What is the Venture Lab?
The IE Venture Lab is IE’s startup accelerator, designed to help participants transform ideas into ventures ready to engage with investors and the market. Through a hands-on experience, teams develop their business models, test assumptions, build prototypes, and gather real market feedback while working closely with mentors and experts from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The program concludes with Venture Day, where selected teams pitch their ventures to investors and industry professionals.
The Venture Lab is open to students from all IE programs, creating a collaborative environment where founders from different disciplines come together to build companies. Throughout the program, participants attend workshops with experienced entrepreneurs and ecosystem experts, gaining practical insights from those who have built, scaled, and funded startups.
One of the key elements of the Venture Lab experience is mentorship. Teams work closely with mentors who guide them as they refine their strategy, validate their product, and prepare their investor narrative. Many participants choose to join the program more than once, allowing them to continue developing their venture while building their own trusted circle of advisors among the mentors and experts they meet along the way.
The Venture Lab emphasizes experimentation, resilience, and execution. Ideas are expected to evolve as teams test them with real users and gather feedback from mentors, investors, and peers. Over time, many Venture Lab teams have gone on to raise funding, grow their companies, and become part of the broader IE entrepreneurial ecosystem.
