START Forge | Notion

**Europe is running out of time to build the future -

not fund it, not regulate it, build it.**

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By 2031, the compute gap between the US and Europe won't have closed. It will have widened. Today it already stands at roughly 12x. The companies that will own AI infrastructure and capture its economic value are being built right now → mostly somewhere else.

Here's what most people miss: Europe isn't short on talent. Switzerland has the highest density of AI researchers on the planet; more per capita than the US, more than the UK. ETH Zurich alone has produced more VC-backed deep tech startups since 2020 than any university in the world. Lausanne ranks 5th globally for AI output density. The talent is already here, in this corridor → Lausanne, Zurich, St. Gallen, Munich.

What's missing isn't ability. It's density. World-class builders are working in isolation; heads down at EPFL, ETH, HSG, TUM. With almost no structure connecting them to each other.

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Europe's future isn't a policy problem. It's a builder-density problem. And builder density is something we can build.

That’s what START Forge is.

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What It Is

4 weeks. In-person, St. Gallen. Hacker-house format. You and 10 other AI-native builders, living, eating and building together at START Campus. Not a course. Not a workshop. A sprint, at full intensity, with people as serious as you are.

This is a pilot batch, the first of its kind.

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Who This Is For

Builders. Not people who want to learn how to build - people already doing it.

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You're in if:

You have an active project, or a clearly defined idea backed by real prior work
You're building AI-native, or want to
You can show technical or commercial capability - ideally both
You're serious about founding something, not exploring whether you might be </aside>

You're not in if you're looking for a program to teach you the basics. That's not what this is and we'll screen for it.

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What You Get

We handle the admin so all you do is build

Demo Day in front of early-stage investors and angels
Additional prizes to be won at Demo Day
Dinner with leading investors and founders
AI credits for development
Accommodation in St. Gallen for the four weeks
START Summit access for the strongest teams
Dinner with your cohort every evening
Workspace at START Campus and mentor access

0% equity. 100% IP stays with you.

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The Four Weeks

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Week 1 - Off-site, pressure-test your idea, talk with real users

Week 2 - Full build sprint, create a working prototype, first traction signals

Week 3 - Iterate on real signal from Week 2

Week 4 - Final sprint, Demo Day and what comes next

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No filler weeks. Each one has a different job, and each one ends with something real: min. 5 user interviews and a revised hypothesis, a functional prototype, a validated iteration, a demo.

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The Details

Dates: August 17 - September 11
Location: START Campus, St. Gallen
Spots: 10
Application deadline: End of July </aside>

We're not filling seats. We're looking for the ten who are already building.

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→ Apply Now

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FAQ

Eligibility

About the program

What’s included

Application

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About START Global

START Global is Europe's leading student-run entrepreneurship initiative.

Based in St. Gallen, we connect founders, investors and industry leaders through START Summit, one of Europe's leading early-stage startup conferences, START Hack, 36-hour hackathons bridging business and technology, and a growing START Network of chapters across Europe and Latam.

Our mission is to be the seeding ground for entrepreneurial talent and START Forge is the next step in that direction.

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