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This article was updated in April 2025 to include new information about the Startup Tactics AI JetPack and specific uses by student entrepreneurs.
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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs described the computer as a bicycle for the mind. What the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship is working with has a bit more horsepower.
The vehicle: the MIT Entrepreneurship JetPack, a generative artificial intelligence tool trained on Trust Center managing director 24-step Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework.
Introduce a startup idea to the JetPack, “and it’s like having five or 10 or 12 MIT undergraduates who instantaneously run out and do all the research you want based on the question you asked, and then they bring back the answer,” Aulet said.
A second JetPack has been trained on Trust Center Managing Director 15 startup tactics. Both are part of MIT’s Orbit website for entrepreneurs and use an LLM from OpenAI. The name was inspired by the acceleration a jet pack provides and the need for a human to take advantage of the boost and guide its direction.
The tools are currently being used by entrepreneurship students and piloted outside MIT; there is a waitlist that prospective users can join. Both JetPacks are also available to participants in either of two MIT Sloan Executive Education courses: the Entrepreneurship Development Program and the new Entrepreneurship Development Accelerator.
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Powering startup development
Entrepreneurs are already using the JetPacks to build real businesses. After serial entrepreneur Remington Hotchkis sold his latest venture — a subscription coffee business — he signed up for the five-day Entrepreneurship Development Program and started using the tools to test ideas and work through the Disciplined Entrepreneurship steps. An Angeleno, he arrived on campus in January while fires raged back home in Los Angeles.
As part of the program, Hotchkis pitched a rudimentary business idea to his classmates that was aimed at defending California from future fires. “By the end of the week, they had a real business with customer letters of intent, investors willing to invest, and a highly motivated team,” Aulet wrote in a blog post.
Today Hotchkis is building the startup EmberShield Technologies “full time, with a gusto, commitment, and fulfillment he had never had before,” Aulet wrote. “And he continues to use the JetPack tool every day to make course corrections.”
MIT Sloan MBA student Jarrett Heflin used the Disciplined Entrepreneurship AI JetPack to build Spondi, which helps people with severe autoimmune conditions “connect the dots between their symptoms and lifestyle factors” such as diet, sleep, and activity. The JetPack functions like “a research engine built for MIT’s startup method. It operates like a classmate, not a generic chatbot. JetPack works backward from the customer, giving me actionable insights I can validate immediately,” Heflin said.
There is “no fluff — just traction-ready intel,” Heflin said. “I use it to pressure-test go-to-market angles, customer problems, and product strategies — fast. It gives me a three-month head start on every venture.”
Testing the JetPacks
One of the earliest beta users, Shari Van Cleave, MBA ’15, demonstrated how to use the Disciplined Entrepreneurship AI JetPack in a YouTube video.
She submitted an experimental idea for mobile electric vehicle charging, and within seconds the AI tool suggested market segments, beachhead markets, a business model, pricing, assumptions, testing, and a product plan — and that’s only seven of the 24 steps of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework that she explored.
“I was impressed by how quickly the AI, with just a few details, generated recommendations for everything from market-sizing (TAM) to lifetime customer value models,” Van Cleave said in an email. “Having a high-quality rough draft means founders, whether new or experienced, can execute and fundraise faster.”
The JetPacks can also help entrepreneurs who might already have an idea and be well on their way through the 24-step process. For example, they might want insights and quotes about how their company can improve its performance or determine whether there’s a better market to be targeting.
“Our goal is to lift the field of entrepreneurship, and a tool like this would allow more people to be entrepreneurs, and be better entrepreneurs,” Aulet said.
