A recent look into the 2024 delta v summer accelerator program at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship has provided insight into how artificial intelligence is altering the process of building a startup. The Trust Center, which focuses on teaching students the craft of entrepreneurship, has observed that no technology in recent years has influenced that craft more than AI. While some predict a complete transformation in how new companies are constructed, the leadership at the Trust Center holds a more detailed and nuanced perspective on the technology’s current and future role.
Macauley Kenney, an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Trust Center, explained that the core tenets of entrepreneurship have not been displaced by the rise of AI. “The fundamentals of entrepreneurship haven’t changed with AI,” Kenney stated. “There’s been a shift in how entrepreneurs accomplish tasks, and that trickles down into how you build a company, but we’re thinking of AI as another new tool in the toolkit. In some ways the world is moving a lot faster, but we also need to make sure the fundamental principles of entrepreneurship are well-understood.”
This approach was evident during the summer’s delta v startup accelerator, where many student teams frequently utilized AI tools for various tasks. However, they consistently returned to direct customer conversations as the ultimate basis for making critical business decisions. The 2024 cohort of students integrated AI to accelerate their coding processes, draft presentations, conduct research on new industries, and brainstorm new ideas. The Trust Center actively encourages this use of AI, advising students to apply the technology as they find appropriate while remaining aware of its inherent limitations.
The Trust Center has also integrated AI into its own educational framework, most significantly with the launch of Jetpack. Jetpack is a generative AI application designed to guide users through the 24 steps of disciplined entrepreneurship, a methodology detailed in the book of the same name by Managing Director Bill Aulet. When a student inputs a startup concept, the tool can generate suggestions for potential customer segments, identify early markets to target, and propose business models, pricing strategies, and initial product plans. The name “Jetpack” was chosen to reflect its intended purpose: to provide acceleration, while requiring the user to steer its direction and application.
Jetpack is integrated into Orbit, a mobile application developed to help students navigate the entrepreneurial ecosystem at MIT. The app serves as a central hub for finding resources, networking with peers, accessing mentorship, and discovering relevant events and job opportunities. Jetpack’s knowledge base is specifically trained on Aulet’s “Disciplined Entrepreneurship” and “Startup Tactics,” a book by former Trust Center Executive Director Paul Cheek. The Trust Center positions the outputs from Jetpack as “first drafts,” intended to serve as a catalyst for brainstorming and planning the next steps in a venture’s development.
Ben Soltoff, another Entrepreneur in Residence, acknowledged the significant impact of the technology. “It’s undeniable we’re in the midst of an AI revolution right now,” Soltoff said. “AI is reshaping a lot of things we do, and it’s also shaping how we do entrepreneurship and how students build companies. The Trust Center has recognized that for years, and we’ve welcomed AI into how we teach entrepreneurship at all levels, from the earliest stages of idea formation to exploring and testing those ideas and understanding how to commercialize and scale them.”
During strategic retreats over the past few years, AI has been a central topic of discussion for the delta v program’s staff. As they plan the summer-long curriculum each year, organizers consider how students can best leverage the technology. Even with these advancements, leaders stress the importance of understanding AI’s current strengths and weaknesses.
Kenney, who is also a lecturer at MIT Sloan and MIT D-Lab, cautioned that outputs from AI tools must be rigorously checked. “You need to verify everything when you are using AI to build a business,” she advised. “I have yet to meet anyone who will base their business on the output of something like ChatGPT without verifying everything first. Sometimes, the verification can take longer than if you had done the research yourself from the beginning.”
Kenney also pointed out a fundamental issue with how large language models are constructed, which can limit their utility for entrepreneurs targeting niche markets. “Some AI tools can increase your speed by doing things like automatically sorting your email or helping you vibe code apps, but many AI tools are built off averages, and those can be less effective when you’re trying to connect with a very specific demographic,” Kenney explained. “It’s not helpful to have AI tell you about an average person, you need to personally have strong validation that your specific customer exists. If you try to build a tool for an average person, you may build a tool for no one at all.”
This year’s delta v cohort included teams that are not only using AI as a tool but are also building solutions with AI at their core. One such company is Mendhai Health, which combines AI and telehealth to deliver personalized physical therapy for women experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction related to childbirth. Aanchal Arora, an MBA student and founder of the company, shared her experience. “AI has definitely made the entrepreneurial process more efficient and faster,” Arora commented. “Still, overreliance on AI, at least at this point, can hamper your understanding of customers. You need to be careful with every decision you make.”
Another venture, Cognify, is described by its founder as an “AI-native” business. Led by MIT Sloan MBA candidate Murtaza Jameel, Cognify uses AI to simulate user interactions with websites and applications, aiming to improve digital experiences before they are built. “We’re building a design intelligence tool that replaces product testing with instant, predictive simulations of user behavior,” Jameel explained. The company’s approach involves a deep integration of artificial intelligence across all of its operations. “We’re trying to integrate AI into all of our processes: ideation, go to market, programming. All of our building has been done with AI coding tools. I have a custom bot that I’ve fed tons of information about our company to, and it’s a thought partner I’m speaking to every single day.”
Despite the advanced applications of AI by student ventures, the Trust Center continues to stress that certain fundamental practices of entrepreneurship are not changing. A primary example is the necessity for founders to leave the lab or classroom and engage in direct conversations with their potential customers. “There are ways that AI can unlock new capabilities and make things move faster, but we haven’t turned our curriculum on its head because of AI,” Soltoff noted. “In delta v, we stress first and foremost: What are you building and who are you building it for? AI alone can’t tell you who your customer is, what they want, and how you can better serve their needs. You need to go out into the world to make that happen.”
This observation was reflected in the actual challenges encountered by the delta v teams this summer. Many of the most significant hurdles were the same ones that entrepreneurs have historically faced. “We were prepared at the Trust Center to see a big change and to adapt to that, but the companies are still building and encountering the same challenges of customer identification, beachhead market identification, team dynamics,” Kenney observed. “Those are still the big meaty challenges they’ve always been working on.”
Amid discussions about AI agents and the future of work, many founders in the 2024 cohort emphasized that the human component of the delta v program remains its most valuable and special attribute. Even with the proliferation of powerful digital tools, the direct support, mentorship, and community provided by the accelerator were cited as critical to their progress.
Jameel, the founder of Cognify, articulated why he chose MIT to launch his company, highlighting these human-centric elements. “I came to MIT with one goal: to start a technology company,” he said. “The delta v program was on my radar when I was applying to MIT. The program gives you incredible access to resources — networks, mentorship, advisors. Some of the top folks in our industry are advising us now on how to build our company. It’s really unique. These are folks who have done what you’re doing 10 or 20 years ago, all just rooting for you. That’s why I came to MIT.”
