Giving tomorrow's business leaders a head start!

Learn from Professional Mentors

Develop your own Startup Idea

Code your Mobile App Prototype

Pitch to an Esteemed Panel of Judges

Look out for SEE Incubator Programs Summer 2022

Overview

The Nebula Entrepreneurship eXperience (NEX) is a 4-week online summer camp for high schoolers. With a team of fellow co-founders, you’ll learn how to develop your own tech startup! Grasp essential entrepreneurial concepts from industry-leading mentors in Google, Uber, Amazon, etc. while coding a mobile app prototype of your product. The final pitch day allows teams to present their work to a panel of accomplished judges and parents. NEX is entirely online for 2021!

What you'll learn

Crucial Entrepreneurial Skills

Idea Generation
Finance
Marketing
Investor Pitching

Interacting professionally with peers
Tackling real-world problems with innovative solutions!
Developing an intuitive and beautiful mobile application
Dive into the entrepreneurial world & learn from case studies

What you'll experience

A passionate team of organizers ready to help whenever needed
A group of professional mentors with several years of experience & high-caliber judges (several CEOs)
Opportunities for expanding your love for entrepreneurship as an Alumni – you can even become a volunteer and lead your own camp!
Qualified tech mentors to teach you app development

Program Structure

Week 1

Get exposed to foundational entrepreneurship concepts!

Week 2

Week 3

Hard Skills (Curriculum)

Idea Generation

What is the process of coming up with industry-disrupting ideas? How do you identify certain problems and develop feasible solutions? You'll learn the creative process behind developing a startup.

Marketing

Convincing people to buy your product is hard. You'll learn how to competitively price and develop marketing strategies for social media in order to sell effectively.

Finance

Only designing features won't get you far! Learn key concepts on how to raise seed money for your startup and how to manage your monetary resources for maximum efficiency.

Product Management & Design

Product management is key to making sure that the design and implementation of your app is as efficient as possible. Learn how the different mechanisms of a company work to solve problems effectively.

Investor Pitching

It's not only about what you build - it's also about how you present it to others, especially your investors. Along with peer mentors, you'll be mastering your startup's presentation for actual investors to look at.

Coding

Throughout the Startup Incubator, you'll be learning how to develop an app. This will enable you to prototype your idea with a proper tech stack!! It's always great to put words in code and show off your startup.

Life-Long Skills

Networking

As you work with your mentors on developing your startup, you'll have a chance to network with them and inquire further about their industry. You'll also get a chance to collaborate and build a startup with like-minded peers!

Critical Thinking

It's not easy to rationally think about a real-world problem and design a unique solution for it. As you rack your brains for innovation bursts, you'll learn how to critically think about specific issues that affect people. You'll also start thinking about the idea of feasibility and transforming creativity into a proper business idea.

Resourcefulness

As students, you don't have tons of financial backing or resources. This camp will teach you to be inherently resourceful with what you have and still deliver a fantastic product. From mobile apps to simple mechanic gadgets, the power of simplicity and prototyping will eventually shine in your work.

Pitch Day!

The most exciting day for a Shooting Stars student is always Pitch Day! Over the four weeks of learning, you and your team would have been simultaneously learning about entrepreneurial concepts and applying them as you build your business. After several 1-on-1s and refinement, Pitch Day is when you can finally present your hard work! You’ll present both the business and the tech aspect of your product. The audience consists of your past mentors, highly skilled judges (most of them being CEO / CFO / CTO, etc.), and your parents. You’ll get a chance to profesionally pitch your company with thoughtful comments from the audience! You will also see what your peers have accomplished with their time at SEE

Eligibility

8th Grade – 12th Grade
3.0 GPA or Higher (The application asks for an unofficial transcript if you can obtain it)
Coding experience not needed but preferred
Passionate about entrepreneurship and technology
Must have laptop w/ Windows or macOS
Able to Commit 10+ Hours per Week
Need financial aid?
Email info@shooting-stars-foundation.org

Logistics

Sessions: Posted below!
Grades: 8 -12
Cost: $499 ($449 Early Bird until May 15th)
Times: 4 weeks, Wed – Sun from 4-6 PM PST
Slots: Limited
Pre-requisites: Laptop (No ChromeOS!) & Preferred basic coding skills

Session Dates

June 16th - July 11th

(FULL)

June 23rd - July 18th

(Only 1 Spot left)

June 30th - July 25th

(Only 5 Spots left)

July 7th - July 31st

July 14th - Aug 7th

Coding Pre-Requisite

SEE does not require extensive knowledge of programming, since we use code to design mobile apps rather than build complex architectures.

