Dinner is included at every in-person session—not as a break from the program, but as one of the ways the cohort becomes useful to one another.
All Night
Diner
For the problems worth losing sleep over.
A three month program in New York City for curious, ambitious people who want to investigate consequential problems and find something worth building. Brought to you by the Alumni Club Collaborative.
Fall 2026 applications are open September 1–28 to degree alumni of Columbia, Cornell, M.I.T. and Brown.
✦
Program Highlights
Oct. 28–Jan. 28nine in-person sessions
Thursdays · 6–9 PMat Next Jump in Chelsea
Up to 20alumni participants
Nine sit-down dinnersconnection built into the program
Sept. 28applications close
01 / Why we begin earlier
Most startup programs begin with an idea.
We begin with a question.
All Night Diner starts upstream of the typical accelerator. Rather than asking participants to defend a startup idea, we ask them to choose a perplexing challenge in the world to research before committing to a solution.
Why have average housing prices skyrocketed over the last 20 years in the US? Why are wait times for doctor appointments getting longer? Why did essential services like childcare and higher ed get out of reach for many?
Across eight in-person sessions and an extended fieldwork interval, you’ll talk to the people closest to the problem, learn why it persists, identify the bottlenecks that keep it in place, and understand what is changing. From there, you’ll develop entrepreneurial opportunities grounded in what you have learned.
Anyone can build now. What’s much harder is knowing what’s worth building. All Night Diner is where you find out.
Sponsors & Members
02 / Who this is for
People who want a rigorous approach to dissecting problems and generating multiple solutions.
- Prospective founders and experienced operators considering what comes next and are curious about entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Corporate innovators who want to gain the skills to lead through uncertainty or have entrepreneurial roles inside established organizations.
- Domain experts or researchers interested in starting something new or joining a venture as a cofounder.
- Degree-bearing alumni of Columbia, Cornell, MIT, and Brown. A small number of places may be reserved for exceptional applicants from elsewhere.
Intellectual curiosityFocused ambitionProximity to the problemGenerosity at the table
03 / What you’ll get from All Night Diner
Engage in a rigorous process alongside peers to investigate challenges in the world and uncover opportunities.
A repeatable method for finding startup opportunities others miss.
A deeply researched understanding of an important problem.
Multiple venture directions—and one idea worth testing.
Lectures, talks, and 1:1 guidance with world-class professors, coaches, and other experts affiliated with our partner universities.
A transferable toolkit for entrepreneurial leadership in corporate environments where innovation, initiative, and comfort with uncertainty matter.
Built-in networking, peer support, and potential to team up (or work alone!) with fellow alumni from partner universities.
Special dinners, classes, and social activities on select days courtesy of our generous hosts and partners, Next Jump and wiggin(x).
The Midnight Thesis. Your final deliverable is an evolving answer to a major bottleneck in the world, why it persists, what is changing, and where the entrepreneurial opportunities lay.
A certificate of completion recognizing your work across the full All Night Diner program.
Most accelerators help you improve an idea you already have. All Night Diner is designed to help you arrive with a better one.
04 / Thursday nights at Next Jump
The work starts
at the table.
Our sessions are hosted by Next Jump in Chelsea—a company that treats meals, movement, leadership development, and informal interaction as part of building a stronger community—not as amenities around the edges.
6 PMDinner & conversation
A full meal with the cohort at Next Jump.
7–9 PMClass & working session
Two focused hours of instruction, discussion, critique, and applied work.
AfterwardThe room keeps working
Relationships and ideas have time to develop beyond the formal session.
The cohort will gather for an opening dinner, courtesy of our friends at wiggin(x).
Selected leadership conversations, classes, and social activities—including Pilates and dance—reflect Next Jump’s philosophy that human growth and community make the work better.
Next Jump was one of three organizations profiled by Harvard researchers in An Everyone Culture as a Deliberately Developmental Organization.
05 / Curriculum & dates
Nine nights.
One long investigation.
