Now based in New Orleans and New York, the early-stage education incubator 4.0 Schools is expanding to year round programming for education entrepreneurs. Below is more information on Essentials and the Launch Program.
Essentials
Essentials is an introduction to the 4.0 community for hackers, designers, educators, makers, and creatives interested in shaping the future of education. It’s a daylong, first stage of 4.0’s programming which explores three skills: Empathy (designing solutions for actual users), Unbundling (taking apart problems to attack them at their root cause) and Prototyping (giving users simple versions of your solution early so you can get feedback).
4.0 hosts 15-20 participants about once a month for Essentials, joining the community from New Orleans in locations across the country such as New York. Participants can experience varied agendas but are told to be prepared to practice improv, design thinking, rapid iteration and physical prototyping.
For those with an idea for a new education venture, apply to the 4.0 daylong Essentials intensive program (Sep 22-23 and Dec 13-14 in NYC, Oct 25-26 and 28-29 in New Orleans).
The deadline for Essentials is rolling, but 4.0 fills up a few weeks ahead for each session.
Launch Program
4.0’s Launch Program is designed for those committed to launching a new product, service, or internal venture. These people have already put their idea into the real world and have the most potential for disrupting education. The ideas don’t have to be incorporated or have revenue or donors.
The Launch Program offers entrepreneurs help in the following areas: marketing, legal, financial planning, strategic coaching, high level overview with goals and targets, weekly check ins, connect to schools and classrooms, and a community of support with education entrepreneurs across the country.
Cameron Middleton, founder of Nomad Schools, gives a behind the scenes look at Launch: Founder’s confession: How I lost and rediscovered empathy along the startup path.
The Launch program runs October 25th through December 20th with an application deadline on October 1st. Learn more and apply at 4pt0.org/apply.