The hunt is on for Victorian student startup founders to join a hackathon and bootcamp

State Library Victoria’s StartSpace Future Founders Hackathon is coming up at the end of the month, followed by a bootcamp for student startup founders and applications are now open for people to take part. 

The free program is designed to help student founders to develop their startup ideas with support from industry mentors.

StartSpace community lead Aun Ngo said the programs offer students a rare opportunity to access industry expertise and collaborate with peers.

“There are incredibly talented, driven and visionary students with startup ideas that can change our world,” he said.

“We want to support them to turn their ideas into reality. The Future Founders hackathon and bootcamp programs are the ideal place to do that.

Students can apply for Future Founders programs up to five years post-graduation.

There are 200 spaces for students in the 48-hour hackathon, at State Library Victoria’s StartSpace on August 28-29, led by experienced programmers and entrepreneurs from Hacker Exchange.

The intensive bootcamp will see two groups of 15 international student founders accelerate their startups through immersive in-person coaching from business experts, mentors and successful startup founders. The bootcamps run over four weeks, with each group undertaking a two-week program. The first group starts September 10 and the second on September 24.

The Future Founders program is supported by a $500,000 investment from the Victorian Government through Study Melbourne.

Applications for both programs can be made through the Future Founders website.