Taught By

Keerti J.

Keerti is a UC Berkeley entrepreneur, founder, and youth education advocate who helps ambitious students build original projects that strengthen selective college admissions profiles. She founded Common Villager App Studios, growing digital products to 24,000+ users and online communities with 45 million+ social media views. She is also the youngest woman in history admitted to Berkeley SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's startup incubator (4.5% acceptance rate).

She previously founded Women of the Future, a nonprofit teaching financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and professional development to young women on high school and juvenile detention campuses. As a speaker for organizations including the Society of Women Engineers at Berkeley and Girls Into VC, Keerti mentors 7th-12th grade students in turning their interests into compelling entrepreneurship passion projects with clear admissions-ready impact.

Week by Week Curriculum

Week 1: Founder Identity & Admissions Positioning

Choose a business or impact idea aligned with the student's interests and strengths
Learn what makes entrepreneurship projects stand out in top college applications
Draft a problem statement, founder narrative, and project brief

Week 2: Market Research & Customer Discovery

Define the target audience and uncover real customer or community needs
Research competitors, alternatives, and market gaps
Use interviews or surveys to validate demand

Week 3: Business Model & MVP Planning

Explore business models for startups, social ventures, and creator-led projects
Define a realistic MVP, pilot, or launch experiment
Create a launch plan with clear success metrics

Week 4: Branding, Storytelling & Launch Assets

Develop the venture name, tagline, positioning, and founder story
Build a landing page, prototype, newsletter, or other public asset
Refine messaging around value, purpose, and admissions-ready impact

Week 5: Outreach, Traction & Impact

Practice outreach to potential users, partners, mentors, or community organizations
Test the idea through signups, feedback, interviews, pilots, or early users
Document traction and impact for the final project portfolio

Week 6: Pitch Deck & Final Showcase

Create a pitch deck covering the problem, solution, traction, and next steps
Complete a business proposal one-pager for the project portfolio
Present the final project and receive mentor and peer feedback

T20 Founder Lab: Build a Unique Business Passion Project

In Partnership With