The Mayfield AI Garage is a launchpad for AI founders, meeting them where
they are in their journey and providing them with resources and mentorship to
take their ideas to the next level.
Access to Industry-Leading AI Resources and Partners
Receive a minimum of $50K in compute credits and other benefits to power your AI development.
Gain expert legal advice to help company formation, financing, and other early-stage legal work.
Stipend of $25k per founding team member (up to $50k) to fuel your AI startup.
Gain insights and guidance from Mayfield’s investors and access support in talent matching, product-market fit, and story-market fit to help scale your startup.
Get access to workshops, mentorship, and all the benefits of Skandalaris Center’s Accelerator program.
Current WashU undergraduate and graduate students
Ideating or working on an AI project
Mayfield AI Garage is a hands-on program designed to help students turn their AI ideas into companies by providing capital, mentorship, compute credits, and other benefits. Over 6 transformative months, students will establish a strong foundation for building their companies through support from Mayfield, NVIDIA, Microsoft for Startups, Orrick, and SkyDeck. We’re committed to helping passionate founders develop AI companies that can change the world.
We welcome all current WashU students to apply. Students may have an early-stage prototype or minimum viable product, or an AI project with initial customer interest. We will consider projects across all layers of the Mayfield CaaS stack.
The Mayfield AI Garage at WashU will run from May to November 2026.
Students who accept a spot are expected to work on their idea full time during the summer, and part-time in the fall (for those returning to school). Furthermore, students may not participate in any other paid or unpaid internship during the program. All members of each team are expected to contribute equally.
Stipend: $25K per team member, for a maximum of $50K.
Compute: $50K in compute credits per winning team (up to $350K) from Microsoft for Startups.
Legal: Preferred relationship terms with Orrick and up to $25K in legal credits.
Become part of NVIDIA’s Inception program for startups (includes all benefits of program); mentorship from NVIDIA leader.
Become part of SkyDeck’s Pad-13 incubator program for startups. Includes office space, workshops, mentorship, and all other benefits of the program.
All team members must be current WashU students (undergrad, graduate, postdocs). Alumni are not eligible to apply.
This role is structured as an independent contractor (1099) engagement.
There are no restrictions on team size; however, the stipend will be capped at $25K per person, for a maximum of $50K.
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