NYC AI Nexus Build Day
One day. Your expertise, a team you choose, and a funded path to a C10 Labs studio company.
Build Day is a one-day venture-creation sprint in healthcare and biotech. 40–50 researchers, clinicians, engineers and operators in one room, working on real problems submitted by people who live with them.
You don't need an idea. You don't need a co-founder. You don't need a startup.
HOW THE DAY WORKS
The morning opens with idea pitches — problems submitted by researchers, clinicians and operators who know them from the inside. Then teams form around the ideas people want to work on. Nobody is assigned. You pick.
The rest of the day is spent turning that idea into something a company could be built on: who pays for it, why it hasn't been solved, and whether the technical path is real. C10 partners and mentors work table to table. SSI Technologies runs architecture and stack office hours. NYCEDC's life sciences team gives a read on market fit.
At 5pm every team pitches a panel of C10 partners, advisory board members and outside investors. That evening, two or three concepts are invited into a funded validation track with C10 Labs, ending in a formal decision about whether we build the company.
WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Researchers and postdocs — computational biology, bioinformatics, ML, imaging, genomics, clinical research Engineers — ML and AI, software, data, people who have shipped things Clinicians and health-system people — who know how the system actually works Lab and translational scientists Commercial talent — product, go-to-market, operators, people who have sold into hospitals or pharma Founders — first-time and repeat
We're selecting for a balanced room, not ranking CVs. Depth in something specific beats breadth in everything.
WHAT IT COSTS
Nothing. Meals, compute credits and workspace are covered. Selective travel support available — tell us if you need it.
WHAT YOU GET
A day of real work with people you would not otherwise meet. Direct access to C10 partners, mentors and investors who are in the room working, not observing. Technical and commercial feedback that isn't polite. And a credible path to founding something — C10 recruits founding leadership, including CEOs, from the people in the room.
THE COMMITMENT
One full day in New York, 9am to 7pm on Sunday 27 September, plus about an hour of pre-reading the submitted ideas. That's it, unless your team is shortlisted.
APPLYING
Registration is by approval. Applications close Friday 18 September and everyone hears by Monday 21 September either way. If you're approved we'll send the venue address, the submitted ideas as a pre-read, and the participation terms in writing.
HAVE AN IDEA OF YOUR OWN?
There's a separate form for that at c10labs.com/build-a-thon. Submit the idea there — and register here as well, so we can count you.
GROUND RULES
Teams keep what they create on the day, and idea originators keep their ideas. C10 makes no claim on either. Studio equity and founder terms apply only on entry into the studio track, and are sent in writing before anyone confirms.
Nothing is promised on the day. Selection for the validation track is not a funding commitment.
This is not a pitch event. Anyone whose only goal is fundraising for an existing company is an automatic pass.
Hosted by C10 Labs as part of the NYC AI Nexus, delivered with NYCEDC, at the NYU Global AI Frontier Lab, with SSI Technologies and Nucleate.