Disciplined Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
Bring the power of MIT’s world-renowned commercialization methodology to your company!
The Disciplined Entrepreneurship Bootcamp 2026 gives Estonia’s most innovation-driven teams the opportunity to master the methodology that has proven to be one of the most effective commercialization processes in the world. The purpose of the five-day in-person bootcamp is to introduce a product and business-building methodology into the Estonian innovation ecosystem, specifically designed for companies developing tangible products and/or businesses that are deeply rooted in results from R&D.
Built and delivered by a team of international MIT trainers, the bootcamp combines expert training, hands-on mentoring, and a Demo Day to showcase your market readiness and growth.
The deadline for submitting applications is 3rd of November.
What is it?
Building businesses around physical products or R&D results have different challenges than ‘ordinary’ startups or ‘traditional’ companies. ‘Get to the market, fail fast and iterate’ is often not a viable strategy. The missing factor in building internationally competitive growth-oriented businesses is the skillset to create a rigorous, revenue-based business plan, not just a flashy pitch deck. To grow, we don’t need any more minimally viable products. We need anti-fragile companies attacking big problems with a tinkerer’s mindset and a capitalist’s goals.
- Disciplined Entrepreneurship (DE) is a methodology developed at MIT by Bill Aulet, director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. The methodology is based on the MIT mindset of problem-solving, combined with the experience of building actual real-world businesses.
- Taught at hundreds of universities worldwide and used by tech startups at MIT and elsewhere, the DE process has proven to be one of the most effective in the industry (a 10-year longitudinal study on 180 startups showed 70% 5-year survival and over 60% fundraising success rates).
Who Should Apply
You must be an Estonian-registered company to participate. The program is limited to 12 companies and priority will be given to early applicants and companies that:
- Have an innovative product or service in the early commercialization stage.
- Have international growth ambitions.
- Build products based on deep-tech, engineering or R&D, potentially resulting in or already protected with IP.
- Can commit 3 founders/key functional leaders for the whole program.
- De minimis aid amount for the company is 11 200€ (including VAT).
Programme
Day 1—Market
Segmentation, beachhead market selection, end‑user profile, and TAM; teams compute beachhead TAM and pitch insights.
Day 2—Product
Lifecycle use case, quantified value proposition, competitive positioning, and core/moats; teams develop QVP and positioning.
Day 3—Sales
Customer Decision-Making Unit, customer acquisition process, LTV/CAC, and go‑to‑market for B2B/enterprise sales; teams map unit economics and GTM.
Day 4—Finance & Team
Financial modeling, investor mindset, and fundraising kit, recruiting, and OKRs; teams finalize pitch decks and DE Canvas.
Day 5—Demo Day
Final mentoring, pitches to external judges, and a closing session focused on next steps and ecosystem connections.
*The structure/focus will be further adapted to the needs/profiles of the selected companies
Disciplined Entrepreneurship is a methodology developed at MIT by Bill Aulet, the director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Taught at hundreds of universities worldwide and used by tech startups at MIT and elsewhere, the DE process has proven to be one of the most effective in the industry (a 10-year longitudinal study on 180 startups showed 70% 5-year survival and over 60% fundraising success rates).
Your full team is expected to be fully engaged with the trainers and business mentors for a minimum of 12 (up to 16) hours per day. The program is extremely intensive and demanding, so you will not have time to stay involved with the daily operations of your company.
Your team will be expected to deliver daily a complete, updated Disciplined Entrepreneurship Canvas, with information related to customer segmentation, TAM calculations, quantified value proposition, defined DMU and customer acquisition process, unit economics (LTV/CAC), GTM strategy, and an investor‑ready (or board-ready) pitch deck.
The structure is progressive—Market → Product → Sales → Finance/Team → Demo Day—ensuring coherent development from customer insight to an investable and scalable plan.
You will pitch every day in front of the trainers, mentors, and peers, and will receive feedback. Your learning and progress will be assessed via completed worksheets, daily pitches, mentor reviews, and the final pitch deck.
- Applications start: October 1, 2025 (see application link below)
- Applications end: Noveber 3, 2025
- Eligibility screening: Ongoing
- Follow-up interviews: October 15–November 8, 2025
- Selection of companies: November 8–15, 2025
- Final acceptance and payment: November 15–30, 2025
- Onboarding: December 1-10, 2025
- Bootcamp: February 2–6, 2026
You will have mentoring/coaching sessions daily with our trainers and also with invited local mentors who add the Estonian market context and expand connections. You will interact with 6-10 companies that share similar challenges, and will share their experience through peer-to-peer sessions. A private Discord community will be set up during the event and will be kept as an ongoing platform for keeping the cohort community informed of further initiatives and support.
