A Peek Into New Curriculum at the Changemaker Institute: Empowering Changemakers with AI
The Changemaker Institute (CI) curriculum continuously evolves to meet the needs of emerging entrepreneurs — and this year, the program introduced a new addition: an experiential exploration of AI-powered entrepreneurship.
As part of the Spring 2025 programming, CI brought Brent McCrossen from Revelry Labs, StartUp Studio to lead a dynamic hands-on session for CI Fellows on AI and Entrepreneurship.
Brent shared his deep expertise on how AI is reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape and granted Fellows exclusive three-month access to ProdOps, Revelry’s cutting-edge platform designed to help founders use AI as a co-founder and thought partner.
Julia Lang, Co-Director of CI shared:
“ProdOps is an incredible resource for entrepreneurs. Brent and his team have built a library of sophisticated prompts that support founders at every stage — from market research and customer discovery to building a Business Model Canvas, refining value propositions, identifying key assumptions, prototyping, crafting go-to-market strategies, and developing funding and pitch materials. What makes this platform truly powerful is the ability to refine outputs and feed them into new prompts, allowing entrepreneurs to build momentum, deepen research, and move much further, much faster — effectively using AI as a partner and co-founder. For many of my Fellows launching solo ventures, this is exactly the support they need. Brent was also outstanding — supportive, patient, and incredibly generous with his time.”
The impact was immediate — and powerful.
100% of Fellows rated the session as highly relevant to their current venture-building needs.
Through real-time demonstrations and personalized coaching, Fellows gained an authentic and actionable glimpse into the future of venture creation. As one Fellow put it:
“I found ProdOps incredibly useful as it addresses two essential needs I have: gaps in business creation and gaps in the use of artificial intelligence. With this tool, I can efficiently overcome these challenges.”
Other Fellows echoed similar excitement:
“I LOVE Claude AI, but this was just 1000X time more helpful for my idea!”
“This session definitely opened up an exciting new toolbox for me to use not only for this project, but in my job in general”
“I love how easy this was to integrate to my Notion, which I use heavily for all my classes and ideas! Also, it gave me really good ideas for prototype testing, which I was feel super unconfident about prior to the meeting.”
“Loved this session! Very helpful & very user friendly. It also felt more genuine with the guest speaking from his wealth of knowledge & experience.”
“[The session] Offered me a chance to use AI securely through IP protective prompting and to get feedback on the development of my prototype in real-time…I am looking forward to fully using ProdOps & am so appreciative for the trial use.”
Key Learnings and Shifts from the Session:
- Embracing AI as a co-founder: Fellows described a mindset shift toward viewing AI not just as a tool, but as a collaborator that could enhance idea generation, content creation, and problem-solving.
- Building securely and ethically: Fellows highlighted that ProdOps provided a secure environment to explore AI-powered tools without compromising their venture’s integrity.
- Accelerating execution: Many Fellows moved significantly faster from idea to action — using ProdOps to refine marketing materials, develop business models, test assumptions, and strengthen their pitches..
One Fellow shared:
“I enjoyed being able to use the ProdOps platform to not only securely use generative AI with my private company information to boost efficiency, but also to feed data from my prototype project dynamically to receive AI insights.”
And perhaps the best endorsement of all:
“Everything about it was useful — I just wish it was longer!”
Reflecting back on the session, Lang concluded:
“I am deeply grateful to Brent McCrossen and the entire Revelry Labs team for investing in our budding changemakers. By integrating platforms like ProdOps into our programming, we are not only equipping students with the tools they need today but preparing them to be the socially responsible, AI-savvy entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”
CI runs every spring and is open to graduate students and exceptional undergraduate students from across the university. To learn more, visit http://taylorcenterarchive.com/changemaker-institute/