Build something real. Not a résumé line.
STARC is a small nonprofit that helps students ship real products and do real research — not to buy a résumé line. Live products, real users, honest build logs.
Other programs sell the look of experience. STARC doesn't.
Elsewhere, students are sold pay-to-play research programs, consultant-built “passion projects” and spots in pay-to-publish journals. Too often what they get back is a certificate, a name on a paper nobody reads, or a project someone else did.
Admissions readers and recruiters have learned to discount those lines. STARC works the other way: you build a thing that works and that real people use, and keep an honest record of how you built it.
Two tracks, one rule: real output.
One-Person Company (OPC) cohort
12 students, 8 weeks. Use AI to build a small real product, launch it, find real users and keep a weekly build log. Graduation is judged by evidence, not a certificate.
The full program →Research track
Rare openings to work on a real project with an active researcher. It opens only when a mentor genuinely has room. Publication is never promised.
How it works →From application to Demo Day
Apply with something you made
Plus a 48-hour task: build and publish a one-page tool with any AI tool. We review applications with school names removed.
Get reviewed on what you made
Every application is read by a person. Everyone hears back either way.
Build for 8 weeks
Ship, find users, write one build log a week. One hour of group review each week.
Demo Day
Show the live product, the real numbers and the full log, including what didn't work.
The list commercial programs won't publish
- No ghost-building or ghost-writing. You do the work. We review it.
- No guaranteed outcomes. Not funding, not revenue, not admissions, not publications.
- No recommendation letters or authorship for sale.
- No made-up results. We won't claim mentors, partners or outcomes we don't have.
Now live
- ★ Featured startup
TopCited AI
AI search visibilityHelps brands rank #1 when customers ask ChatGPT and Gemini what to buy. A live, research-backed product that simulates the AI's ranking before you publish.
Visit → - ★ Featured startup
heelo
Infrastructure for AI agentsThe execution layer for AI agents: ordering, booking, outreach and posting as a single call, instead of a 40-step browser loop.
Visit → 
Shengdai Story
Browser game · OPC demoA slice-of-life romance game starring Sun Wukong and Lin Daiyu, two classic literary characters. Synced to the real calendar, built as a STARC one-person-company demo.
Visit →
Recommendation–Reality Gap
Open research ledgerAn open ledger of what happens when people actually follow AI recommendations for restaurants, travel and products, with every report linked to its source.
Visit →
Influencer Distortion System
Media analysis · now part of TopCitedScans an influencer's posts for coordinated emotional manipulation: inflation, anxiety, novelty bias, loaded language and time pressure.
Visit →
Questions we answer
Monkey King and Lin Daiyu as a couple: what's the pairing, and is there a game?
Why fans paired the Monkey King with Lin Daiyu from Dream of the Red Chamber, and a free browser game where you plan the couple's days.
Can one person with no coding experience ship a web game with AI in a week?
What it took to build and launch a small web game with AI in five days: who did what, where image generation broke, and how to run with no server.
Do I need an LLC to sell an app I built as a student?
Do you need an LLC to charge for an app you built as a student? What the SBA, IRS and Stripe say, and when an LLC is worth it.
Can I use AI coding tools on my senior capstone project?
Whether you can use Copilot, Cursor or ChatGPT on a senior capstone, what US university policies actually require, and how to disclose AI help safely.