
WHAT IS 30 WEEKS?
30 Weeks is a founders program that transforms designers into founders who are equipped with the entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and tech know-how to create products and start impactful companies. Our learn-by-launching structure gives designers a chance to build their products in an environment that’s as close to the real thing as possible.
We do this by integrating startup principles, practices and experience-based learning methodologies in a highly stimulating and collaborative learning environment.
What happens in 30 Weeks?
From day one, the focus is on what you want to build — be it a product or an entire startup. Either way, you own everything you come up with. And when it’s all done — having learned to ideate, validate and iterate — you’ll leave a changed designer, thinker and creator, fully prepared to bring your vision to the world.
30 Weeks starts with a carefully-crafted series of modules which cover product development, business models, legal structures, branding storytelling and marketing as well as ongoing interaction with some of the smartest minds in design, tech, business and venture capital in New York City. Those designers who have successfully completed the first 15 weeks will be given the opportunity to apply for the subsequent 15 weeks which includes co-working space and mentoring.
How does it work?
30 Weeks embraces the principles of technology startups — eliminating wasted effort and maximizing speed — to help transform designers into founders. This learn-by-launching structure gives designers a chance to build their entrepreneurial skills in an environment that’s as close to the real thing as possible. In short: you get startup mentorship, discussions with industry leaders, real tools, group critiques, hands-on-help, a space to work in and the time to focus on your own product. Designers will be exposed to 5 key areas of learning: design, product, tech, business, and collaboration.
It is structured around workshops, speaker series, pitches and group sessions – all focused on the product that you would like to launch.

Mentors that help along the way

Real-world development cycles
AN INCUBATOR THAT HELPS TRANSFORM DESIGNERS INTO FOUNDERS, ENTREPRENEURS AND THE KIND OF LEADERS THAT INVENT THE FUTURE.
Who’s involved?
The 30 Weeks program is operated by Hyper Island in partnership with SVA, Parsons, Pratt, The Cooper Union and some of the smartest minds in design, tech, business and venture capital.
John Maeda
Design Partner at KPCB
David Kelley
Founder at IDEO & Founder at the d.school
Robert Wong
Executive Creative Director at Google Creative Lab
Craig Nevill-Manning
Engineering Director at Google
Andy Berndt
VP at Google Creative Lab
William Floyd
Senior Manager of Public Policy & Gov't Relations at Google
Alfred Spector
VP, Engineering at Google
Per Vidar Lundberg
Director of Exec. Education at Hyper Island
Kathleen Creighton
Chair of the Communications Design Dept at Pratt Institute
RICHARD Wilde
Chair of BFA Advertising & Design Dept at SVA
Eric Lima
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Cooper Union
Eddie Shiomi
Director of Educational Innovation and Opportunity Office of the Provost, The New School
Erik Nordlander
Partner, Engineer at Google Ventures
Shana Dressler
Executive Director
MICHOEL OGINCE
Founder in Residence
Jason Bacher
Designer in Residence
Dean Haddock
Engineer in Residence
Ektaa Aggarwal
Creative Director, 30 Weeks Impact
Simon van Woerden
Director of Communications, 30 Weeks Impact
Marianne Aerni
Advisor and Former Co-Director
Vania Arevalo
Advisor and Former Program Manager
Sveinung Skaalnes
Advisor and Former Program Director
Kiely Sweatt
Advisor and Former Program Manager
Vivian Rosenthal
Advisor and Former Founder in Residence
Alex Rainert
Advisor and Former Designer in Residence
sarah gregersen
Program Advisor
MAthias Jakobsen
Program Design Advisor
Matias Corea
Advisor and Former Resident
Steve Rura
Advisor and Former Resident
Molly O'shea
Advisor and Former Program Manager Associate
James Cooper
Head of Creative at betaworks
Michoel Ogince
Founding Partner at Windforce Ventures
Kevin Rogers
