# MIT launches Founder's Journey course to teach hardware startup scaling

_Friday, July 10, 2026 at 12:07 AM EDT · Products, Capital · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![MIT launches Founder's Journey course to teach hardware startup scaling — Primary](https://news.mit.edu/sites/default/files/images/202607/founders-journey-mit-00.JPG)

MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering launched a new course, Founder's Journey: Launching and Scaling Hardware Startups, to give students direct exposure to alumni founders who have built companies in robotics, energy, 3D printing, and consumer products. The inaugural class ran in spring 2025.

"There are so many amazing entrepreneurial stories among our alumni. We want to bring those stories to our students and our community and build networks with our incredible alumni founders," said John Hart, head of Mechanical Engineering and co-founder of VulcanForms.

A 2015 report on MIT's entrepreneurial impact found more than 30,000 active companies founded by MIT alumni worldwide, employing 4.6 million people. The course is co-led by senior lecturer Ken Zolot and Z Corp. founding CEO Marina Hatsopoulos, with Hart as a guest speaker.

Each week focuses on a key challenge in hardware startup development, fundraising, supply chain, manufacturing, team building, presented by founders including Colin Angle (iRobot), Max Lobovsky (Formlabs), Jon Hirschtick (SolidWorks/Onshape), and Elise Strobach (AeroShield). The course aims to show students that hardware entrepreneurship is a well-trodden path they can learn from rather than reinvent.

## Sources

- [MIT News](https://news.mit.edu/2026/beyond-pitch-founders-journey-0709)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/A9KxU337ELsycETkokxfFd
Retrieved: 2026-07-10T06:41:52.226Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)