Home // Varsity Venture Studio

Follow our progress at Varsity

We've been busy transforming ideas into viable solutions for real software businesses.

150+ ideas generated

from the UW-Madison community in Fall 2020

20+ ideas being evaluated

through a structured selection process

Launch Week

to prepare for funded company launch the week of April 19th 2021

Varsity Venture Studio, a UW-Madison-wide venture studio, turns ideas into funded software businesses.

(you don’t have to be a software developer, or even know one!)

Whether you have a solution to a customer problem, research challenge, or industry inefficiency, Varsity Venture Studio can help transform big ideas into real companies.

Submitting an idea to Varsity provides a view into how venture capitalists evaluate ideas and how business models are built and tested. Varsity will assess, downselect, and refine ideas through a structured venture building process, ultimately leading to the launch of at least one funded company.

Varsity Venture Studio Timeline.

Fall 2020

Idea generation: first phase
complete

Winter 2021

Explore and select ideas:
in progress

Spring 2021

Prepare for funded company launch

There is no cost to participate, and we welcome ideas from anyone in the University of Wisconsin - Madison community.

Be on the lookout for one of several upcoming virtual idea-sharing sessions we will be hosting with different campus-based organizations, departments, and teams.

Submit Your Idea

Find out more

Have any questions? We may be able to answer them for you.

Visit FAQs

Featured News

November 9, 2020

Varsity Venture Studio announces launch

November 10, 2020

Varsity Venture Studio will help launch UW-Madison-based startups

Turning ideas into funded software businesses.