The Study Melbourne Future Founders Program, brought to you by Study Melbourne and StartSpace is Australia’s largest entrepreneurial program aimed at international students and aspiring new founders.

The program is completely free and designed to take you on the journey from forming your business idea to getting it off the ground, no matter what stage you are at.

Through the program you will learn practical skills and hear from inspiring former international student and migrant founders about their own journeys.  You’ll also have the chance to connect with other students and network with people across the Victorian startup community.

Roadshows 2023 – Idea to Impact

Join us at our upcoming Roadshows in Geelong (13 September), Ballarat (20 September) or online (4 October) for an introduction to what it takes to start a business.Hear from experienced migrant business founders in the panel, and learn the business model and team-building techniques in the interactive workshops.Free to participate, the Roadshows are designed to inspire your ideas and the start of your business journey.

Festival 2023

The annual Study Melbourne Future Founders Festival is completely free to attend and includes inspiring founder talks, panel sessions, interactive workshops, networking and a pitch competition. You will hear from successful business founders from across Australia, sharing their stories and experience. The festival is designed to help you learn how to develop a business idea and get it off the ground.

Sign up for future updates on the Festival

Venture Scholarships

The Venture Scholarships are the only international student-focused initiative in Victoria that provides seed funding for entrepreneurship ventures, as well as a StartSpace Loft membership and one-on-one coaching and mentoring opportunities.

The program runs for 12 weeks, and applications for the next round will be open in early 2024.

The scholarship program provides:

  • AUD$ 10,000 seed funding for your business venture
  • StartSpace Loft memberships for the duration of the program
  • Six 1 hour 1:1 mentoring sessions with a matched industry Mentor
  • Facilitated fortnightly cohort catch-ups at StartSpace
  • Venture Crawl – a day where the Scholars get to visit key startups and ecosystem supports in Melbourne

Meet our Scholarship Recipients

Delivered by StartSpace

StartSpace is a business support service and community for people starting out on their business development journey. Membership is free and gives you access to a coworking space, free programs and events to support your business development and a like-minded community.