After Catapult v1 proved that Purdue students wanted to build, Catapult v2 was about building the infrastructure to match that energy. The first version was scrappy and raw by design. But as momentum grew, so did the expectations. More students wanted in. Sponsors came knocking. And it became clear that this wasn’t just a weekend experiment anymore — it was becoming the centerpiece of Purdue’s founder culture.

So I overhauled everything.

I redesigned the brand from the ground up to feel bold, clean, and unmistakably student-driven. This wasn’t a hackathon. It wasn’t a business pitch competition. Catapult was its own thing — a 36-hour startup sprint where students went from idea to launch, publicly. We positioned it as a builder-first experience, open to designers, coders, writers, marketers, musicians — anyone with an idea and the drive to ship.

The numbers speak for themselves. Catapult v2 drew over 300 students from more than 25 disciplines. We raised over $50,000 in sponsorships. The event sold out. Classrooms filled with teams building everything from physical prototypes to generative AI tools. We ditched jargon and hierarchy in favor of humor, clarity, and momentum. And in doing so, we created a format that felt fresh — not a college version of something else, but something original born at Purdue.

Most importantly, Catapult v2 showed that startup culture doesn’t have to live in the Bay or in big accelerators. You can build it anywhere — if you give people the space, trust, and excuse to go for it.