College is an exciting time to work on your craziest ideas + develop as a person. ~40% of co-founders meet in college, according to MIT.

In fact, Startup Exchange began as a student club at Georgia Tech that gathered builders, or designers, developers, and makers, in the library every week to talk about the most ambitious startup ideas. For the next 8 years, students within that group went on to start an assortment of companies worth $4.5B.

In March 2023, SX at Georgia Tech hosted ImmerseGT, an extended-reality hackathon that brought together 500+ competitors globally. The volume of applicants from not only locally, but from colleges elsewhere evoked a desire for a space to bring builders together.

This was affirmed further through 60+ interviews to student builders across the US. They were all saying the same things about their community for builders on campus.

The community for builders on campus is either fractured, spread across organizations and group chats, or it simply does not exist.

Beyond the need for community, today the time that it takes to build something takes less time than ever. As such, building your most ambitious ideas as a college student requires a newer playbook. The rise of new founder platforms such as buildspace, Neo, HF0, etc speak volumes on the valued focus on building, launching, and iterating.

Startup Exchange offers centralized community and programs to regularly bring builders together, and to offer them opportunities to further develop their ideas. Our team imagines a reality where builders have a platform for their ideas, regardless of what college they attend.