If you know how to use variables, if-statements, loops, and arraylists, you have met the coding pre-req.

If not, don’t worry! We suggest you catch up by watching the 2-hr dart programming course that introduces you to coding, which is enough to fulfill the pre-requisite.

Once you apply, the SEE team will contact you about your application status and further steps within 2 business days.

Past Mentors & Judges at Nebula

Anil Singhal

Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Lee

Lecturer & Instructor

Arun Valliappan

Strategy & Ops Manager

Mani Sundaram

Director

Parent Reviews

My son recently participated in the Nebula Online Startup Incubator with a small group of friends. We were so impressed by the organization of the camp and the breadth of topics and exposure that occurred in just 4 short weeks. With the excellent guidance of the professional and peer mentors, they were able to develop a solid business plan and working prototype which can be further developed into an actual start-up company. The format of this camp is perfect for any motivated high school student who is interested in technology and entrepreneurship. We highly recommend Nebula Youth Camps! – Kathy Kobayashi, Pleasanton, CA (June Cohort Parent)

“My son enjoyed the startup incubator program as it gave him the quickest overview of how to turn an idea into a real product which can be of value and a differentiator to existing competition as well as provide revenue to the company. The quality of the program was very high and what made it even more worthwhile is that it is run by a non-profit organization that helps to support the education of underprivileged college students. I recommend this program to all high school students who have an interest in the field of STEM!”- Sangeetha (April Cohort Parent)

"I was so impressed by the depth of the program and the quality of the mentorship. Everyone involved had such positivity and gave great constructive insight. The program was an excellent blend of technical programming and business understanding"

Participant Reviews

To be honest, I never imagined myself as an entrepreneur and was a little intimidated in the beginning with the whole concept of the NEX program. Meeting up and working together with people I have never met before and creating a business in four weeks sounded pretty bizarre...

Vibhu Krishnan

A Past Alum of the Nebula Online Incubator

"To be honest, I never imagined myself as an entrepreneur and was a little intimidated in the beginning with the whole concept of the NEX. Meeting up and working together with people I have never met before and creating a business in four weeks sounded pretty bizarre. I came into the camp with no prior experience about entrepreneurship and about what it takes to start a business. The only way I thought this could be possible is with great mentors to guide us through the whole way. To my surprise, this is exactly what my team and I received throughout the Nebula Online Incubator. NEX was an amazing, unique experience for me. It helped me develop both my knowledge in entrepreneurship, programming and my experience working in a team with new people. Through sessions in ideation, finance, marketing, pitching, and product management, my team and I were able to learn how to start a business in two short weeks. These sessions were powered by amazing mentors that provided detailed information on the given topic and in-depth analysis and feedback on ideas that we developed. They made the learning experience easy and engaging with examples that helped us relate to the real world and activities that reinforced new concepts we learned. In the end, it was incredible to see how we can apply all these concepts to our own product and see it come to life.

The second half of the four week program was focused on the technology aspect. This is where we got to be really creative and turned the vision in our heads into a real, live app. The tech process was a really challenging experience for my team and would have been nearly impossible without the help of our peer mentors, Vaarun and Ansh. The peer mentors were extremely supportive in enabling us with technology know-how, along with mapping out and scheduling deadlines to keep us on track, and finally helping us execute our plans efficiently. Their experience in business and programming helped them guide us all the way to the final pitch. Seeing our four weeks of hard work come to life through this App really made this program an unmatched experience. Finally, the pitch day was very exciting for me, where we showcased our App and got valuable and constructive feedback from the judges that we will be able to build on.

Overall, this program is more than just learning and executing. It’s also about collaborating and getting to know new people and dynamics of working with a team. Through meeting and working together with new people across the country, this program gave me a in-depth preview of what it is going to be like when I’m working with a company in the future. The key learning I had about entrepreneurship is about identifying and solving pain points, but also the joy, pride and the feeling of accomplishment you get in return. I would highly recommend this program to any high school student. It will provide you with a rewarding experience whether or not you choose to be an entrepreneur."

Attending the first NEX Incubator run by Nebula entrepreneurship camps was one of the best learning experiences I have had. I was thrown head first into a world of technology and entrepreneurship, and very early on I was exposed to many high level concepts...

Saketh Kamuju

A Past Alum of the Nebula Online Incubator

"Attending the first NEX Incubator run by Nebula entrepreneurship camps was one of the best learning experiences I have had. I was thrown head first into a world of technology and entrepreneurship, and very early on I was exposed to many high level concepts. Over the course of this camp I had the privilege of learning from accomplished mentors who always made sure to take time out of their own day to listen to our challenges and work with us.