The bootcamp will be hosted at the Tehnopol Science and Business Park. Accommodation will be facilitated for participants from outside Tallinn, and shuttle transport between the hotel and the venue will be arranged for training days.
Programme
Day 1—Market
Segmentation, beachhead market selection, end‑user profile, and TAM; teams compute beachhead TAM and pitch insights.
Day 2—Product
Lifecycle use case, quantified value proposition, competitive positioning, and core/moats; teams develop QVP and positioning.
Day 3—Sales
Customer Decision-Making Unit, customer acquisition process, LTV/CAC, and go‑to‑market for B2B/enterprise sales; teams map unit economics and GTM.
Day 4—Finance & Team
Financial modeling, investor mindset, and fundraising kit, recruiting, and OKRs; teams finalize pitch decks and DE Canvas.
Day 5—Demo Day
Final mentoring, pitches to external judges, and a closing session focused on next steps and ecosystem connections.
*The structure/focus will be further adapted to the needs/profiles of the selected companies
Disciplined Entrepreneurship is a methodology developed at MIT by Bill Aulet, the director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Taught at hundreds of universities worldwide and used by tech startups at MIT and elsewhere, the DE process has proven to be one of the most effective in the industry (a 10-year longitudinal study on 180 startups showed 70% 5-year survival and over 60% fundraising success rates).
Your full team is expected to be fully engaged with the trainers and business mentors for a minimum of 12 (up to 16) hours per day. The program is extremely intensive and demanding, so you will not have time to stay involved with the daily operations of your company.
Your team will be expected to deliver daily a complete, updated Disciplined Entrepreneurship Canvas, with information related to customer segmentation, TAM calculations, quantified value proposition, defined DMU and customer acquisition process, unit economics (LTV/CAC), GTM strategy, and an investor‑ready (or board-ready) pitch deck.
The structure is progressive—Market → Product → Sales → Finance/Team → Demo Day—ensuring coherent development from customer insight to an investable and scalable plan.
You will pitch every day in front of the trainers, mentors, and peers, and will receive feedback. Your learning and progress will be assessed via completed worksheets, daily pitches, mentor reviews, and the final pitch deck.
- Applications start: October 1, 2025 (see application link below)
- Applications end: Noveber 3, 2025
- Eligibility screening: Ongoing
- Follow-up interviews: October 15–November 8, 2025
- Selection of companies: November 8–15, 2025
- Final acceptance and payment: November 15–30, 2025
- Onboarding: December 1-10, 2025
- Bootcamp: February 2–6, 2026
You will have mentoring/coaching sessions daily with our trainers and also with invited local mentors who add the Estonian market context and expand connections. You will interact with 6-10 companies that share similar challenges, and will share their experience through peer-to-peer sessions. A private Discord community will be set up during the event and will be kept as an ongoing platform for keeping the cohort community informed of further initiatives and support.
The bootcamp will be hosted at the Tehnopol Science and Business Park. Accommodation will be facilitated for participants from outside Tallinn, and shuttle transport between the hotel and the venue will be arranged for training days.
Trainers and Mentors
Founder & CEO —ClassHour
Founder & Former Director of MIT Bootcamps
Erdin Beshimov is an education entrepreneur. He is the Founder and CEO of ClassHour. He also teaches at MIT, where he founded MIT Bootcamps, an educational program that brings together entrepreneurs from around the world and coaches them in developing an innovative venture.
A graduate of MIT, Erdin produced MIT’s first massive open online courses on entrepreneurship, which have taught thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide that they too can be change-making entrepreneurs and have given them the tools to start on this journey.
Guided by the philosophy that MIT is not just a university but a global innovation community, Erdin is dedicated to building new pathways for students and professionals worldwide to study and practice innovation and entrepreneurship.
Former Director, Lecturer, and Coach — MIT Bootcamps
Vimala Palaniswamy works with social impact organizations to help them deliver impact more effectively through hands-on strategy, operations, talent, and technology adoption support. More specifically, she works with them on strategic planning, earned revenue strategies, action planning, organizational design, effective collaboration, talent development, and technology adoption. This builds on 20+ years of experience as a social entrepreneur working at NGOs and startups, and building one of MIT’s continuing education programs, focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and emerging technology for individuals and companies.
As a Lecturer, Coach, and Director of MIT Bootcamps, Vimala designed and delivered hands-on, practical, and outcomes-focused innovation and leadership trainings for Fortune 10 companies, foundations, multilaterals, and other academic institutions on five continents and virtually. She has also been hired directly to design and deliver training on digital innovation and transformation to Fortune 500 companies and academic institutions. While at MIT Bootcamps, Vimala built the coaching practice, an Innovating for Impact curriculum, and co-wrote a book on coaches as a new type of educator. She also won the Infinite Mile Award, an MIT-wide award recognizing her contributions to the Institute by rapidly scaling MIT Bootcamps through a collaboration and financial model she developed.