Executive Director of Technology at frog design
Geoffrey Schwartz
Strategy Director at frog design
Amanda Parkes
Chief of Technology and Research, Manufacture New York
Jen van der meer
Founder and CEO of Reason Street
Matthew Waldman
Founder of NOOKA
Dean Haddock
Managing Director at StoryCorps
nima abbasi
Founder of Crest & Co
Yomi Abiola
Founder of Stand Up For Fashion and editor at Vogue.it
Nora Abousteit
Founder at Kollabora
Leif Abraham
Partner at Prehype
Måns Adler
Founder at Bambuser
Ektaa Aggarwal
Three Six Nine Inc
Enrique Allen
Co-Founder at Designer Fund
Andrew Allen
Design Co-founder at FiftyThree
Ana Rosenstein
Investments at Betaworks
Bea Arthur
Founder and CEO of In Your Corner
Kaitlin Atkinson
VP of Business Development at StatSocial
Evan Baehr
President of Able Lending / CoAuthor, Get Backed
Brian Baker
Creative Director at This Also
oren bass
Co-founder and CEO at Pave
Lola bates
Senior Design Researcher at Frog Design
Jeff BAxter
Co-founder & Head of Product at Cord Project
austin beer
Freelancer
Jonathan Berger
Associate Director of Product Design at Pivotal Labs
Brett Bergeron
Design Director at This Also
Evan Bienstock
Partner at Mintz Levin
Francis Bitonti
CEO & Founder at Francis Bitonti Studio
Naama Bloom
Founder and CEO of HelloFlo.com
John Borthwick
Founder and CEO at Betaworks
Jesse Boyes
Co-founder at Dasher.im
ryan burke
Producer at Google Creative Lab
Christian Calderon
Head of Marketing at Dots
Alexandra Cavoulacos
Founder of The Muse
Mona Chaudhuri
Head of Product at ChartBeat
Nisha Chittal
Manager of Social Media & Community at MSNBC
Allan Chochinov
MFA in Products of Design, SVA Chair
Michael Constantiner
Co-Founder at Cameo
jessica covi
Head of Design at Maderas Collective
Dan Castro
Founder of Castro Photos
Soraya Darabi
Co-Founder at Zady
Rohan Deshpande
Co-Founder & CTO at Fundera Inc
Michael Dezube
Software Engineer at Google
John Dimatos
Lead for Tech and Design Partnerships at Kickstarter
Dean DiPietro
Partner at Tomorrow Lab
Cristina Dolan
Global Head of Marketing, Content & Communications Products at Trading Screen
HAnnah donovan
Product Design Lead at Drip
Benjamin Dyett
Co-Founder of Grind
Samuel Asher Effron
Associate at Mintz Levin
Justin Effron
Co-Founder and CEO at ALICE
Simon Endres
Partner & Creative Lead at Red Antler
Natasha Eng
Project Manager at Crush & Lovely
Chris Farber
Director at Chris Farber Productions Inc.
R.A. Farrokhnia
Professor at Columbia University, Schools of Engineering & Business
Jared Feldman
Founder and CEO at Canvs
Besty Fore
Founder of Wondermento
JOHANNA FRELIN
CEO at Hyper Island
Cindy Gallop
Founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn
Kate Gardiner
Founder at DSTL
Thomas Gayno
Co-Founder & CEO at Cord
Pepin Gelardi
Partner at Tomorrow Lab
Justin Gignac
Co-Founder of Working Not Working
Justin Gignac
Co-Founder of Working Not Working
erin glenn
CEO at Quire
Allison Goldberg
Co-Creator of Blogologues
Lea Goldman
Features & Special Projects Director Marie Claire
Dominick Goodrum
VP, Design at Percolate
Dayna Grayson
Partner at New Enterprise Associates
Phi-Hong Ha
Creative Director at Doberman
Kuan Hang
Founder at Poncho
Tom HArman
Product Design Manager at BuzzFeed
Todd Harple
Experience Engineer / Experience Strategist at Intel
matt hartmann
Investments at Betaworks
Steven Heintz
CTO and Head of Product Engineering at Quirky
Emily Heyward
Partner at Red Antler
Emily Heyward
Owner / Partner at Red Antler
Joe Hollier
Founder of Light
Jen Jamula
Co-Creator of Blogologues
Mikkel Holm Jensen
Partner at Prehype
Janvi Jhaveri
Designer at Machine
Birago Jones
CEO at UBQ Media
adam karnas
User Experience Designer at Oscar
adam katz
Designer at Google Creative Lab
Kelsey Falter
Cofounder of Poptip. PM at Palantir
Josh Knowles
VP of Engineering at Pivotal Labs
Sally Kohn
CNN political commentator and columnist
Braden Kowitz
Design Partner at Google Ventures
Bernard Kravitz
VP of Technology at Everplans
alessandra Lariu
ECD at frog, Co-founder at SheSays and Broadli
Albert Lee
Founder at All Tomorrows
greg leuch
Head of Product at Betaworks
Jake levine
Founder of Electric Objects
Larry Levy
Co-Founder & CEO at Appinions inc.
