StartX

Directions Website Contact the organization

StartX StartX empowers Stanford’s highest-potential founders. StartX takes no equity and charges no fees.

StartX is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Silicon Valley that runs one of the world’s top startup accelerator and founder community for Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs. Our mission is to advance the development of the best entrepreneurs through experiential education and peer learning. Since launching in 2010, StartX has supported more than 450 companies and over 1000 entrepreneurs, from early to pre-IPO stage, working across a wide spectrum of industries. StartX and StartX Med, dedicated to medical and biotechnology innovation, provide founders with access to a powerful network of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and industry partners, along with office space and a variety of other resources. Based in Palo Alto, the accelerator also operates StartX-QB3 Labs and the Stanford-StartX Fund. What We Take:
We take 0% equity from your company in return for the resources we provide during the program. Requirements:
In order to be eligible to apply, at least one founder must have been have a Stanford affiliation (i.e be a Stanford student, Stanford alumni, faculty, and/or staff member). We do also have a Visiting Founder Program for teams with no Stanford Affiliation. Community highlights:
-1100 founders
-450 companies
-$3 Billion raised
-200 hospitals as customers
-3000+ jobs
-Founders comprised of Professors, Serial entrepreneurs and recently graduated students

How does a blood-testing device built by a Stanford student become a $7B AI platform for health systems?At a special edi...
10/15/2026

How does a blood-testing device built by a Stanford student become a $7B AI platform for health systems?

At a special edition of DaVinci Café, co-hosted by StartX Med with LDV Partners and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Tanay Tandon (Co-Founder & CEO, Commure) walked through that journey with Elena Viboch (Managing Director, General Catalyst). Their conversation covered pivots, acquisitions and why General Catalyst’s healthcare thesis extends to owning a health system.

Alongside it, Alex Efron (Sutter Health), Steven Green (Pillsbury) and Akhilesh Pathipati, MD, MBA (Redesign Health) tackled the question behind every healthcare deal: what do hospitals and payers actually want from startups?

Both panels were moderated by StartX Med’s own Jay Park and Denys-Michel de Larouzière. StartX Med is the healthcare vertical of StartX, the Stanford-affiliated nonprofit accelerator. Its 700+ founders across 300+ medical companies tap into the Stanford network, learning from operators and investors who’ve done it before, and from each other.

Thank you to Qing Zhang (LDV Partners, founder of DaVinci Café), our speakers and everyone who came. See you at the next one!

Stanford students came looking for StartX at the Stanford Career Education Fall Career Fair, and the stream to our booth...
10/13/2026

Stanford students came looking for StartX at the Stanford Career Education Fall Career Fair, and the stream to our booth didn’t let up all afternoon. Most had heard of us and wanted to know more.

StartX is the Stanford-affiliated nonprofit accelerator, a trusted community of founders and 400+ mentors with unmatched access to the Stanford community. Companies from that community include 29 unicorns and are valued at $200B+ combined, and StartX alum founders have raised $44M on average. StartX takes 0% equity.

The energy at our booth was the best part of the day! ⚡ We met student after student who wants to build, some with a company already underway and others still looking for the idea.

That ambition is everywhere at Stanford. What it needs is the right people around it: founders a few steps ahead, and mentors who have done it before. That’s the community StartX brings together, and it’s why we have a program for wherever you’re starting from:

🚀 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: a 10-week program for founders building full time, and the start of a lifelong community.

🎓 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗶𝗻-𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: a 3-day intensive plus two months of support for founders who are still in school.

🌱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗫 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀: a year-long program for Stanford students who want to learn how startups get built. Launching 2026-2027, with details coming soon.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by on a very sunny afternoon. If you’d like to hear about upcoming programs and when StartX Fellows launches, fill in this interest form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSco_VIRvoE_yzDVeqfeWUogJaZWGbHo7eQwYhC6pGCnMQ89ew/viewform

🚨 4 days left to apply for StartX Spring 2027.This morning we wrapped our last info session of the cycle at the office. ...
10/07/2026

🚨 4 days left to apply for StartX Spring 2027.

This morning we wrapped our last info session of the cycle at the office. Thank you to everyone who came, asked questions, and stayed to meet the team!

If you couldn’t make it, we recorded our first session on Zoom, and it covers how our programs work, what the application asks for, and how judges evaluate teams, plus a live Q&A with questions from other applicants.

StartX is the nonprofit accelerator built on a trusted community of 3,000+ founders and 400+ mentors, with deep access to the Stanford network, at 0% equity.

One thing to know before you apply: the application takes time to do well. If you’ve started, now’s the time to finish it.

🎥 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FkNkylNfHc3CfI1O_ImTqGyMAh52vSUf/view?usp=sharing

⏰ 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟭.
👉 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁ⵑ

“Do I need to already have something built?”This seemed to be on a lot of people’s minds at our on-campus info session l...
10/07/2026

“Do I need to already have something built?”

This seemed to be on a lot of people’s minds at our on-campus info session last week. There’s no required stage. StartX is the Stanford-affiliated nonprofit accelerator, and we work with founders from pre-seed through growth. Judges aren’t scoring your idea. They look at your commitment and how you execute against your own milestones.

