Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale

Welcome Back! 🤗
New semester. Familiar faces. Fresh ideas you haven’t fully named yet.
January at is about easing back in, getting grounded, and letting curiosity do its thing.
If you’re carrying an idea from last semester (or break 👀), there’s space for it here.
We can’t wait to see you—trust us, the photo says it all. 😉

🎁✨ Holiday Gift Guide… but make it Tsai CITY.

🧘🏽‍♀️ — grounding keychains + mindfulness tools designed to help you slow down, breathe, and feel supported in stressful moments. Perfect stocking stuffer energy. (getcalmware.com)

🌶️ .butter — Ethiopian spiced clarified butter that makes ANY dish hit harder (www.chachabutter.com) 

🌿 — organic curl care for softness, moisture, and ✨eco vibes✨ (earthcurlorganics.com)

💎 Elvin Jewellery — lab-grown diamonds + customizable luxury that actually ships fast AND ethically. ✨ Use code TsaiCITY2025 for 10% off until Dec 31, 2025 ✨ (elvinjewellery.ca)

🎨 .marshallarts — stunning paintings + prints for the art lover in your life (mj-marshall-arts.com)

These ventures are building with purpose, culture, and creativity — and we love to see it.

Save the Date: Startup Yale 2026. The energy hits different at .
Because SY26 isn’t just a pitch event… it’s the moment Yale’s innovation ecosystem comes alive.
Founders, creatives, builders, collaborators — April 10th is for you.
Save the date and show up ready to build with purpose and grow with community. 🚀✨

Fall at Tsai CITY is looking next level, and if you’re not ready… you’re about to be. Here’s your personal cheat sheet to everything coming your way from events, programs, funding, mentorship, and all the tools to make your ideas real.
👇 Save this post. Send it to your group chat. Pull up!
⚠️ Additional events may be announced. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop. Find it at the

Startup Yale 2025 was one for the books! 🎉

Presented by , , , , , , , and our sponsor , this year’s celebration of innovation, creativity, and impact brought the energy.

To everyone who pitched, cheered, connected, and dreamed with us—thank you. Spaces like this thrive because of changemakers like you. We hope you’re leaving with bold ideas, new connections, and fuel for your next big move.
Until next year ✌️

Huge congratulations to this year’s winners:

Creative Entrepreneurship Prize: Creative Project: Unboxed Musicians;
Audience Choice Winner: Creative Project: Patience: an opera
Creative Entrepreneurship Prize: Creative Venture: Calmware
Audience Choice Winner: Creative Venture: Makerstate

Manolo Sanchez Prize: Numanac
Audience Choice Winner: WealthMeUp

Miller Prize: Sourcerer
Audience Choice Winner: AIMIGO

New Haven Civic Innovation: First Place: Enrich Health; Second Place: ShellVive; Third Place: Wealth Beacon Group Foundation;
Audience Choice Winner: Black Obsidian Healing

Planetary Solutions Prize: First Place: MudderAI; Second Place: Verustruct
Audience Choice Winner: Verustruct

Rothberg Catalyzer Prize: TranscribeGlass
Audience Choice Winner: Vault Kinetics

Thorne Prize: Fulcrum
Audience Choice Winner: Fulcrum

Yale Innovators Prize: EnglishSeeKho
Audience Choice Winner: Whiskey Bravo

10th Anniversary Poster Prize: Calmware and NeuroPuffs

Time to shake things up!

From the next big climate change innovators to future venture capitalists, Tsai CITY has your innovation journey sorted. Whether you're just exploring or going all-in, we've got a program for every Yalie with a bright idea!

Here’s our lineup for this semester:

🌱 Climate Innovation Intensive: Environmental entrepreneurship on Mondays, for 6 weeks

💼 Investing in Innovation: VC skills for the curious and the experienced future funders

🚀 Accelerator: Founder resources and community to level up your venture

🧠 Launch Pad: The community dedicated to turning your idea into a prototype

🌟 Founders-in-Residence Program: A unique opportunity to lead, mentor, and inspire the next wave of student entrepreneurs while advancing your own mature venture

If you’re ready to roll, explore and apply here - https://city.yale.edu/programs

Growth. Innovation. Impact.

🌟 Our 2023-2024 Annual Report is live, and it’s packed with all the incredible ways we've been driving change and sparking innovation at Yale and beyond. Over the last academic year, we set out to cultivate more of Yale's entrepreneurship and innovation community. We transformed our physical spaces to foster collaboration and creativity, from playing music that energizes to adding new spaces for Founders and Creators to thrive.

From the 5,239 people who registered for events to the 200+ projects that took flight, this past academic year was one for the books! Explore the full report and see how we're helping Yale's vibrant entrepreneurship and innovation community shape the future.

View the report: https://city.yale.edu/2023-2024-annual-report