Before this, Vimala founded and led Demeter, a network to support entrepreneurs in emerging markets, established the monitoring and evaluation practice at Trickle Up, a leader in sustainable livelihoods for the ultra-poor, and was an American Indian Foundation fellow in Madurai, India, working with women’s self-help groups. Vimala has an MBA from MIT Sloan, an MPH from Emory University, a BS from the University of Georgia, and an AA from Simon’s Rock College of Bard.
Partner, Head of Technology — Blue Dome Capital
Vassilis is a technology entrepreneur and investor with a solid engineering and business background. He is the partner responsible for technology at Blue Dome Capital, an investment manager seeking to capture emerging investment opportunities in technology transfer and innovation-driven ventures in Central and South-Eastern Europe. He led investments in various startups and already achieved two multi-X exits.
He co-founded COGNITOR AI, a technology startup developing a passive authentication platform using machine learning and behavioral biometrics. He is the managing partner of P Square Ventures, a boutique technology consulting firm focusing on the digital transformation of businesses, primarily through the use of advanced AI systems. He sits on the Boards of Directors of various deep technology companies.
He co-founded the StartSmart South-Eastern Europe (formerly MIT Enterprise Forum Greece) and the Boston-based Hellenic Innovation Network.
He is a research affiliate at MIT, teaches entrepreneurship at the National Technical University of Athens, and serves as an Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) at NCSR Demokritos. He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and Ocean Systems Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He lives in Greece with his family and enjoys running and windsurfing.
Founding Partner, Flowcraft Ventures
Vlad Bodi has 15+ years of experience in product development and growth. He is Founding Partner at Flowcraft Ventures, where he helps SME leadership teams implement AI tools and build operational capabilities. He has co-founded multiple technology companies and reduced development cycles by 60% using no-code/low-code approaches and rapid prototyping.
As an Entrepreneur in Residence at Universidad de Chile, Vlad mentors teams on transforming ideas into working products. He cuts validation time from months to weeks and focuses on practical implementation over theory. His background includes building portfolio management software for startup accelerators, scaling marketing operations with data-driven strategies, and creating development processes that deliver measurable results
COO, Safepay
Iman Urooj is the Chief Operating Officer at Safepay, a Pakistani startup part of YCombinator 2020. She is Pakistani Venezuelan and has previously directed sales and strategy initiatives, acting as a bridge between Latin American and Middle Eastern markets.
She studied History and Economics at New York University and has coached learners from around the world for MIT Bootcamps on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Iman is passionate about entrepreneurship, particularly how access to digital payments accelerates economic opportunities in Pakistan. When she is not on the phone talking to customers and learning from their stories, you can find her with Misty, her faithful German shepherd.
Serial Entrepreneur, Teaching Fellow & Coach, MIT Bootcamps
Marius is a serial entrepreneur, designer, educator, music producer, former doctor, and many other totally unrelated things.
For the past twenty years, Marius has worked in healthcare, design, marketing, fintech, AI, events management, and innovation consulting. He founded four companies, an NGO, and a music festival, pursuing these interests. He is a teaching fellow and coach at MIT, an Entrepreneur in Residence for Techstars and Singularity University, and has been involved in the development and teaching of MIT’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship methodology. He has worked with the Colombian, Serbian, and, most recently, the Estonian government on innovation ecosystem development.
Marius was born and raised in Romania, but he has traveled and lived around the globe. He cooked for fishermen in Morocco. Survived frog poison with the Matses tribe in the Amazon and drinking fresh blood with the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. He learned to speak Spanish using Tinder in Chile. He ran a full marathon in North Korea. And did a lot more awkward and stupid things trying to discover and understand the most fascinating humans around us.
Trainers & Mentors
Founder & CEO —ClassHour
Founder & Former Director of MIT Bootcamps
Erdin Beshimov is an education entrepreneur. He is the Founder and CEO of ClassHour. He also teaches at MIT, where he founded MIT Bootcamps, an educational program that brings together entrepreneurs from around the world and coaches them in developing an innovative venture.
A graduate of MIT, Erdin produced MIT’s first massive open online courses on entrepreneurship, which have taught thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide that they too can be change-making entrepreneurs and have given them the tools to start on this journey.
Guided by the philosophy that MIT is not just a university but a global innovation community, Erdin is dedicated to building new pathways for students and professionals worldwide to study and practice innovation and entrepreneurship.
