What We Offer
As a non-profit student organization at MIT, MIT-CHIEF is the first student group dedicated to connecting entrepreneurial communities in the United States and China. Since its founding, MIT-CHIEF has hosted numerous events, including the China Trip and the Business Plan Contest and Annual Conference, to build entrepreneurial networks and connections between the US and China. This year, we will launch several new series of events including Co-Founder’s Journey, Tech-EXPO, and Community Services. We will connect you with new domestic and international resources to inspire your boundless innovation ideas.
China Trip
Since 2013, around 70 startups from North America have joined the annual China Trip, visiting cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Wuxi and Qingdao. They have received more than 100 million CNY investment to date. More than 10 teams managed to land in venture parks in China, 5 teams got million-level investment directly from the trip, and over 80% of the teams are still collaborating with the venture parks closely. In addition, 2 Y-combinator teams and 6 MassChallenge teams have joined previous China Trip program.
We are accepting applications from entrepreneurs who are interested in establishing and/or expanding their ventures in China.
Up to 15 startup teams will be admitted for each trip with one representative per team receiving an all travel-expenses paid trip (i.e. transportation, accommodation and meals). Spoken Chinese is not required but highly recommended.
Co-Founder’s Journey
Co-Founder’s Journey (CFJ) brings cutting-edge technology to innovative businesses by actively bridging MIT’s innovative resources to markets and capitals in United States and China. CFJ builds upon MIT’s motto, “mens et manus” (“mind and hand”) and aims at providing early-stage startups at MIT with unique opportunities to dive into the innovation ecosystems in Hong Kong and the neighboring Pearl River Delta, especially to access manufacturing resources.
The collaboration will take forms of international conferences, showcases, prototype-construction, onsite visit, workshops, and other interactive programs.
Long term, CFJ aims to catalyze entrepreneurial ecosphere in Pearl River Delta(PRD) area of China by facilitating conversations within high-growth technology-focused industries.
Annual Business Plan Contest
The MIT-CHIEF Business Plan Contest is an all-encompassing platform built to help early stage entrepreneurs develop, pitch, and launch their business ideas with guidance from top business leaders, investors, industry experts, and academic professionals through training and mentorship programs.
The top finalists will have the opportunity to share more than $50,000 of a cash reward and will be invited to join the MIT-CHIEF China Trip.
Tech-EXPO
The “Embrace and Experience” Tech-EXPO is a series of events that aim to enhance exposure of high technology. It consists of two major events – the Tech-Show and the High-Tech Experience Day. The Tech-Show is a science fair meant for demonstrating tech products, advanced theories, and scientific achievements with large commercial potential from various MIT labs. Also, technology applications from MIT can be accelerated by industry resources and market capital.The High-Tech Experience Day is a carnival for every technology lovers to experience a frontier of new technology products. The carnival brings companies with advanced technologies such as AR/VR and robotics, directly to the audiences.
Community Services
MIT-CHIEF is partnering with local companies and startup firms to bring cutting-edge technologies (such as robotics) from our startup community to a greater community of secondary school students through community services as part of MIT-CHIEF’s effort to contribute to the STEAM education in Boston. Startup teams also leverage these opportunities for branding.
Other MIT-CHIEF Community’s Activities
Community Meetup
“Connect and Collaborate”
Stay Connected, and Share
As an important building block of our entrepreneurial ecosystem, the community offline meetup is a small salon-like event that give members of community a chance to build deeper connection with one another. We hope to build a deeper bonding within MIT-CHIEF community and provide the platform for members to share experiences. Come, connect and share your stories!
Hight-Tech Innovation Seminars
“Beyond the Frontier”
Know the Frontier, Build the Vision
The High-Tech Innovation Seminars series is designed to lead in-depth discussions in emerging industries such as robotics, healthcare, biotechnology, etc. Previous guest speakers include Manolis Kellis (Professor of MIT Computer Science, CSAIL & Broad Institute), Nikhil Wagle (Physician, DFCI & Assistant Professor of Harvard Medical School), Deniz Kural (CEO of Seven Bridge Genomics), Sertac Karaman (Assistant professor at Aero & Astro of MIT), Dr. Alborz Geramifard (Research Scientist at Amazon), to name a few.
Entrepreneurial Training Workshops
“The Great Wall”
Learn Principled Way to Success
In collaboration with MIT Martin Trust Center, Sloan School of Management, MIT Enterprise Forum, and Harvard iLab, MIT-CHIEF offers a series of training workshops to help early-stage entrepreneurs develop fundamental skills of building an innovation-driven startup from scratch.
Mentorship Program
“Learn From the Best”
Get Spot-on Instructions From the Experienced
MIT-CHIEF’s ever-growing network of mentors comes from a variety of professional backgrounds. This tailored mentorship program offers budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to be paired with business executives and industry leaders based on their mentor expertise.