One of the individuals who impacted me most was our technology peer mentor, Ansh Gupta. At the beginning of this camp, I was familiar with entrepreneurial concepts and other business topics, but I was unfamiliar with anything tech related. I had roughly a weeks worth of computer programming experience to prepare for the camp and I was feeling heavily overshadowed by the people around me. However, our tech mentor realized this and allotted large amounts of time from his day to talk with me and go over tech concepts, giving me challenges to help learn python at an incredible rate. By the end of the camp, I had gone from barely knowing basic concepts in python to being able to work with experienced peers to develop APIs and work with databases without breaking a sweat.

Another such privilege I had was meeting new people from all over the U.S. who had interests that were similar to mine. Right away, my team of four found it easy to communicate and help each other learn. We had a strong team dynamic and where we utilized the strong suits of each individual team member. At the same time, we challenged each other to explore outside of our comfort zones, encountering new solutions we otherwise may not have found.

One of the most critical messages I learned from the Incubator was that good entrepreneurs need to think outside of the box. Every step of the way, we were constantly challenged by our mentors to think of new ways to solve many of the problems we faced. For example, in the second week of the camp, we received an assignment where we had to develop a spreadsheet addressing the financials of our proposed business, from revenue, to marketing costs, to utilities and the cost of acquiring customers. We were challenged to be thorough and to research every aspect of our proposed business. When we met with our finance mentor again, we discussed the holes in our financial plans and we were challenged to creatively find solutions.

As a young entrepreneur, the odds are often stacked against you, from collecting startup money, to attracting a customer base and building a brand. However, this Incubator showed me how an unorthodox mindset and a strong sense of creativity can help you overcome any obstacle in the entrepreneurship world."

Before the start of the NEX, the thought of starting my own business eluded me. I could never imagine doing the work to create a product, pitch it, find investors, and even learn about the business aspects of starting a company...

Vikram Nagapudi

A Past Alum of the Nebula Online Incubator

"Before the start of NEX, the thought of starting my own business eluded me. I could never imagine doing the work to create a product, pitch it, find investors, and even learn about the business aspects of starting a company. Thanks to the four weeks I spent learning from mentors and entrepreneurs, this fantasy became a reality. My team and I started learning about the business aspect of entrepreneurship - everything from finances to marketing to pitching a company. The unique part of the program is that the business side is connected to technology, and this intersection was my favorite part of the program.

I came into NEX not knowing anything about React Native (the language we were coding in) and building apps in general. Our first exposure to the coding aspect of the camp was through Ansh, a mentor who taught us the basics of React Native and Javascript, and ultimately paved the way for us to build a great app. After sessions with Ansh, we had plenty of React Native working sessions with Surya and Adwait, both very great mentors. We learned about classes, functions, and graphics in only a couple of days, and with the mentors’ help, we were able to finish a prototype of an app in two short weeks. The intersection between the technology side and business was a big emphasis of the Incubator program. Thanks to the marketing sessions, finance sessions, and product pitching sessions, we were able to shape our app to become very professional.

We learned about creating an identity for our company QuestSuggest, and how things like fonts, colors, and marketing really contributed to our image. We learned about target audiences, pitching a product effectively, and finances. All of the things that we learned about business during these short four weeks were the results of great mentorship and teamwork. The Nebula Incubator Program created a great experience for me and my team, and thanks to everyone involved, will set us up for a bright future in entrepreneurship.

The second half of the four week program was focused on the technology aspect. This is where we got to be really creative and turned the vision in our heads into a real, live app. The tech process was a really challenging experience for my team and would have been nearly impossible without the help of our peer mentors, Vaarun and Ansh. The peer mentors were extremely supportive in enabling us with technology know-how, along with mapping out and scheduling deadlines to keep us on track, and finally helping us execute our plans efficiently. Their experience in business and programming helped them guide us all the way to the final pitch. Seeing our four weeks of hard work come to life through this App really made this program an unmatched experience. Finally, the pitch day was very exciting for me, where we showcased our App and got valuable and constructive feedback from the judges that we will be able to build on.

Overall, this program is more than just learning and executing. It’s also about collaborating and getting to know new people and dynamics of working with a team. Through meeting and working together with new people across the country, this program gave me a in-depth preview of what it is going to be like when I’m working with a company in the future. The key learning I had about entrepreneurship is about identifying and solving pain points, but also the joy, pride and the feeling of accomplishment you get in return. I would highly recommend this program to any high school student. It will provide you with a rewarding experience whether or not you choose to be an entrepreneur."

