DART by FounderSquare is an immersive, high-impact challenge designed to help you turn your startup idea into a real, tangible product in just five days. If you’re an aspiring founder looking to accelerate your journey, DART. is your fast track to testing your vision, validating your market, and securing your first investor pitch.
DART : Do A Real Thing
In 5 days, you'll validate your problem, build a prototype, and refine your business model, resulting in a ready-to-pitch, market-aligned startup idea.
Get expert support from product developers, strategists, and investors to tackle assignments and receive feedback, ensuring your product is viable, scalable, and investor-ready by week’s end.
DART is a comprehensive founder experience, covering personal well-being, team alignment, and founder-product fit to equip you with the skills and mindset to succeed as a startup founder.
Day 1: Validate Your Problem & Define Your Mission
Kick off by identifying and validating the core problem you want to solve. With expert guidance, you’ll define a clear, compelling mission that sets the foundation for everything that follows.
Day 2: Develop & Validate Your Solution
Transform your validated problem into a user-centered solution. Through value proposition creation and user research, you’ll develop a solution that truly meets user needs and is primed for prototyping.
Day 3: Build a Working Prototype
It’s time to create! On Day 3, you’ll get your hands dirty by building a tangible prototype with expert support. Whether digital or physical, by the end of the day, you'll have something real to showcase to users and gather feedback.
Day 4: Refine Your Business Model & Market Strategy
Now that you have a prototype, Day 4 is dedicated to scaling it. You’ll define your business model, identify your target market, and refine your growth strategy—ensuring that your product isn’t just viable, but scalable.
Day 5: Pitch to Investors
On Day 5, it’s time to share your vision! Prepare your pitch deck and present your idea to a panel of investors. This is your chance to get valuable feedback and potentially secure funding to take your startup to the next level.
What takes months elsewhere, you’ll achieve in just 5 days.
Leverage tools and frameworks used by successful startups around the world. Save time and money by skipping the trial and error phase.
This isn’t just theory—it’s hands-on. Apply what you learn to your own startup idea every single day.
End the week with a validated prototype and the confidence to pitch it to potential investors.
You won’t be alone. Our expert mentors will guide you through each stage, helping you make critical decisions and keep your focus on what matters most.
With over a decade of experience in building and scaling digital products, Igor has led innovative projects at companies like Yandex and created internationally recognized startups in the wellbeing and health-tech industries.
As DART’s co-founder, he combines product strategy with actionable mentorship to help entrepreneurs turn ideas into impactful results. His passion for self-discovery and mindfulness informs his approach to leadership and growth.
Silvia is a dynamic force in startup ecosystems, with a deep background in fundraising, business strategy, and connecting founders with key resources.
At DART, she leverages her expertise to help entrepreneurs validate ideas, refine business models, and prepare for investor engagement. Her curated network and dedication to founder success are at the heart of DART’s mission to empower actionable outcomes.
DART is for doers—those who want to take real action and build something that matters. Are you ready? Let’s make it happen.
Opportunity to network with people who have significant entrepreneurial experience.
I think to get feedbacks from the comprehensive presentation/slide deck is important to see that strength and weakness of our idea and delivery as a team
Several impactful insights throughout the week which all center on speed / making quick progress
Good and done beats perfect and incomplete
It taught me a process to test ideas a lot quicker than I've ever done, and I especially liked the customer interaction as soon as possible. It helps with keeping up momentum
I'm able to think more clearly and quickly about the overall solution approach Skill set in how to go about gathering data and coming out with insightful information. How to take all of the data and turn it into tangible items that can continue to evolve.
You guys went out of your way to provide resources for extra curricular stuff and talk about those things and be friendly. Very exciting.
All mentors were very approachable and helped me whenever I needed it, I was able to get different perspectives on my questions every time
Besides the direct instruction, the mentors were willing to share whatever wisdom and understanding they have about our unique situations.
It helped me identify that I am bouncing between different concepts a lot and haven’t actually found the one that sticks.
Get more clarity on what a potential solution can look like or some of the ways that you can create value through the solution.
I was given more direct information on how to achieve the goals I set forth before entering the program.
Don’t wait for the “perfect moment”—it’s time to take action and turn your idea into a reality. Apply now to secure your spot and get ready for a life-changing 5-day experience.
