Summer Venture Studio

Summer Venture Studio is Rice University’s capstone entrepreneurial experience built for founders, by founders

Summer Venture Studio (SVS) provides students with a unique blend of hands-on experience and learning opportunities. Through a cohort-based structure, participants embark on a three-month journey dedicated to discovering, developing, and de-risking their ventures.

Students accepted into the program have the opportunity to receive equity-free funding and individualized support from mentors, successful founders, VCs, and other experts that will bolster their personal and venture growth.

2025 Summer Venture Studio Demo Day on August 26th!

Register Now!

Enjoy dynamic pitches from eight cohort companies selected for the 2025 Lilie Summer Venture Studio, an immersive summer accelerator program designed to propel Rice University’s most innovative ventures forward.

​After the main event, celebrate our founders’ achievements at our after party and meet other Lilie founders from past cohorts!

Meet our past cohorts!

2023 Cohort

2024 Cohort

WHO IS SVS FOR?

The Summer Venture Studio (SVS) is open to Rice University student founders from all majors and degree programs, including students graduating the May the program begins. SVS is industry and technology agnostic. You can join SVS as a solo founder or as a team (teams must be led by a Rice student). If your program requires you to have a summer internship for financial aid purposes, Lilie will work with you to supply funds to meet your income requirements.

Most importantly, SVS is for founders who are committed to their ventures and have made tangible progress in moving them forward. This means:

• You’ve engaged in initial customer discovery and identified a beachhead market
• You have a proven track record of actively developing your venture
• You aren’t joining just for the money, but to get your venture to the next level

WHAT IS SVS LIKE?

SVS provides founders the time, space, and resources to focus on developing their ventures in a collaborative and encouraging environment. The program runs for 12 weeks and covers everything from crystallizing the target market, to identifying technical needs, to perfecting your pitch. At the culmination of the program, each company pitches in a final Demo Day to celebrate all of the work they accomplished over the summer.

SVS teams use dedicated coworking space in Lilie to work full-time on their ventures and make tangible progress. You’ll participate in a variety of learning and networking activities led by industry-leading experts, including:

• Accountability sessions
• Meetups and socials
• Founder 1:1s
• Daily office hours
• Workshops
• Pitch practices
• Mentorship sessions
• Founder round tables

We carefully balance these activities with unstructured Get Stuff Done time to move the needle on your ventures, ensuring you don’t get suffocated in lectures that prevent you from catalyzing your progress.

When you’re accepted into the program, you’ll gain an incomparable network of fellow entrepreneurs not just for the summer, but for life. The SVS team is composed of experienced founders who have built and managed world-class accelerator programs across the country. SVS participants build relationships with each other and the broader startup ecosystem through peer-to-peer learning, custom mentor matching, and cohort activities.

APPLY TO SVS

Before completing the application below, ensure your team and venture meet the following requirements:

• Lead team member must be a current Rice University student (additional team members do not need to be Rice affiliated)
• No more than five members per team
• Team must be able to participate in in-person activities in Houston from mid-May to early August

The application should be completed by the lead team member. You may also apply as a solo founder. You may view the application questions before submitting the form below. 

APPLY NOW

Apply by March 16, 2025