscored how USC’s innovation ecosystem continues to enable collaboration across engineering, business, medicine, education, communications, cinematic arts, dentistry, the humanities and sciences, and other disciplines.
Startup Weekend is widely regarded as the critical link between Techstars and innovation at USC. As Executive Director of Research and Innovation Strategy Robyn Hejmej noted, “Startup Weekend plays a critical role in the USC and Techstars partnership because it creates an accessible first step for Trojan entrepreneurs. It is a powerful way to activate USC’s innovation community and connect participants to the broader resources available through OORI, Techstars, and the USC innovation ecosystem.” The broader innovation community at USC views Startup Weekend as central to cultivating the University’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. Associate Vice President of Research Strategy and Innovation Steve Moldin added, “OORI’s goal is to make USC’s innovation ecosystem more connected, more accessible, and more effective for founders at every stage. The USC and Techstars Startup Weekend is a strong example of that work in action.”
For Techstars, Startup Weekend is a highlight of the USC and Techstars Partnership. Telesha Bowen, a Program Lead at Techstars who led a Speaker Session titled Startup Fundamentals, said about the weekend,
Startup Weekend offers a one-of-a-kind, energizing experience that’s hard to put into words. Throughout a thrilling weekend, a diverse group of founders—including USC faculty, staff, alumni, and students from 10 different schools—gained essential business skills and the confidence needed to launch any idea into a real startup. Founders conducted customer discovery interviews, built prototypes and received tangible guidance from mentors. This event is a powerful example of community and innovation and is truly a transformative experience. These founders now have the foundational skills for a bright future in entrepreneurship!
Over the weekend, 11 teams formed around participant-led startup concepts, and ten delivered final presentations to judges on closing night. Third place went to Finly, a gamified financial literacy platform that teaches users through interactive lessons, while second place went to Haily, an AI-powered revenue integrity assistant for healthcare providers. GovClaw took gold, a multi-agent system that autonomously finds, applies for, and wins government contracts. Other teams explored ideas spanning space technology, student learning and test preparation, healthcare operations, retail optimization, fashion retail, postpartum recovery, customer discovery, and consumer safety tools. From government contracting and healthcare operations to financial literacy, the final pitches reflected the range of problems Trojan founders are eager to solve.
This year’s Startup Weekend underscored OORI’s commitment to cultivating a culture of innovation at USC. Throughout the weekend, participants received guidance from two speakers, eight mentors, and three judges affiliated with USC, Techstars, and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. Contributors included experts from Google, the USC Alfred E. Mann Institute, the USC Marshall School of Business, and USC Viterbi’s Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TIE) Hub, as well as startup founders, investors, and operators from the wider innovation community. With this support, teams gained firsthand experience addressing the challenges and strategic questions entrepreneurs face when turning an idea into a viable venture: Who is the customer? What problem are they solving? What can they build now? How might the idea become a sustainable business? Judges evaluated teams on customer validation, execution and design, MVP development, and the strength of each team’s business model, reinforcing the program’s emphasis on practical entrepreneurial learning and real-world venture development.
Participant feedback highlighted the program’s impact as both a hands-on learning experience and a catalyst for community building. Many participants described the weekend as motivating, empowering, and transformative, noting that it deepened their understanding of customer discovery, validation, market sizing, collaboration, and pitching. Others highlighted the benefits of working with teammates from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, while several noted how quickly the program helped turn early-stage ideas into concrete products and presentations. Participants also emphasized the energy and talent throughout the event, describing it as a valuable opportunity to connect with others, broaden their entrepreneurial perspective, and explore the future potential of ideas they plan to continue pursuing. As Andrea White-Kjoss, a Managing Partner with Cifris Ventures LLC and a mentor at the event, said,
The USC and Techstars Startup Weekend 2026 was perfectly arranged to maximize learning, connections, and viable technology product ideation and market research. The electricity in the air was palpable despite the long hours. This is exactly the type of community and process that will increase the odds of bringing important breakthroughs into the world. My experience as a mentor was smooth and well informed so that I could give my best to the teams.
Following the weekend, participants were connected to additional resources across USC, including programs developed through the Techstars partnership, startup support resources, and pathways for continued venture development. These resources included access to the USC Innovation Ecosystem, the USC and Techstars University Catalyst program, the USC and Techstars Accelerator, and broader USC and Techstars startup resources, as well as opportunities to engage with Techstars portfolio companies. For many participants, Startup Weekend served as an initial entry point into a longer trajectory of entrepreneurial training, mentorship, funding support, technology transfer guidance, and venture development opportunities.
Startup Weekend, coordinated by OORI through its partnership with Techstars, is best understood not as a standalone event but as a core partnership activity within USC’s broader innovation strategy. The program plays a key role in catalyzing innovation community-building across campus by bringing together students, researchers, and entrepreneurs in a shared environment for venture creation and collaboration. Designed as an accessible entry point for Trojan entrepreneurs at all stages of development, Startup Weekend helps lower barriers to participation in innovation and startup formation. Importantly, the experience is designed to extend beyond the weekend itself, connecting participants to a larger continuum of support that includes the University Catalyst, the Techstars Accelerator, and broader OORI innovation resources, ensuring that early ideas can progress into sustained entrepreneurial pathways within the USC innovation ecosystem.