About the Program
The Viterbi Startup Garage (VSG) Summer Smasher program is designed to give current USC students a crash course in entrepreneurship! It offers a strong experiential component where you join our community of fully operational tech startup companies as an Entrepreneur-in-Training. Summer Smasher is designed to teach you to:
- Think like an entrepreneur
- Build your project portfolio
- Introduce you to the evolving and rapidly-growing start-up culture
Benefits of Becoming a Summer Smasher Participant
Ground floor immersive experience through hands-on projects
Experience in the fast-paced world of tech startups in Silicon Beach
Access to leading minds in a weekly speaker series
Summer Smasher Lab Meetings to mimic our team's Founders' Circle
Apply For 2023 Summer Smasher Here
Watch our 2023 Info Session here!
New Year, Same Program!
Application Process
Each year our student applicants first submit a first round application here .
First round applications are due April 9, 2023
After the first round application approval, you will then enter the second round of the application process. Students will submit a video to our VSG teams telling us about themselves and sharing their interests with us.
Take a look at the 2020 video prompt from our VSG startup teams.
If you want to see more of our past VSG teams, take a look at the 2019 video prompt.
Student and Team Testimonials
Published on July 1st, 2021
Last updated on February 10th, 2023