Former Director, Lecturer, and Coach — MIT Bootcamps
Vimala Palaniswamy works with social impact organizations to help them deliver impact more effectively through hands-on strategy, operations, talent, and technology adoption support. More specifically, she works with them on strategic planning, earned revenue strategies, action planning, organizational design, effective collaboration, talent development, and technology adoption. This builds on 20+ years of experience as a social entrepreneur working at NGOs and startups, and building one of MIT’s continuing education programs, focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and emerging technology for individuals and companies.
As a Lecturer, Coach, and Director of MIT Bootcamps, Vimala designed and delivered hands-on, practical, and outcomes-focused innovation and leadership trainings for Fortune 10 companies, foundations, multilaterals, and other academic institutions on five continents and virtually. She has also been hired directly to design and deliver training on digital innovation and transformation to Fortune 500 companies and academic institutions. While at MIT Bootcamps, Vimala built the coaching practice, an Innovating for Impact curriculum, and co-wrote a book on coaches as a new type of educator. She also won the Infinite Mile Award, an MIT-wide award recognizing her contributions to the Institute by rapidly scaling MIT Bootcamps through a collaboration and financial model she developed.
Before this, Vimala founded and led Demeter, a network to support entrepreneurs in emerging markets, established the monitoring and evaluation practice at Trickle Up, a leader in sustainable livelihoods for the ultra-poor, and was an American Indian Foundation fellow in Madurai, India, working with women’s self-help groups. Vimala has an MBA from MIT Sloan, an MPH from Emory University, a BS from the University of Georgia, and an AA from Simon’s Rock College of Bard.
Partner, Head of Technology — Blue Dome Capital
Vassilis is a technology entrepreneur and investor with a solid engineering and business background. He is the partner responsible for technology at Blue Dome Capital, an investment manager seeking to capture emerging investment opportunities in technology transfer and innovation-driven ventures in Central and South-Eastern Europe. He led investments in various startups and already achieved two multi-X exits.
He co-founded COGNITOR AI, a technology startup developing a passive authentication platform using machine learning and behavioral biometrics. He is the managing partner of P Square Ventures, a boutique technology consulting firm focusing on the digital transformation of businesses, primarily through the use of advanced AI systems. He sits on the Boards of Directors of various deep technology companies.
He co-founded the StartSmart South-Eastern Europe (formerly MIT Enterprise Forum Greece) and the Boston-based Hellenic Innovation Network.
He is a research affiliate at MIT, teaches entrepreneurship at the National Technical University of Athens, and serves as an Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) at NCSR Demokritos. He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and Ocean Systems Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He lives in Greece with his family and enjoys running and windsurfing.
Founding Partner, Flowcraft Ventures
Vlad Bodi has 15+ years of experience in product development and growth. He is Founding Partner at Flowcraft Ventures, where he helps SME leadership teams implement AI tools and build operational capabilities. He has co-founded multiple technology companies and reduced development cycles by 60% using no-code/low-code approaches and rapid prototyping.
As an Entrepreneur in Residence at Universidad de Chile, Vlad mentors teams on transforming ideas into working products. He cuts validation time from months to weeks and focuses on practical implementation over theory. His background includes building portfolio management software for startup accelerators, scaling marketing operations with data-driven strategies, and creating development processes that deliver measurable results
COO, Safepay
Iman Urooj is the Chief Operating Officer at Safepay, a Pakistani startup part of YCombinator 2020. She is Pakistani Venezuelan and has previously directed sales and strategy initiatives, acting as a bridge between Latin American and Middle Eastern markets.
She studied History and Economics at New York University and has coached learners from around the world for MIT Bootcamps on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Iman is passionate about entrepreneurship, particularly how access to digital payments accelerates economic opportunities in Pakistan. When she is not on the phone talking to customers and learning from their stories, you can find her with Misty, her faithful German shepherd.
Serial Entrepreneur, Teaching Fellow & Coach, MIT Bootcamps
Marius is a serial entrepreneur, designer, educator, music producer, former doctor, and many other totally unrelated things.
For the past twenty years, Marius has worked in healthcare, design, marketing, fintech, AI, events management, and innovation consulting. He founded four companies, an NGO, and a music festival, pursuing these interests. He is a teaching fellow and coach at MIT, an Entrepreneur in Residence for Techstars and Singularity University, and has been involved in the development and teaching of MIT’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship methodology. He has worked with the Colombian, Serbian, and, most recently, the Estonian government on innovation ecosystem development.
Marius was born and raised in Romania, but he has traveled and lived around the globe. He cooked for fishermen in Morocco. Survived frog poison with the Matses tribe in the Amazon and drinking fresh blood with the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. He learned to speak Spanish using Tinder in Chile. He ran a full marathon in North Korea. And did a lot more awkward and stupid things trying to discover and understand the most fascinating humans around us.