About

About Playground Lab

Playground Lab is a semester-long tech incubator where university students build one real venture in 16 weeks with industry mentors, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

01What Playground Lab is

One semester, one team, one real product

Each semester, a small cross-disciplinary team of students from several universities takes one business idea from conception to a launched product. The cycle repeats every semester with a new venture and a new cohort. Technical and business mentorship runs throughout, with legal and other specialists available as needed.

It is not a class, and it is not a shadowing internship. Students do real work for a real client from the first week, using industry-grade tools with paid licenses provided by Playground Lab. Cohort 01 kicked off on August 13, 2026 in West Palm Beach with students from several universities and is building Boujee Pet Care, a premium pet concierge app for gated communities. Cohort 02 kicks off in January 2027.

02How it works

Ideate, build, launch

Ideate

Students from universities across disciplines apply and are selected for a small team. At an in-person kickoff the venture is announced, scopes are set around each person's major and interests, and the team runs user research and scopes the MVP.

Build

The team builds in weekly shipping cycles with mentorship from industry leaders and technical experts: a short daily standup, a weekly team call, beta testing with real users, and continuous iteration on what they say.

Launch

Real products go live, websites and mobile applications, launched by the cohort that built them. The semester ends with Demo Day, where the team presents what it delivered in person.

03Who it is for

Students, universities, and sponsors

Students

Currently enrolled undergraduate, master's, and PhD students from any discipline who want to build something real alongside their coursework. You get mentors who see how you work for sixteen weeks, a delivered product for your portfolio, and academic credit that can be arranged through your university.

Apply for Cohort 02

Universities

Departments and programs that want to place their best students in a semester-long, fully mentored product team. Partner universities connect their programs to tech mentors, sponsors, and founders across South Florida.

Partner with us