Fellowship

About the Bootcamp

Build your own startup idea with a team of ambitious students and support by experts in 3 months.

Bootcamp Curriculum

Through lectures, coachings and group work, each team goes on a journey of exploration and discovery to build the most suitable solution for a problem statement. It's an intensive program in which students learn all about team work, prototyping, pitching and much more

Lectures

Fellowship

Every week, students get the chance to learn from our seasoned experts through hands-on lectures on topics such as prototyping, user research and pitching. In the past, we have invited professionals from companies such as Google, MPower Partners, Coral Capital, Moon Creative Lab and more!

Product Expo

At the end of each cohort, team pitch their startup ideas in front of a large audience of founders, investors and students. It's an opportunity to shine on the big stage while showcasing everything you have learned over the last three months.

Orientation

The orientation serves as the preparation for the start of the bootcamp. This is where the teams are formed, problem statements are chosen and coaches are introduced. It's an action packed phase with a lot of team building, input lectures and challenges.

Read our recent Cohort Report

Students

Our bootcamp students represent a diverse range of universities, study background and skills.

Mayo's big passion is to help reduce food waste in Japan. To tackle this problem, she is working on Rserve, a platform to help restaurants manage reservations more effectively.

Keio University, Japan

Mayo Ito, Spring '24

Tanachai developed his interest in startups through his own projects and doing startup internships. He has also furthered his knowledge in Machine Learning during his research stay at the MIT Media Lab.

University of Tokyo, Thailand

Tanachai Anakewat, Spring '23

Yuya is excited about building his own thing. With another JVA fellow, he is building a startup to help digitize the nurse management system in hospitals.

Aoyama Gakuin, Japan

Yuya Watanabe, Spring '23

Yue is a co-founder of the Waseda AI Group. Due to her strong interest in AI, she is now working on her own startup to help Japanese people develop their English speaking skills through AI.

Waseda University, China

Yue Li, Fall '23

Ryuichi developed his interest in startups by participating in the MIT-affiliated LaunchX program. During JVA, his team build a internship matching platform to empower technical students to build real world engineering skills.

Keio University, Japan

Ryuichi Lun, Fall '23

Rose is the founder of Waseda's Google Student's Developer Club and is excited about helping people apply theory to practise in tech. Now she is working on her Phd at University of California, Berkeley.

Waseda University, Japan/Iran

Rose Niousha, Fall '22

Erdenebat is interested in the field of applied machine learning. To develop his know how he e.g. developed a Mongolion sign-language recognition tool and also joined a robotics startup competition in Germany.

Tokyo Institute of Tech, Mongolia

Erdenebat Battseren, Fall '23

Besides taking entrepreneurship courses at Waseda, he is also actively pursuing his own advertising business on the side. In the future, he wants to start more businesses.

Waseda University, Japan

Shun Otsuka, Fall '23

Kiko first discovered her interest in entrepreneurship during her exchange semester abroad. She is excited about the use cases of AI in startups empowers her team through her constant energy.

University of Tokyo, Singapore

Kiko Yee, Fall '23

Venture Experts

Experienced professionals share their deep startup know-how through weekly hands-on workshops.

Lecturer
How to prototype solutions

Google, Product Manager

Wesley Stuurman

Judge
Midterm presentation

Coral Capital, Investor

Tiffany Kayo

Lecturer
Dry-run

Glasp, Co-Founder

Kei Watanabe

Lecturer
How to monetize your solution

Zookeep, GTM Lead

Fuminori Gunji

Judge
Midterm presentation

MPower Partners, Investor

Ye Xia

Lecturer
How to validate your problem

Moon Creative Lab

Kenneth Jeng

Lecturer
How to ideate solutions

Google, Product Designer

Naomi Tirronen

Lecturer
How to prototype solutions

Figma, Designer

Corey Lee

Judge
Midterm presentation

Asu Capital Partners, Founding Partner

Hideo Natsume

Coaches

Coaches share their knowledge with students through weekly coaching calls.

Woven by Toyota

Alexandra Coym

Mercari US

Riley Masunaga

Woven by Toyota

Samridh Jain

Startup

Ilya Kulyatin

Terakoya AI

Paul Li

Moon Creative Lab

Yuki Obata

Schoolab

Yves Lehmann

Application Requirements

University Student

You have to be a registered university student to join our program.

Based in Tokyo

Due to our weekly in-person lectures and group work, students are required to be based in Tokyo for the duration of the program.

Interested in Startups

You have to show a strong interest in startups. Ideally, you have already gained experience in the form of own projects, attending events or joining circles.

Application Process

To ensure that applicants satisfy the requirements for our program with regards to motivation and skill, have setup a 2 stage application process consisting of an online application and interview.

Pre-Register Now

Online Application

Fill out our application form in which you share who you are, why you are excited about startups and why you want to join the JVA Startup Bootcamp. Usually, there is a 3 week application window in which you can submit your application.

Interview

Once you pass the online application stage, we will invite you to an 1h online interview. The interview consists of a personal and analytical fit part, in which we want to confirm your motivational and skill profile. It's also your chance to get to know more about JVA and ask any remaining questions.

Results

After careful review of the interview performance, the JVA core team will make a final decision. Once the decision is made, you will be informed about the outcome via mail and will be informed about the next steps.

Shibuya Bridge

This is where the weekly lectures will be held. It also happens to be the headquarter of Shibuya Startup Support.
This space hosts international founders and startup events on a regular basis.
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Google Map