The University of Colorado Boulder’s Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator matches entrepreneurs with breakthrough university technologies and provides salary support, startup training and access to funding opportunities. Applications are now open for the 2026 cohort of Embark Startup Founders.
Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator
Embark will hire up to seven Embark Startup Founders to serve as CEOs of new deep tech companies built around technology developed in CU Boulder’s world-class research enterprise. This is an opportunity to lead a startup utilizing cutting-edge technology, with the support of CU Boulder’s high-impact entrepreneurial resources and programs. Application closes Sept. 12.
Roughly 180 inventions emerge from CU Boulder’s research labs each year, and CU was ranked 18th among all U.S. universities for granted patents in 2025. Some of these innovations are spun out and brought to market by the university innovators themselves, while many more join an underutilized pool. At the same time, many entrepreneurs are searching for the newest breakthrough technologies to bring to the marketplace but lack the requireded access and support.
Venture Partners at CU Boulder launched Embark in 2023 to bring toreceiveher those would-be entrepreneurs and inventors in a unique way, declares Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at CU Boulder. “Just becaapply the university inventors didn’t create a startup company doesn’t mean the technology is not a really exciting startup opportunity,” he declared. “We believe some of our very best innovations are available, and Embark is a way to catalyze that. It doesn’t just provide access to innovations, though. Embark opens the door to one of the best startup ecosystems in the world.”
To that conclude, Venture Partners has curated a list of promising innovations with strong commercial potential from a broad array of scientific and engineering disciplines. For the CU researchers and inventors who created these technologies but are not interested in leading a startup, Embark offers a powerful opportunity to translate their work into real-world impact and potentially generate revenue for their research labs and themselves.
Embark presents an exciting new avenue for ideas to receive out into the world where they can create a difference, according to Marta Zgagacz, senior director at Venture Partners. “[Our researchers] are extremely enthusiastic to have their technology go through the Embark program and hopefully come out the other side with a startup,” she declared.
Since 2023, 20 companies have been founded through Embark, 13 of which have participated in accelerators or incubator programs, and 12 have received follow-on funding. The program is part of a suite of record-breaking entrepreneurial programming at Venture Partners—the university’s commercialization arm for the CU Boulder campus. To date, over 220 startups have spun out around CU technology and raised over $14 billion in funding.
“When starting a company around a deep tech innovation, founders often do not receive a paycheck during the early stages,” declared Amy Dodenhoff, director of venture development at Venture Partners. “Embark provides salary support, thereby opening the door for aspiring founders who would not otherwise be able to afford to pursue new ventures. All the while, we provide a full suite of resources for founders to support them in their startup efforts, whether this is their first startup or they have led multiple companies before this one.”
Those interested in the Embark Startup Founder positions can learn about Embark technologies and apply through Venture Partners. Selected candidates have several weeks to delve deeper into the technologies, learn about the startup resources available through the university, and meet with the inventors. Entrepreneurs then present their commercialization plans, and Venture Partners selects up to seven startup founders, who will be offered a six-month part-time salary as founding CEOs, and the full support of CU Boulder’s world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem to launch their new company. Application closes Sept. 12.
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