The program begins with a kickoff dinner on October 28, followed the next evening by the first of eight working sessions. The first four sessions introduce the method and sharpen the problems participants bring. After an extended fieldwork interval, supported by two Zoom check-ins, the final four sessions turn those insights into entrepreneurial possibilities, one venture concept, and a plan for its first tests.
Module ILearn & investigate
Choose the question
Bring several problem spaces or puzzles. Learn the All Night Diner method, separate questions from solutions, and choose what is most worth investigating.
Map what is already known
Use secondary research to understand the landscape: who is affected, how the system works, what has been tried, and where explanations conflict.
Find the bottleneck
Trace incentives, constraints, and root causes. Reframe the visible problem around what is scarce, and develop competing explanations for why.
Design the fieldwork
Narrow the inquiry, identify the people closest to the problem, and build a practical plan for interviews, observation, and other primary research.
Module IIIShape & test
Make sense of the evidence
Synthesize patterns and surprises from the field, challenge the original framing, and decide what the evidence changes.
Open the opportunity space
Ask what has recently changed and which constraints may no longer need to remain fixed. Generate multiple entrepreneurial responses.
Shape the venture
Compare concepts, identify the customer and wedge, and pressure-test how each could create and capture value. Select one direction.
Define the first test
Turn the chosen direction into a venture concept, surface its critical assumptions, and plan the first experiments, customer conversations, or prototypes.
06 / Mentors & guest experts
Active engagement
with the experts.
All Night Diner draws on professors, founders, investors, operators, and coaches affiliated with our partner universities and the wider New York startup ecosystem.
Mentors and guest experts participate in different ways depending on the session and the questions being explored.
Carly Chase. Business builder and startup advisor; Executive in Residence at the NYU School of Professional Studies, Adjunct Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, and former Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Jeremy Kagan. Early-stage investor at Textbook VC and strategy consultant; adjunct professor at Cornell, NYU, and Columbia; author of Digital Marketing: Strategy & Tactics and Designing the Successful Corporate Accelerator; Columbia Business School alumnus.
Peter Dolch. Investor, advisor, and serial founder; two-time CEO of an Inc. 500 fastest-growing company; founder of the MIT Women’s Venture Challenge and Chairman of the MIT Sloan Club of New York; M.I.T. alumnus.
Ari Paparo. Serial entrepreneur and founder of Marketecture Media; veteran product manager; author of Yield: How Google Bought, Built, and Bullied Its Way to Advertising Dominance; Columbia Business School alumnus.
Ross Goldenberg. Founder and CEO of Kernel; serial entrepreneur; adjunct professor of product marketing and entrepreneurship, focused on product strategy and innovation, scaling, and building high-performance teams; Columbia Business School alumnus.
Brendan Burns. CEO and founder of See.me; Adjunct Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and co-Director of the Enterprise Studio at Sotheby’s Institute; experienced startup and growth executive; Columbia Business School alumnus.
Rose Pember. Head of Operations at Buildstock and founder and CEO of Hodge, Inc.; Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design; Workshops Lead and Facilitator for Entrepreneurship at Cornell; Cornell University alumna.
Steve Winshel. CEO and founder of Paraxis; serial entrepreneur; Adjunct Professor of Business at Cornell Tech and Columbia Business School; business coach and startup advisor; PhD from Princeton University.
Bruce Hack. Board director, advisor, and angel investor; former Director and Chairman of Technicolor Inc., Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard, CEO of Vivendi Games, and Vice Chairman of Universal Music Group; Cornell University alumnus.
Owen Davis. Partner at Contour Ventures and Managing Director at NYC Seed; former CEO of Petal Computing, Sonata, and Thinking Media; Adjunct Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering; Columbia Business School alumnus.
Dmytro Pokhylko. Senior Director at Columbia Engineering Industry Innovations; former Director of the Lab-to-Market Accelerator Network at Columbia Technology Ventures; Adjunct Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
Geraldine Wu. Adjunct Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and Assistant Professor of Management at NYU Stern School of Business; PhD from Columbia Business School.