The other question that kept coming up: “”If I start as a Student in Residence (SIR), can I do the full-time program later?””

Yes. SIR is built for Stanford students who aren’t working on their startup full time yet, and it prepares you to apply to the full-time program when you’re ready. That’s where you get lifelong access to the full StartX community of 3,000+ founders and 400+ mentors.

And StartX takes 0% equity.

📣 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁ⵑ
⏰ 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟭.
👉 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆.

Fall 2026 orientation is a wrap, and our community just got bigger! 🔥 Three days isn’t long, but it’s enough to set up w...
10/06/2026

Fall 2026 orientation is a wrap, and our community just got bigger! 🔥

Three days isn’t long, but it’s enough to set up what the next 10 weeks run on: founders who know each other well enough to ask for help.

That started within hours. After a welcome from our founder and CEO, Cameron Teitelman, and introductions from every founder, the cohort broke into small groups to share the one thing they need help with right now and what they can offer others. By the next morning, they were sitting down with their Neighborhoods, the peer groups they’ll return to every other week, and committing to their goals for the session in front of each other.

The people who have built companies before showed up for them, too. Lead Mentor Nisheeth Ranjan took questions from the cohort in an open AMA, and alumni and mentors joined us for a community dinner at the JPMorganChase Silicon Valley Technology Center. Thank you to our partners at J.P. Morgan, and to Erin Lashbrook and her team, for hosting us and for being a direct line of support for our founders.

We concluded orientation by hiking the Dish, with no agenda (other than getting our steps in 😉) and plenty of time to chat.

Founders go further when they don’t build alone. Welcome, F26! 🎉

09/11/2026

YC and StartX aren’t substitutes. They’re complementary communities, and founders don’t have to choose between them. 🤝

Nick Damiano would know: he’s been through YC twice and StartX three times.

In his words: “They offer different things. StartX has a really close-knit, supportive community. YC also has a great community, though the vibes are a bit different, more competitive, less collaborative. They’re almost complementary, different kinds of community.”

He’s drawn on the strengths of both, raising his seed round off YC Demo Day and his Series A through StartX. He’s not alone either: many StartX founders have also gone through YC, Inception Studio, a16z Speedrun, and other programs.

StartX is Stanford’s nonprofit accelerator. We take 0% equity and welcome founders across stages and industries, including those already in another accelerator.

📣 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗫 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁.

Already building alongside another accelerator? We’re holding three info sessions this cycle:

Fri Sep 18, 11:00 AM: https://luma.com/t4yjke5n
Mon Sep 28, 7:00 PM: https://luma.com/750vdhaz
Wed Oct 7, 11:00 AM: https://luma.com/kkrjazf2

⏰ 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟭.

👉 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆.

09/10/2026

Many people think accelerators are only for first-time founders. Not true.

Nick Damiano’s built three companies through StartX and gone through YC twice. Why keep coming back? In his words: “The more you go, the more you become a mentor, and even being a mentor, you learn by teaching.”

That’s what StartX offers serial founders: a community of 3,000+ founders that keeps giving back, no matter how many times you’ve built before, one that’s helped produce 29 unicorns so far. StartX is Stanford’s nonprofit accelerator, 0% equity, for founders at every stage.

📣 Applications are now open for the StartX Spring 2027 cohort.

Building your next company and want a community that grows with you? We’re holding three info sessions this cycle:

Fri Sep 18, 11:00 AM: https://luma.com/t4yjke5n
Mon Sep 28, 7:00 PM: https://luma.com/750vdhaz
Wed Oct 7, 11:00 AM: https://luma.com/kkrjazf2

⏰ Applications close October 11.

👉 Link in bio to apply.

09/10/2026

Nick Damiano is a medtech veteran, having built not one, but three companies through StartX.

In his own words on why StartX is valuable for a medtech founder: “StartX is the best and most forward thinking medtech community that exists today...everybody’s on the forefront of new movements, willing to challenge assumptions and think about how to do things better.”

That kind of environment is built deliberately, the result of a community designed to back founders at scale. StartX is Stanford’s nonprofit accelerator, 0% equity, with 29 unicorns built and $44M raised on average. Applications for our Spring 2027 cohort are now open.

If you’re a medtech founder who’d like to learn more before applying, we’re holding three info sessions this admissions cycle:

Fri Sep 18, 11:00 AM — Virtual: https://luma.com/t4yjke5n
Mon Sep 28, 7:00 PM — Stanford campus: https://luma.com/750vdhaz
Wed Oct 7, 11:00 AM — StartX office, Palo Alto: https://luma.com/kkrjazf2

Applications close October 11. Link in bio to apply.

Every cycle, we see great founders miss out over details that are easy to fix.The eligibility bar is more flexible than ...
09/08/2026

Every cycle, we see great founders miss out over details that are easy to fix.

The eligibility bar is more flexible than people think, even without direct Stanford affiliation.

Save this before you submit. Full eligibility details in bio.

Address

2627 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA
94304

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when StartX posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to StartX:

Shortcuts

Share

Category