According to EU-Startups, a new five-week hybrid bootcamp called LeapX has opened applications for its first cohort, aiming to turn early-stage founder ideas into investor-ready startups. The program is a joint venture by Estonia’s Leap2Peak and New York’s Entrepreneurs for Global Change and is limited to just 30 founders per session. It compresses a typical six-month process into four weeks online, followed by a final immersive week in Spain’s Canary Islands for the top 12 founders. The online phase costs €1,000, with the in-person week an additional €300, and features mentors from Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Morgan Stanley. The program concludes with founders expected to have a validated idea, a functional prototype, their first paying customer, and an investor pitch deck. An online info session is scheduled for January 14 at 4:30 PM CET for those interested.
The AI hustle culture accelerates
Here’s the thing: this program is a perfect symptom of our current moment. The entire pitch is that AI has collapsed the timeline for everything. You don’t need six months to validate an idea anymore; you can do it in a week with the right prompts and tools. That’s the promise, anyway. And look, there’s probably some truth to it. A solo founder with ChatGPT, some no-code platforms, and a bit of guidance can move faster than ever before. But compressing the emotional, strategic, and grind-heavy journey of starting a company into a five-week sprint? That’s a hell of a claim.
Bootcamp economics and the FOMO play
So let’s talk about the structure. €1,300 all-in for the full experience isn’t crazy expensive as far as accelerators go—some take equity instead. But it’s not nothing, especially for an idea-stage founder. The limited cohort size and the “selection” for the Canary Islands trip is a classic gamification tactic. It creates FOMO and a sense of elite status. Will the real value be in the curriculum or in that transatlantic network of mentors from big tech? Probably the latter. These programs often sell community and access, not just information.
Traction, not theory, and the hard reality
The stated goal is “traction, not theory,” which is the right mantra. Getting to a paying customer is the single best form of validation. But I have to ask: is five weeks enough to build something people will actually pay for, or just enough to build a convincing demo and a story for investors? There’s a big difference. The risk is that this ultra-compressed model optimizes for the performance of startup building—the pitch deck, the prototype—over the messy, iterative work of building a real, sustainable business. Then again, maybe that’s all you need for a pre-seed check these days.
The verdict: a sign of the times
Basically, LeapX is betting big that the future belongs to founders who can wield AI as a core operational tool from day one. It’s a fascinating experiment. If they can actually deliver cohorts of founders with real customers in five weeks, they’ll be swamped with applications. If it’s just another networking trip with a side of AI hype, it’ll fade. It reflects a broader trend where the tools for creation are democratizing, but the pressure to move at ludicrous speed is intensifying. For the right founder—highly technical, incredibly driven, with a clear problem in mind—it could be a rocket booster. For everyone else, it might just be a very expensive, very intense five weeks. The info session on January 14 will likely be packed. You can learn more about the organizers, Leap2Peak and Entrepreneurs for Global Change, or the program itself at LeapX.dev.
