Free · Online · 5-Session Intensive
A free 10-hour sprint for Marie Curie Alumni and selected PhD grads — from customer interviews to a draft YC application, in five consecutive Wednesday sessions
Apply nowApplications close August 31, 2026
Startup Foundations for Marie Curie Alumni and selected PhDs is a free online intensive and interactive workshop covering customer discovery, minimum viable product, what YC looks for, while you write a draft accelerator application for your startup idea in five consecutive sessions.
The workshop follows Paul Graham's approach, adapted for people with research expertise. The format is designed for Marie Curie alumni and PhDs who want a structured sprint to a draft YC application. The workshop sessions are not a series of academic lectures, they require instead your active participation doing the pre-session assignments and sharing ideas with the other participants during the session while at the same time polishing your startup idea and application. .
The workshop is free. There is no equity ask, no upsell, and no commercial angle for participants.
There is no point in attending a session unless, one has completed the pre-session assignment. Therefore completion of the given assignments is required to attend the following session. Another requirement is one's active participation during the session. You will be excluded from the following sessions if you cannot keep up with completing the assignments or with showing an active participation during the sessions.Each session runs about two hours and involves an active participation. Every session ends with an assignment that feeds directly into the next one. There are no off weeks — the workshop runs five consecutive Wednesday
Conduct three 20 minute interviews with people that you identify as potential customers. Follow the guide provided after acceptance. Bring your notes to Session 1 — the first 30 minutes of Session 1 are built around what the participants heard.
Mindset shift from researcher to founder · Research as your competitive moat · Interview debrief: what the group heard across 30 interviews · Name your idea in 50 characters
Persist, pivot, or kill / start over · The Mom Test: how to run interviews that produce real data · Do Things That Don't Scale: the manual-first principle · Finding your first 10 users via referral chain
What an MVP actually is (concierge, Wizard of Oz) · What traction looks like before you have a product · What YC actually weights and in what order · Founder-market fit
Storytelling for researchers: narrative arc without the academic trap · YC application questions decoded · Live writing workshop: rewrite your weakest answer in session
Mock YC interviews — 10 minutes per direction in breakout pairs · Full group debrief: what landed, what did not · What happens next
Your instructor
The workshop is organized and taught by Filippo Neri (filippo.neri.email@gmail.com). I am a researcher in computer science (Machine learning / AI) since 1997, working in the Italian academic system with stints abroad in academic and industrial R&D centres. After a PhD in Computer Science, I gained an MBA with major on Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation.
I held a Marie Curie fellowship from 2000 to 2002 in artificial intelligence — building software agents to model customer behavior. After my fellowship, I became curious about Silicon Valley and applied to YC. I was not accepted. In 2016 I started a company in Italy using my personal savings. It did not find product market fit and eventually closed.
I built this workshop because I went through the process without any of the preparation it teaches. The mistakes I made are well-documented. The workshop is what I would have needed before I applied.
That is fine. The pre-work guide walks you through how to ask for an interview, what questions to ask, and what to listen for. The Mom Test principle — ask about their life, not your idea — is simple enough to apply on your first attempt. Most people find their first interview easier than they expected. And actually not having done any customers' interview before is a strong negatve signal that you have not yet validated your startup idea with respect to the market.
No. The workshop is free. There is no equity ask and no fee. You will not be asked to join any program, fund, or organization as a condition of participating.
Yes, you do; you need to know what direction you want to focus on your time and energy and what your incubator application will be about. However, it is not necessary to have a fully polished idea. The pre-work interviews are designed to help you find or sharpen the startup idea before Session 1.
In this case, you will be excluded from attending the remaining sessions. Each assignment and each sesssion feeds directly into the next ones, and are required in order to refine your startup concept and incubator application. If your schedule does not allow you to commit the time and attention for attending the workshop, please do not apply. Given that the 5th session requires every participants to share in advance their YC application written during the workshop with the other participants in order to have their feedback, if you are not developing your application during the workshop, you will not gain any learning nor will you contribute to the other participants' learning.
This is a possible outcome and a very good learning that will save you money and time immediately by avoiding the creation of a company that will go nowhere. Your journey within the workshop ends here as you will not be able develop your idea further and you'll need time to reorganize to focus on a new idea.
No, you will not. That would be a vanity token. The workshop is not an academic activity. You should be here because you want to develop your startup idea following the YC philosophy, not because you want to add another paragraph to your cv.
No. The YC application is the workshop's structured output — a concrete artifact that forces clear thinking about your company. You can apply to YC, to another accelerator, or do nothing at all. The application is a tool for sharpening your thinking, not a commitment to any particular path.
No. If you learn that you have more pressing matters to do than keeping up with the workshop set of activities, it means that now is not a good time for you to create a startup, This clarity is an excellent outcome provided by the workshop. It is very unlikely that your startup will get funded if you do not make a priority of your startup. Yes, you will have less time to spend with your family and friends or to write your next paper or grant application. This is experiencing the opportunity cost in action.
Yes, there is no upper limit. The one year minimum exists to ensure participants have had time to experience and think about the question: 'who do I want to become now?'. Choosing an entrepreneurial path is an answer, choosing an academic career is another one.
No, you cannot apply. The one year minimum exists to ensure participants have had time to decide they really want to become a startup founder.
No. If you cannot commit time and attention when other participants share their findings, it means that you have other priorities.
Free · 10 hours · 5 weekly sessions · Wednesday 18:00–20:00 CET · September 9 – October 7, 2026
Start your applicationApplications close August 31, 2026 · 20 places · Notifications by September 4