What is The Boiler?
The Boiler is a seed accelerator competition hosted in The Anvil. Started in 2013, it aims to enable students to not just study entrepreneurship, but to pursue it. Our panel of judges, industry leaders, and experts mentor an elite batch of Purdue associated startups.
The Boiler takes place over 8 weeks, and provides teams (and individuals) mentorship, office space, workshops, and funding to enable their startups to reach the next level.
Phases of The Boiler
Teams in The Boiler go through three phases:
Requirements
Boiler contestants must have the following:1. A Viable Concept
While moon bases, perpetual motion machines, and robot butlers are awesome, The Boiler just isn’t capable of empowering students to build them. So think through your idea, make sure you have a team that can get it to market in just eight weeks, and apply!
2. A Rockstar Team
While you can apply to The Boiler as an individual, we highly recommend that you form a team. Your team when starting a business matters. It’s the single most important indicator of your company’s success. For startups applying to The Boiler, we look to make sure the team has the skills necessary to see through their idea but also that the team has that “x factor” so essential to its success.
Teams must have at least one Purdue student/faculty member on them or have at least one Purdue alumni who's graduated in the past two years.
3. An Executive Summary
To apply to The Boiler, teams must fill out an executive summary which describes what your business is, how it works, and how you plan to succeed. It shows us that teams are thinking about more than just winning a competition and that they’re serious about building a business. We’ve provided a template and instructions below.
4. Passion
Startups are extraordinarily competitive. The passion that goes into successful startups must be at a level that will enable you to succeed. If a team has passion, then The Boiler has mentors, training, and funding to help your business become what you want it to.