Josh Liberson
VP of Creative at One Kings Lane
Sarah Lidgus
Designer at Machine
Adam LiebSHON
COO at Giphy
Lisa Lindstrøm
CEO at Doberman
Drew Lipsher
Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry
josh long
Product Design Lead at Oscar
Doreen Lorenzo
President at Quirky
Gilad Lotan
Chief Data Scientist at Betaworks
Liz Luckett
President at TSEF, The Social Entrepreneurs' Fund
heather luipold
Creative Lead at Google Creative Lab
Ryan MacCarrigan
Founder & Chief Experimenter at LeanStudio
Kate MacKenzie
Director of Policy & Government Relations at CityHarvest
Glynnis MacNicol
Writer and Co-Founder of TheLi.st
Jon Markoff
Developer Advocate at Google
Dave Mathews
Founder of New Aer
Caroline McCarthy
VP of Communications at true[X]
Turi McKinley
Executive Director at frogCamp
Bernhard Mehl
Co-Founder KISI Inc.
Martin Melin
Head of Engineering at Tictail
Christina Mercando
Founder & CEO of Ringly
Scott N. Miller
CEO at Dragon Innovation and Partner at Bolt VC
Josh Miller
Co-Founder at Branch
Patrick Moberg
CCO at Dots
Shaun Modi
UX Design Consultant at Shaun Modi Design
toshi mogi
AVP Innovation Strategy at frog
Sean Montgomery
Director or Hardware at Ringly
garret morin
Creative director at Harry's
Andy Nealen
Computer Scientist & Game Designer at NYU
Paul Nemirovsky
Co-Founder & CEO at dMetrics
Roman Nurik
Design Advocate at Google
Kate Oppenhein
Co-Founder of m ss ng p eces
JB Osborne
Partner at Red Antler
JB Osborne
Partner at Red Antler
Irene Pereyra
Co-Founder and UX Director at Anton & Irene
Lisa Pertoso
Hyper Island
Maya ProhovniK
Head of Community Development at Betaworks
Adam Quinton
Founder and CEO of Lucas Point Ventures
Sarah Rapp
Head of Product Marketing at Behance/Adobe
Joe Rizk
Ventures Lead at IDEO
Matthew Rosenberg
Co-Founder at Cameo
Micah Rosenbloom
Venture Partner at Founder Collective
Shiv Sankar
Corporate Counsel at Google
Marcela Sapone
CEO & Co-Founder at Hello Alfred
Brian Schechter
Founder at How About We
Evan Schneyer
Product Manager at Google
Dan Schultz
Founder at Shape Journalism
geoffrey Schwartz
Associate Strategy Director at frog
Edward Segel
VP of Product at Oscar Health
Mendy Seldowitz
Creative Director at mllnnl
Sheila Sharma
Freelance Strategist and Writer
Jay Silver
Founder of MaKeyMaKey
Peter Sims
Co-Founder at The Silicon Guild and Author of LITTLE BETS
Eric Snowden
Lead Product Designer at Behance
Rebecca Soffer
Co-founder and CEO at Modern Loss
Dana Spiegel
Founder & Chief Code Therapist at FounderTherapy
Matt Stinchcomb
VP of Values & Impact at Etsy
Joy Tao
Software Engineer at Palantir
Halle Tecco
CEO at Rock Health
Andy Thompson
Co-Founder at Cameo
Shelby Thompson
Business Manager at Tomorrow Lab
Theodore Ullrich
Partner at Tomorrow Lab
Lindsay Verola
Engineering Manager at Square
Matthew Waldman
Founder of Nooka Mindstyle
Julian Walker
Co-founder & Head of Software Engineering at Fifty Three
Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar
Head of Product & Co-Founder at Project Florida
Fredrik Wikholm
Co-founder and Creative Director Uniforms for the Dedicated The Rag Bag Dedicated Institute
Paul Woolmington
Advisor, Advocate and Angel
David Yarus
Founder of mllnnl and Jswipe
Rus Yusupov
Co-Founder & Creative Director at Vine
Why a founders program for designers?
Who is the right fit?
Do you have a passion project you’re dying to turn into an impactful company? Are you always making, making, making? Are you a problem solver? Have you ever wanted to leave everything behind to strike out on a new path? Do you believe design can shape the future? If so, then you belong at 30 Weeks.
What you'll get?
- A community of entrepreneurial design-driven thinkers
- Workshops and mentorships by startup experts
- Understanding the principles of lean startup methodology
- Skills to create a prototype
- Opportunities to pitch to investors
Who can apply?
We accept passionate, curious designers with at least one year of work experience who want to ignite their full potential by creating their own products. Candidates are carefully curated and have backgrounds in areas like graphic and web design, UX/UI design, industrial and product design, creative technology, architecture, and storytelling.
The facts
Applications close: January 11th, 2016
Start date: March 1, 2016
End date: June 10, 2016
Length: 15 weeks
Format: Full-time
Application fee: 50 USD
Tuition fee: 5,000 USD
Location: New York City