Journey 01✦
FounderThe brief
Explore how ideas become ventures.
Investigate customers, products, selling, pitching and the decisions behind building a company.
Possible proofA customer brief, prototype or venture pitch
Explore →Here's exactly what happens in a SydeDoor edition: what you do, who you learn from, and what you walk away with.
Tell us your stage (high school, university or early career) and your city. Founding members hear first.
When dates are set, you confirm your place. Under-18s need a parent or guardian to give consent.
You're placed in a team of 4–5 peers at your stage, mixed by background, area and skill.
48 hours before kick-off, you find out which startup is setting your brief.
Each week is led by a different person from the host company, so you see the problem from a different seat every time.
The founder explains the company, the market, and a real problem they're facing right now. Then it's yours.
Hear how the product team actually works and builds. Then build a working prototype of your solution.
Learn how a growth team finds out what works. Put your prototype in front of real people and measure it.
A 48-hour sprint to polish everything, then a live pitch to the founder and a guest panel. Prizes awarded on merit.
Across four weeks you diagnose, prototype, test and pitch. These five perspectives help you explore different kinds of work within the same brief. You don't pick one for good: you try them on. Each edition's focus depends on its host.
Investigate customers, products, selling, pitching and the decisions behind building a company.
Map markets, assess value and risk, research companies and defend a reasoned view.
Work with AI, software and automation to understand and solve technical problems.
Practise media, design, storytelling, audiences and distribution across real channels.
Investigate communities, institutions and policy, then test an idea for impact.
Think of a live show, like TBPN, except you're part of it. Sessions are planned for 12–1pm or 5–7pm, GMT and CET, so they fit around school, university or work. The longer evening slot gives teams more time in breakout rooms.
This week's challenge, context and a warm-up land before the session, so you arrive ready to go.
An interactive live session with the host: the role unfiltered, how they really work with AI, and your questions answered on air.
Into rooms with your team for tasks and challenges. Build, argue, decide. The SydeDoor team rotates through to help.
Teams share what they've got. The expert gives honest, specific feedback, live.
2–3 hours with your team before next Wednesday, with clear deliverables and check-ins.
You work together on your own schedule, in a private team space. The SydeDoor team checks in, answers questions and unblocks you.
The rubric is published before the sprint starts, so everyone knows exactly how they'll be scored.
Real stakes for real work. The best teams win rewards that pay off now and change what happens next.
Money for the top teams, judged on merit against the public rubric.
A full day shadowing the host team, seeing how the work really gets done.
A fully funded place in the SydeDoor Fellowship, our selective long-form programme.
Every session runs live online, so you can join from anywhere. In-person editions add the moments that are better in a room.
Join the waitlist to become a founding member. You'll hear first about dates, hosts and places, and help shape what we build.
Join the waitlist →Takes two minutes. Under 18? We'll ask a parent or guardian to confirm before you take part.