Coach EPFL founders through real de-risking
The Blue Team is the program's companion for a venture: coaches who walk a team through structured de-risking over a few months, using a shared readiness framework, so progress is real and visible.
Why we back founders
EPFL backs founders as a strategic investment, not charity and not a public service. Turning research and talent into companies is how value, capability and jobs stay in Switzerland. The support exists to de-risk a venture to the point where it can reach its next real milestone: the first investor conversation worth having, the first pilot customer, the first competitive grant from outside EPFL. It is a bridge to that point, not a destination. The aim is to make founders ready to no longer need it.
Your coaching is a multiplier on the founder's own de-risking work, not a substitute for it. A multiplier applied to zero returns zero, which is why the whole framework is built around what founders visibly do between sessions.
Fast Track is EPFL's route for fast-to-market ventures. It spans three programs: the Blaze Accelerator, the AI Track, and the Master Project in your Startup (PDM). The teams you'll coach are building for rapid market entry, not long research timelines.
We help founders increase validation so they reach a clearer, less-risky roadmap to scale, or kill the wrong project fast before more time is spent on it. Both are wins. The only failure is staying busy in the middle.
The coach role
You are the one person who follows a team across the whole arc: from initial profiling to closing session, holding the standard that real founders test their assumptions between sessions.
What we ask of you
- Keep the team actively de-risking their project, and strengthen their use of the readiness framework.
- Make sure they have the resources to do the work, and that they feel genuinely supported and motivated.
- Give the program visibility on progress against the team's defined objectives, or flag disengagement early.
What you don't do
- Do the founder's work for them. Building, testing and deciding stay on their side of the table.
- Decide alone on continuation. You observe and flag; the EPFL program team owns the step-back conversations and decisions. You are never on your own for the hard part.
If you'd rather challenge a venture once, hard, than companion it for months, look at the Red Team. All four contributor roles are compared on the ways to contribute page.
Format & commitment
The framework you'll apply
Coaching here is not improvised. Every coach works from the same map, the same cadence, and the same language, so support feels coherent across the whole team. Here is the shape of it; selected coaches receive the full coach handbook before their first team.
One shared map: six readiness dimensions
We use the KTH Innovation Readiness Level model for structure: it turns "reduce uncertainty" from a vague instruction into movement on named axes, each scored 1 to 9.
Customer
Is the need real, and will they adopt and pay?
Technology
Does the solution work, and is it fit for purpose?
Business model
Is there a viable, sustainable model around it?
IPR
Is the IP identified, owned, and protectable?
Team
Are the right people present, with capacity and alignment?
Funding
Is there enough runway to reach a viable model?
You target the lagging dimension, not the average, and you measure evidence at the current level, not speed of climbing. Moving down a level for the right reason is progress: the founder now knows something true they didn't know before.
One cadence: observable actions
Founders commit to a fixed rhythm of things they visibly do. It keeps sessions about decisions instead of status recaps, and it makes any later step-back a known rule taking effect rather than a coach's personal call.
Prep template
Five fields, due 24h before each session: assumption tested, what was done, what was learned, the decision, the ask.
Update
Progress against the team's own intake targets. Their own trajectory is the reference, never an external benchmark.
Review
A structured checkpoint where continued investment is explicitly reconfirmed or flagged.
The standard you hold
- Evidence, not activity. "I built the landing page" is activity. "Twelve of forty target users clicked through, none paid" is evidence. You keep returning to the difference.
- One dimension, one assumption per session. Name which readiness axis this week's work is de-risking; resist spreading the hour across all six.
- Close on the decision. Every session ends with what the founder now decides and what they will test next.
Compensation & recognition
2,400 CHF per team, a fixed-fee mandate independent of exact hours, not an employment contract: you are responsible for your own taxes and contributions. No extras.
Recognition
- After a short induction (your first 5 sessions) you can publicly mention the program and your role, with guidelines provided, and we endorse it.
- Active coaches are listed on the website and invited to all Launchpad events.
- Active-role mention pauses if you go more than 6 months without supporting a team.
The fee is a token of recognition rather than a market rate for your time. What the role really offers is early sight of EPFL's fast-to-market ventures, a seat inside the Launchpad community, and the craft of coaching applied with a real framework.
Who we're looking for
People who have built something real, have coached before, and can hold a standard without lecturing.
The bar · what we require
- Founder experience. You've founded or co-founded a venture yourself, whatever the outcome. The failures count as much as the wins.
- Senior operator experience. You've carried real scaling responsibility in a startup or scale-up: product, go-to-market, or operations.
- A coaching track record. You've already coached or mentored founders in a structured setting, not just given ad-hoc advice over coffee.
The temperament
- Comfortable with the de-risk-or-kill logic: helping a team stop a project fast counts as a win, not a failure.
- Equally able to challenge and to support. The cadence provides the pressure; you provide the judgement and the encouragement.
- Reliable on cadence. The framework only works if the coach is as consistent as what we ask of founders.
Selected coaches get the coach handbook, covering the readiness model in depth, session practice, and how the program handles disengagement, plus a 1h intro call before the first team.
Apply to coach
A short form, reviewed personally. We're evergreen: applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Considering a different role? See all the ways to contribute.
Prefer to just reach out? Marius Conti, Program Lead · marius.conti@epfl.ch.