Student Entrepreneurship · Notre Dame

Dream Big. Start Small. Get Going.

StartupForge is your hub for all things student entrepreneurship at Notre Dame.

How We Help

Whether you’re brainstorming, building, supporting, or ready to scale, there’s a place for you here. Student Entrepreneurship at Notre Dame offers an array of extra-curricular programming that includes competitions, bootcamps, coaching, and community – all to help students take an idea and turn it into something real.

Our Year-Round Programs

1

Startup Coaching

Every idea gets a coach.

2

Friday Pitches

Weekly pitch sessions where students can earn up to $1K in funding.

3

Bootcamps

10-week evening workshops held in the fall and spring.

4

McCloskey New Venture Competition

$100K+ in cash prizes.

5

Race to Revenue

A 10-week program where student entrepreneurs work full-time on their ventures through a fully funded summer internship.

Student Stories

Student Story

From a one-paragraph idea to Forbes 30 Under 30

Liam Redmond and Zachary Brown submitted a simple idea to the IDEA Center: rides should feel social, with people you trust, without a costly middleman. That idea became Yelo — a social ride network for Gen Z. In 2025, both founders made Forbes 30 Under 30, raised $700K, and began scaling nationally.

Forbes 30 Under 30 · $700K raised · Yelo

Student Story

From Race to Revenue to $30M in revenue

Matt Harfmann founded Break’n Bad — a live sports card sales platform — in 2021. He brought it into Race to Revenue in 2023, where he met his CTO. Since graduating, he’s scaled to $30M in lifetime revenue and hired 75 Notre Dame interns along the way.

$30M lifetime revenue · 75 ND interns · Break’n Bad

Take the Next Step

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’d like to explore — no commitment, just a way to get started.