NEX was undoubtedly a great experience for me. Never did I imagine that our team would be able to create a working prototype and business plan for our product, QuestSuggest, in just four weeks...

Arnav Mankand

A Past Alum of the Nebula Online Incubator

"NEX was undoubtedly a great experience for me. Never did I imagine that our team would be able to create a working prototype and business plan for our product, QuestSuggest, in just four weeks. All of the credit for this goes to the supportive and knowledgeable mentors of Nebula Youth Camps. The program itself was designed well, and the mentors made the entire process much easier and more efficient. Five main aspects of entrepreneurship, including Ideation, product design, marketing, finance, and technology, were covered in great detail. My dream is to one day develop a biotechnical product, and the camp itself served as a great stepping stone for me to create a more organized business in the future. My personal favorites were product design and marketing.

Product design is the first step in creating any business. While we had figured out the idea early on, we didn’t necessarily know how to accomplish it. Each of us had our unique ideas that we wished to incorporate in some fashion. The product design sessions were beneficial because we were able to pull our ideas together and prioritize them into a timeline for our four week period. The mentor, Mr. Amit Saxena (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitsaxenaprofile/), who is an entrepreneur and product development expert, made this process possible. He pulled together our ideas and built a solid plan falong with us. He introduced us to the marketing, technological, and financial aspects of the course. He also helped us decide which ideas would attract the widest audience, be most straightforward to code, and be most profitable. We were able to create a design for each page of our app during these sessions and map out our entire business plan. The product design sessions, while integral in achieving our dream of creating a working travel app, also served as a foundation for excelling in the course and beyond.
Marketing is another essential aspect of entrepreneurship, and it is undoubtedly a tedious process as well. We had to figure out a target audience, condense this audience to fit the four-week timeframe, and figure out how to market to and partner up with other businesses to maximize our revenue. Ms. Anitha Thenappan was a wonderful mentor. She helped us figure out our target audience within minutes and decide to market to local hotels across the globe. She even told us about how to effectively market to small businesses and make good, informative advertisements that would attract customers. We learned how we would make our revenue through this session (commission), and we even went over basic features that we could code to attract customers.

Explanations aside, NEX was a wondrous experience for me. Each session had something new to offer, and I never felt bored or unoccupied in any of the meetings. The mentors had a massive repertoire of knowledge and skills, but they also knew how to keep my attention. I entered the program only worrying about learning about entrepreneurship, but I came out of it with something much bigger. I learned valuable life lessons in this program, including the importance of teamwork and time management. I was genuinely inspired by the tireless effort and dedication of the peer mentors, who aren’t much older than me. Overall, out of all other entrepreneurship camps I have participated in, NEX was the only camp able to create such a well-rounded roadmap that covers all the information in ways teenagers can understand."

Apply For See

Talk to a Past Alumni / Parent!

FAQs

What is the goal of SEE?

The goal is to foster the entrepreneurial mindset in the participants, and to introduce them to many basic concepts and ideas which are frequently used in starting a company.

What type of instruction are the participants offered?

The participants work with industry-leading mentors who have plenty of experience starting and building businesses. The participants will have a lecture session with the mentors which explain concepts in Idea Generation, Product Management, Marketing, Finance, and Pitching. Once they work with their team, they will have a 1-on-1 session with the mentors to work on specific parts of their business. Once the camp is finished, mentors will share contact information so participants will be able to reach out with any of their questions.

What is the primary source of communication in this camp?

We use WhatsApp—during the camp and with our organizing team. Please let us know if you do not have a WhatsApp or are unable to use it for any reason.

Is homework assigned in NEX?

Yes, we ask participants to regularly complete homework after each session. This work should be done by teams together, and should be taken seriously. NEX is modeled similar to a group of people creating a startup, and the homework reflects tasks that many companies perform during their first few months.

How much coding is involved in the camp?

While we don’t have a specific coding prerequisite that our participants must have completed, we do suggest participants have basic knowledge of key concepts—conditional statements, for-loops, and variables. If you do not know how to code, do not worry! Please watch the video below, which will cover your coding pre-requisite.

Participants will work with coding mentors and professionals to build their app on Flutter.

Who can I contact with my questions?

Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions as info@sstarsfoundation.org. Moreover, the above buttons allow you to actually contact past alumni students / parents! They can clear up any doubts about SEE.

SEE will also have information sessions that you can sign up for by entering your email in the field above.