Tyler Rhorick. Director of Entrepreneurship Programming (Studio) at Cornell Tech, empowering founders, resolving team conflicts, and driving inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship; Cornell University alumnus.
Shashi Srikantan. Managing Director and Head of Level Up Ventures at Hearst; founder of the Project 2.8 accelerator and PLVSH; member of Global Women in VC; Columbia Business School alumna.
Haroon Chohan. Early-stage investor; Managing Partner and co-founder of ARC Capital Management; multiple-time founder; advisor to the Praxis Center for Venture Development and Ignite Startup Projects at Cornell; Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management alumnus.
Kate Nadolny. Retail executive and startup advisor in artificial intelligence, facial analysis, e-commerce, and consumer products; co-founder of Design Duality; Chief Strategy Officer at AMG Companies; Cornell University alumna.
07 / Apply
Dig deep into a problem
you will obsess over fixing.
Fall 2026 applications are open September 1–28 to alumni of Columbia, Cornell, MIT and Brown. Applications close September 28, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET.
- Schedule
- Eight Thursdays · 6–9 PM
Oct. 29, 2026–Jan. 28, 2027 - Cohort
- Up to 20 participants
- Tuition
$2,500Inaugural cohort tuition · $1,799What’s included?
After you apply
Decisions are sent by October 7. Accepted applicants secure their place by October 10 with either a $300 deposit or full adjusted tuition; remaining balances are due October 15.
Start your application
Two details to begin.
Enter your name and email, then continue to the full application.
08 / FAQ
Have questions?
Do I need to have a startup idea already?
No. All Night Diner is designed primarily for people who have not yet committed to one. Come with a problem, question, or part of the world you feel compelled to understand.
What if I already have an idea?
That can be fine, provided you are genuinely willing to question it and investigate the problem without treating your existing solution as a foregone conclusion.
If you are already building a startup, this is probably not the right program.
Will I leave with a startup idea?
That is the goal. You will generate multiple possibilities and finish with a concept you believe deserves further testing, along with its critical assumptions and a plan for what to test next.
Why not just do this research myself?
All Night Diner provides a structured method, deadlines, expert challenge, peer critique, access, and a forcing function for turning research into an entrepreneurial thesis and ultimately a venture concept.
Who can apply?
Degree-bearing alumni of Columbia, Cornell, MIT and Brown. A small number of places may be reserved for exceptional applicants from elsewhere.
What is the time commitment?
The eight in-person sessions meet at Next Jump in Chelsea on Thursdays from 6–9 PM. Dinner and informal conversation begin at 6; class runs from 7–9.
Between sessions, expect roughly two to three hours per week for reading, research, interviews, and following questions that emerge from the room. The holiday interval includes at least a half day of dedicated fieldwork and two shorter Zoom check-ins.
Do I need to attend every in-person session?
You should plan to attend all eight. The work builds from one session to the next, and each participant’s presence matters to the cohort. We understand that an unavoidable conflict may occasionally mean missing one evening; if you already expect to miss more than one, we recommend waiting for a future cohort.
Can I seek employer reimbursement?
Possibly. The program develops transferable professional skills in problem framing, stakeholder research, opportunity discovery, and entrepreneurial leadership. If your employer offers professional-development reimbursement, consider asking whether the tuition qualifies under its policy. Payment receipts are provided.
How much does it cost—and what is included?
Inaugural cohort tuition is $1,799, including all eight sessions, dinner each week, a special private cohort dinner with Chef Dani Chavez-Bello, and selected parts of the Next Jump experience. Accepted applicants may pay a $300 non-refundable deposit or their complete adjusted tuition by October 10; remaining balances are due October 15.
What happens after I apply?
We review applications for fit with the cohort, including intellectual curiosity, proximity to the problem, and what each applicant will bring to the room. Accepted applicants receive enrollment and payment details directly; no payment is collected with the application.
Still have questions? Contact us
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