BUILD YOUR TEAM

LAUNCH YOUR STARTUP

2026 APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN!

The 2026 edition was made possible thanks to the support of:

Unfold Tomorrow

Organizer
TP

Main Partner
Sapienza Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub

Academic Partner
Roma Tre University

Academic Partner

Build Your Team

— Launch Your Startup

Dock is the startup founder academy that serves as a steering early-stage ventures towards success. Like a ship embarking on a bold journey, we guide founders through uncharted waters, offering direction, resources, and a crew of experts to ensure you stay on course from idea to impact.

✓ Find your co-founder among 100 participants

✓ Get mentorship from 50+ entrepreneurs and industry experts

✓ Validate your idea and present it to dozens of investors

✓ Access a life-time community of startup founders

As seen on

4 Months

to launch your own Startup

For each edition, we review more than 300 applications to identify the strongest talent who are the best fit for this journey. From these, we select 100 aspiring startup founders and equip them with the essential skills they need to begin their entrepreneurial path. You do not need to have a fully developed startup idea to apply.

Find Your Startup Co-founders
We intentionally bring together diverse, high‑potential individuals so they can get to know each other, experiment with different collaborations, and choose the right co‑founders. We believe the most successful startups are built by complementary teams rather than solo founders, which is why team formation is at the heart of our approach.

March 14

Applications deadline
The application period closes and our team begins the process of candidates selection.

Key dates

March 24

Start of the program

The selected candidates begin the entrepreneurial program.

Apply now

July 16

Demo Day

The best teams will pitch at the Demo Day in front of the investors and jury.

Watch the highlights from the last edition of the program

Join a community of passionate startup founders and be part of something extraordinary.

What sets Dock Startup Lab apart?

We are a growth ecosystem where aspiring entrepreneurs, experienced mentors, and valuable resources converge in a journey of cultural cross-pollination.

Dock Startup Lab is completely free for all selected participants.

There are no registration fees, tuition costs, or hidden charges.

1.000+

Innovators trained
75+

Higher education institution involved
€300K+

Awards distributed
€ 8M+

Investments raised from the startups in our program

How the Program Works

The journey unfolds primarily online, featuring practical expert-led masterclasses, and actionable video content that you can revisit anytime, ensuring you build the foundational skills needed to launch and scale your venture.

Throughout the program, we bring you face-to-face with Rome's startup community through in-person meetups at the city's most dynamic innovation hubs: SIEH, CTE, Zest, Talent Garden, and PiCampus.

The Grand Finale: Your entrepreneurial journey culminates at Eni Gazometro, one of Rome's most iconic innovation landmarks, where you'll pitch your startup to investors, industry leaders, and fellow founders at our Demo Day.

Selected participants get to know their peers to form teams, while at the same time learning the fundamentals of venture building: identifying real, meaningful problems through customer research and market analysis.
Next, created teams apply Lean Startup principles to turn ideas into practice. They design prototypes, test key assumptions with real users, iterate quickly based on feedback, and at the same time define viable business models, monetization strategies, and ways of working together as effective startup founding teams.
In this phase, teams focus on how to bring their startup to market and drive growth: we work on a clear go‑to‑market strategy, customer acquisition and retention, a solid financial and fundraising roadmap, and the key legal and regulatory aspects needed to build a robust, compliant, and investment‑ready venture.
Finally, teams refine their pitches to clearly communicate their business case to investors and stakeholders. The journey concludes with a Demo Day, where the final teams present their ventures to a panel of VCs and key players from the startup ecosystem—closing the program with a validated venture and a concrete plan for what comes next.

Who should apply

Aspiring entrepreneurs

with a backgrounding idea looking for the right team and guidance to bring it to life.
Students, graduates, and PhD candidates

eager to apply their knowledge in a dynamic, real-world startup environment.
Skilled professionals

seeking to transition into the startup world and find exciting projects to contribute to.

APPLY NOW

They say about us

Eva

What awaits you at Dock is a journey, where nothing is left to chance and where they firmly believe that people's enthusiasm is the right driving force to make the world we live in a better place.
Massimiliano

With Dock Startup Lab, we laid the groundwork for the early stages of Envify in a very practical way. It helped us clarify the product and priorities and launch the MVP methodically, without wasting time.
Alessia

A valid program scheduled according to current best practices on the market and, above all, a unique opportunity to create valuable connections that will last over time.
Federico

Competent mentors, a pleasant environment, and lots of practice. It helped us clarify our business model, improve our pitch, and compare ourselves with other teams. An intense but truly useful experience.
Roberta

Before participating in Dock, we knew nothing about the startup world. Now I am satisfied with the information we received, but above all with the networking we did! I would recommend it to all aspiring entrepreneurs!.