Stream 1 - Festival Stream 2 - Roadshows Stream 3 - Venture Scholarships

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.

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

Roadshows 2023 – Idea to Impact

Join us at our upcoming Roadshows in Ballarat 15 March, or in Geelong or via online streaming 22 March, for an introduction to what it takes to start a business. Hear from experienced migrant business founders in the panel talks and learn 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.

Register now for the Roadshows

Upcoming events

Join Study Melbourne’s free events and programs to discover new experiences, make new friends, and build your networks.

Venture Scholarships 2023

Applications are open for the Study Melbourne Future Founders Venture Scholarships for 2023.

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

The program runs for 12 weeks from April to July 2023, and applications close on 26 March 2023.

There are five scholarships available for individual founders or teams of up to three members. To apply as the primary applicant, you must be a current or former international student (up to five years post-graduation).

The scholarship program provides:

  • $10,000 AUD seed funding for your business venture.
  • 6 x individual mentoring sessions
  • 6x group sessions with the scholarship cohort and guest speakers to learn from
  • A venture crawl event where scholars will visit other startups and support services in the local Melbourne startup ecosystem.
  • A demo day held at StartSpace at the end of the program to showcase your venture
  • StartSpace Loft Membership for the duration of the program to provide a place to work on your venture.

Apply now

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.