The Builder’s Cohort — Mumbai 2026
Across an intensive 5-day journey, students shape an idea, build a business model, understand their customer, study their market, design their product, create their brand and pitch to serial entrepreneur.
Dates
June 2026 (TBA)
Timings
9 am - 3 pm
Program Fee
₹90,000 (Early Application)
₹1,10,000 (Regular)
Eligibility
Highschool Students
Undergraduate Students
Location
Mumbai (TBA)
Scholarships
Opportunities to Support Exceptional Students
Merit Scholarship
Partial to full scholaraships are awarded to students, who best match out vision and learning approach.
Female Foundr Scholarship
Designed to encourage more young women to explore entrepreneurship and leadership by supporting promising female students.
About the Program
From Idea to Launch in 5 Powerful Days
The Builder’s Cohort is a future-first entrepreneurship and innovation program curated from the globally recognised “Launch Your Startup” MBA framework taught at Columbia Business School. Adapted for high-school and college students, the program offers a hands-on journey through the full entrepreneurial process—from idea discovery to launch-ready pitch.
Students begin by identifying problems that matter to them and learning how entrepreneurs define strong value propositions. They then work through world-class frameworks to build their business model, understand their customer, evaluate market attractiveness, and shape their product or MVP using rapid design thinking and AI-powered research.
Across this intensive week, participants move through every stage of venture creation—branding, customer acquisition strategy, and financial planning. They learn how marketing, sales, distribution, and customer experience come together to shape a venture’s identity, and how to build simple, effective financial projections that reflect real startup assumptions.
The program culminates in a high-energy pitch event, where students present their ideas to a panel of venture capitalists, founders, and industry leaders. Through this experience, they build confidence, communication skills, teamwork, and the ability to bring ideas to life—skills that extend far beyond entrepreneurship and into academic, professional, and personal growth.
Turn Ideas into Real Solutions
Build a Winning Business Model
Financial Planning & Pitching
Program Benefits
What Students Will Learn
Build a Brand and go to market strategy
Develop MVPs with AI
Understand Global Markets
Students Will Earn
Letter of Recommendation
Provided to participants who successfully complete all program requirements.Certificate of Completion
Awarded to students who meet the program’s expectations and learning outcomes.Future Opportunities
Top performers may be invited for teaching-assistant and leadership roles in future programs.
Modules
What Students Will Experience
It's crucial to clearly define the problem you're solving and the game-changing benefits it brings to your customers. What are the four questions every entrepreneur/innovator must ask to set the foundation for their venture?
This is where your innovative idea takes shape and becomes a scalable business model. Discover the nine building blocks needed to frame your venture.
Do you have a 'target market'? Is it 'attractive'? It's not just vital, and it's the key to success to validate your assumptions by testing how well your product resonates with your target audience. This understanding will inform your decisions and prepare you for the market.
Market research is not just a step. It's your guiding light in product development. It helps you assess market attractiveness, understand the competitive landscape, and find your place. This knowledge will give you confidence in your product and your market.
Using "Design Thinking," which focuses on bias and behaviors and increasing customer value, to design a minimum viable product (MVP) quickly, test customer engagement, and gather valuable feedback.
How marketing, sales, distribution, and customer service integrate into your brand strategy. Utilizing the "tools" to develop the sales funnel and customer acquisition strategy.
How to build an integrated set of financials, which includes a balance sheet and income statement; understand the importance of cash flow and critical metrics and the funding challenges you may face.
What legal considerations are necessary? The importance of team selection and partnerships; launch readiness and venture pitch.
Know More About Your Mentor
Prof. Daniel McQuade
Daniel McQuade is a global entrepreneurship educator and former Director of Venture for All® at Columbia Business School, where he helped shape one of the world’s most recognized innovation and venture-creation programs. Over the past decade, he has taught thousands of students and early-stage founders across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
His work focuses on making entrepreneurship accessible to young builders—teaching them how to identify real problems, design meaningful solutions, test assumptions, and build venture models using globally trusted frameworks. Daniel blends academic rigor with practical, real-world insights from years of advising startups, corporates, and innovation teams.
At Foundr, he brings the same world-class curriculum used at Columbia Business School, adapted specifically for high-school and undergraduate learners. His teaching style is highly engaging, structured, and hands-on—ensuring every student leaves with tools they can apply immediately to future academic, professional, and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Prof. McQuade continues to work globally as an educator, consultant, and mentor—dedicated to helping young innovators develop the mindset, resilience, clarity, and confidence required to build ventures with real-world impact.
Gallery
Experience the Energy of the Program
