Central Library · Founder
VentureLab IGNITE
Young founders learn, build, showcase and pitch — VentureLab’s day for the ones who are still in school.
- Date
- Thursday, October 1, 2026
- Time
- 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Location
- Central Library, Launch SA, 1st Floor
Founder circuit, sponsored by
The day
San Antonio’s next great founder may still be in school.
VentureLab gives the day to young people with ideas worth hearing. It is free and it is open to everyone from nine in the morning — you do not have to be an IGNITE finalist, a student, an educator or a mentor to walk in.
More than a pitch event, in their own framing: a chance to see the work behind the pitch — the research, the prototyping, the feedback taken, and the nerve it takes to stand up.
Free, and seated on VentureLab’s own Eventbrite rather than the week’s list — theirs is the page holding the count, and they ask you to register in advance because some rooms have one.
9 – 10 AM
Keynote and welcome speaker
The day opens by welcoming the IGNITE student founders and asking what becomes possible when young people are handed the tools, the relationships and the confidence to turn an idea into action.
10 – 11 AM
Mentor round table
Students sit with entrepreneurs, professionals and community leaders. The brief for the mentors is not to hand over answers: it is to question assumptions, press on how an idea is explained, offer another angle, and help each student name their next experiment.
11 AM – 12 PM
Entrepreneurship mini workshops
Short, practical sessions — customer discovery, creative problem-solving, value propositions, prototyping, storytelling and pitching — built so that what students hear in the room is something they can use in it.
1 – 2 PM
Student tabling and showcase
The young founders at their own tables with their concepts, prototypes and business ideas, taking questions. Come with real ones, and with feedback worth having. If you cannot give the day seven hours, this is where to arrive.
2 – 4 PM
IGNITE Final Pitch Event
The finalists take the stage in front of a live audience and a panel, competing for prizes: the problem they found, the solution they built, the feedback they took, and why it matters. The end of the day and the point of it.
Entrepreneur, educator, student, parent, mentor, investor or none of those — the invitation is the same, and so is the price. Come for one session or stay for all of it; the showcase at one o’clock and the final at two are the natural arrival points for anyone who cannot make the morning.