From first sketch to first check

What is Days

your thesis Deserves Longer Than a Semester.

Days is a venture studio. From designers, for designers. We hand-select the most promising thesis projects and back the people behind them, turning prototypes into real, fundable products and companies.

Most great design theses never progress past the final exhibition. They end up the same way: a resume line and a portfolio piece that got someone hired. The insight is there. The research is real. The prototype works. But there's no infrastructure to carry it further.

Days asks what else it could be. We work alongside you, the way a co-founder would, during a three-month hands-on studio program that gives you the tools, mentorship, and momentum to build the company that's already in your design thesis.

Days is a venture studio. From designers, for designers. We hand-select the most promising thesis projects and back the people behind them, turning prototypes into real, fundable products and companies.

Most great design theses never progress past the final exhibition. They end up the same way: a resume line and a portfolio piece that got someone hired. The insight is there. The research is real. The prototype works. But there's no infrastructure to carry it further.

Days asks what else it could be. We work alongside you, the way a co-founder would, during a three-month hands-on studio program that gives you the tools, mentorship, and momentum to build the company that's already in your design thesis.

Why Days

You already do the hardest part of building a company.

You find a real problem and design something for it. What's usually missing is everything around it. Market validation. Positioning. Fabrication. Access to people who have shipped before.

You find a real problem and design something for it. What's usually missing is everything around it. Market validation. Positioning. Fabrication. Access to people who have shipped before.

01

Three months in a studio cohort, starting after your semester ends.

02

Mentorship from senior designers and founders who have shipped hardware, software, and services.

03

Commercial framing that turns a design insight into a product, a customer, and a business model that works.

04

Curated investor introductions, made individually, for projects that are ready.

How it works

We follow the work all semester.

We engage with thesis projects as they develop and identify candidates for the upcoming cohort.

We select one to three projects, on the strength of the insight, the depth of the execution, and above all, the person behind it. Building a company is hard, unglamorous work. We bet on the people who are willing to do that work.

We engage with thesis projects as they develop and identify candidates for the upcoming cohort.

We select one to three projects, on the strength of the insight, the depth of the execution, and above all, the person behind it. Building a company is hard, unglamorous work. We bet on the people who are willing to do that work.

What we're looking for

Theses that point where a market is headed before anyone else sees it.

Projects with a unique insight, a working prototype, and room to become a category-defining product. These are the frontier areas we're actively excited about.

Projects with a unique insight, a working prototype, and room to become a category-defining product. These are the frontier areas we're actively excited about.

AI, in physical form

AI, in
physical form

AI, in physical form

The evolution of the chat interface. AI embedded in hardware, robotics, and physical products. Human-in-the-loop tools where a model does the tedious part and a person still makes the call.

Robotics

Robotics

Robotics

Not machines in cages. Machines that share space with people. How a robot signals what it is about to do, how it recovers when it is wrong, what it takes for someone to trust it.

BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE

BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE

BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE

Interfaces for people who need a faster, more direct path from intention to action. Prosthetics, communication devices, assistive tools where every layer of translation costs something.

DIGITAL fabrication

DIGITAL fabrication

DIGITAL fabrication

New approaches to 3D printing, generative manufacturing, or fabrication workflows that make small-batch or custom production actually viable.

Mixed reality

Mixed reality

Mixed reality

Spatial computing with a real use case beyond the demo. Not "look what XR can do," but "here's a problem XR is uniquely suited to solve."

Spatial computing with a real use case beyond the demo. Not “look what XR can do,” but “here is a problem XR is uniquely suited to solve.”

Design tools

Design tools

Design tools

Software or hardware that changes how designers themselves work. The tools we'd want to use ourselves.

Industries we're drawn to

Non-exhaustive.
We want to be surprised.

Healthcare & AGING

Healthcare & AGING

PHYSICAL AUTOMATION

PHYSICAL AUTOMATION

Consumer hardware

Consumer hardware

Defense & dual-use tech

Defense & dual-use tech

sustainability & materials

sustainability & materials

What makes a project stand out

The signals we look for.

A specific, sharp insight. Not "AI for X," but a real observation about how people work, live, or build that most people have missed.

A specific, sharp insight. Not “AI for X,” but a real observation about how people work, live, or build that most people have missed.

A working prototype, even a rough one. We want to see the idea made physical or functional, not just described.

A problem that gets more interesting the more you learn about it. Not one already solved three times.

Something that's not obvious at first thought.

High Integrity

You do what you say you'll do. With us, your team, your future users. Trust compounds.

High Agency

You don't wait for permission or perfect conditions. When something's in your way, you find a way through or around it.

Curiosity

You ask "why" past the point most people stop. The best products come from people who couldn't leave a question alone.

Delusional Optimism

You believe the thing you're building can exist in the world. Not naively, but with the conviction to keep going.

Contrarian

You're comfortable being right when everyone thinks you're wrong. The best insights look wrong before they look obvious.

Experimental

You'd rather build a rough version and test it than debate it in the abstract. Prototypes over slide decks.

Willing to take a risk

You'll bet a few months, or a few years, on an idea most people would talk themselves out of.

Oriented to impact

You're not building something to be fine. You're building something that, if it works, actually matters.

The Days team

Built by designers,

for designers.

Days was founded by designers and founders who kept seeing the same thing: great thesis work with nowhere to go after the show. We built the venture studio we wish we'd had ourselves.

Days was founded by designers and founders who kept seeing the same thing: great thesis work with nowhere to go after the show. We built the venture studio we wish we’d had access to back in the day.

Those were the days. Building, making,

getting ready.

DAYS

© 2026

DAYS

© 2026