The Capital Area Startup Studio supports founders in building tech-enabled businesses that grow our regional innovation ecosystem. The program includes both an incubator for a small group of founders with hands-on support and a series of public events on a variety of topics from low-code/no-code training and AI enablement to general business topics to help small businesses accel.
Free, Public Event to Help You Get From Idea to Reality and to Infuse Tech Into Your Business.
November 19, 2025
8:30-9:30 AM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Come join us at the Capital Area Startup Studio as we are joined by Gerald Westlund from Theory + Practice, a Lansing based branding agency.
Gerald Westlund from Theory + Practice (a local branding agency) will be walking through frameworks, questions, and resources that you can use on your own to build a brand you are proud of.
December 17, 2025
5:30-6:30 PM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Kick off the workshop series by learning how modern AI tools assist in building functional applications without complex coding. We’ll explore foundational programming language concepts, how to prompt AI to generate useful components, and where apps live once you publish them. The deep dive will walk participants through capturing and storing user input (like form fields) using an easy database setup in Bolt / Lovable. Ideal for first-time builders looking to create apps that retain information.
Legally Setting Your Business Up for Success
January 14, 2026
5:30-6:30 PM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Join us for this free event to better understand how to legally set up your early-stage business for success and do things the right way.
Making Your App Secure and Personalized
February 11, 2026
5:30-6:30 PM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Learn how apps authenticate users and how AI can scaffold secure login flows. After covering fundamentals like variables, logic, and deployment, we’ll dive into how to add a “Login with Google” button to your project. Attendees will create a simple app where users can sign in with Google, and we’ll demystify tokens, permissions, and privacy along the way. No developer background required.
Are You Ready to Raise Venture Capital?
March 11, 2026
5:30-6:30 PM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Are you a founder who is thinking about raising venture capital? Join this workshop to find out if your company is ready.
Featured expert: Bryce Kaiser
That’s it, I’ve Had Enough, I’m Starting My Own Company
April 6, 2026
12:00-1:00 PM
Part of 517 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week
Speaker Jeff McWherter
Bringing Your Online Business to Life
April 8, 2026
5:30-6:30 PM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Part of 517 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week
This session focuses on what makes modern digital businesses possible: accepting online payments. After the standard intro to AI development and hosting workflows, we’ll walk through using Stripe’s low-code tools to sell a product, subscription, or event registration. Participants will build a simple checkout flow, understand how payment security works, and leave with a template they can adapt to their own ideas.
Founders Day 🚀
June 17, 2026
4:00-6:00 PM | East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 300 Room
Come join the Capital Area Startup Studio team and work on your business, pick up a new AI tool or two, and learn from other founders.
The event will follow a lite agenda covering the topics listed below and will encourage collaboration among the crowd – we’d love for you to meet someone new and learn something that will help you grow your business!
Leave with one of your biggest business problems solved
Learn how to get your next customer with Claude and other AI-powered tools
Find out how to go from idea to product concept as fast as possible
Hear lessons from other founders; learn what has worked and not worked
Exclusive Cohort for Launching and Scaling with Technology
The Startup Studio helps participants in an exclusive cohort accelerate their path from idea to launch through cutting-edge tools, low-code/no-code training, and hands-on mentorship. Participants gain practical skills to design, prototype, and launch a minimum viable product (MVP) or to infuse their existing business with technology.
The current, year 2 cohort is:
- Memory Sketch
- Sound Birthing
- Lacor Consultants
- Jerome Kisting
- RegionPulse
- Troubleshot
- Blueprint of Beauty Boutique
- Campus Connect