SHIP Fund Info Session & Kickoff
Registration is now live.
SHIP is a 6-week funding program for USC student founders tackling important problems in three selected challenge areas: Social Impact, Physical Products & Hardware, or AI.
This isn't a traditional pitch competition. There’s no deck, no pitch day, and no need to have everything figured out.
Instead, you’ll spend six weeks building, testing, learning, and showing your progress.
Throughout the program, teams will:
Build and test their ideas
Talk to users and customers
Develop prototypes or products
Validate assumptions
Iterate based on what they learn
Share their weekly progress with tiehub
Meet with tiehub staff twice during the course of the program
Submit a final ASK documenting their progress
At the end of the program, three teams will receive $5,000 each to continue building.
SHIP Info Session: September 15, 2026
Latest "Join By"/Registration Date: October 2, 2026
Program Dates: October 5–November 23, 2026
Final ASK Due: November 23rd 5:00pm PT
Challenge Tracks
Social Impact
Solutions addressing meaningful social, community, or societal challenges.
Physical Products & Hardware
Products that combine physical design, engineering, hardware, or other tangible technology to solve a meaningful problem for consumers, businesses, or other users.
Artificial Intelligence
Products, technologies, or ventures where AI is a central component of the solution.
How SHIP works
1. Join
Have an idea, a prototype, or an early-stage venture? You can join. There’s no application process.
2. Build for 6 weeks
Work on your venture and make meaningful progress. Talk to users, test assumptions, build a prototype, launch, find customers, iterate, or whatever progress makes sense for your team/venture.
3. Show your work
Submit a short progress update each week and meet with tiehub staff twice during the program.
4. Make your final ASK
At the end, tell us where you started, what you did, what you learned, what changed, and what you accomplished.