The first-of-its-kind platform combines an evidence-based framework with cutting-edge AI technology to guide students through real-world entrepreneurship concepts, starting with idea development and customer discovery.
Young entrepreneurs
Frank & Eileen Foundation Logo
Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Audrey McLoghlin, founder & CEO of apparel brand Frank & Eileen and president of the Frank & Eileen Foundation, alongside Bill Aulet, Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan School of Management and managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, today announced the launch of Dear Dreamer, a first-of-its-kind, AI-powered platform that brings world-class entrepreneurship education to young people everywhere at no cost.
Inspired by the vision of McLoghlin and made possible by a gift from the Frank & Eileen Foundation, Dear Dreamer was built at the Trust Center and is designed specifically for middle and high school students. Research has shown that the tween and teen years are a critical age to cultivate curiosity and a potential time to combat the sometimes sharp decline in self-confidence that impacts some young people, particularly girls, between the ages of 12 and 13.
How an evidence-based entrepreneurship framework creates the foundation for Dear Dreamer
The Dear Dreamer platform offers an innovative, scalable approach to entrepreneurship education. It adapts the Trust Center’s proven, evidence-based Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework into a digital, self-paced learning experience that builds entrepreneurial mindsets. Startups using the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework through MIT’s accelerator program, delta v, have a 61% survival/acquisition rate, and individuals who have participated in it have collectively raised over $3 billion. Dear Dreamer features two types of custom AI tools — also created and built at the Trust Center — that support student thinking and exploration.
How Dear Dreamer works
The Dear Dreamer platform combines short educational videos, interactive exercises, and AI-backed feedback to guide students through real entrepreneurship concepts, starting with idea development and customer discovery.
At the start of the Dear Dreamer course, students must input a business idea they wish to develop using Dear Dreamer. If they do not have an idea, they can use the built-in AI to generate one based on their responses to a survey in which they’ve shared their interests and goals.
Within the platform, an AI feedback tool appears on select exercises, giving personalized feedback on the user’s idea. Throughout Dear Dreamer, AI is woven in with intention and keeps the student learning experience at the forefront. Students must always complete their own work first before the AI comes in to assist. Students earn a certificate upon completion.
How Dear Dreamer came to be
Dear Dreamer marks the first major initiative for the Frank & Eileen Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The Frank & Eileen Foundation launched in March 2026 with an initial $1 million gift from Frank & Eileen.
“Through Frank & Eileen’s $20 million Giving Pledge, launched in 2020, the brand has funded fellowships and programs at top graduate schools; the establishment of the Frank & Eileen Foundation takes my commitment to unlock access to entrepreneurship education to a whole new level,” McLoghlin said. “I truly believe that creating more women entrepreneurs at scale can fundamentally change the world. By making the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s world-class curriculum available online at no cost, adapted for young people, we are removing all barriers to access. With Dear Dreamer, we aim to empower 50,000 next-generation entrepreneurs by 2030.”
The Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework developed by Aulet is taught in hundreds of universities and schools around the world, and is a USA Today best-selling book with half-a-million copies sold, and additional titles focusing specifically on Startup Tactics and Climate & Energy Ventures. The framework uses proven tools with an established track record of success, and integrates them into a prescriptive roadmap for founders to follow.
“Entrepreneurship empowers people, giving them the mindset, skills, and tools to take control of their lives, create the future they want, and make the impact they seek,” Aulet said. “Audrey McLoghlin embodies this firsthand, and it has been the privilege of the Trust Center to work with her and the Frank & Eileen Foundation on the Dear Dreamer project. This initiative will empower tens of thousands of young people to lead transformed and transformational lives.”
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About Frank & Eileen
Founded in 2009 by Audrey McLoghlin, Frank & Eileen set out to reinvent the women’s button-up using the finest Italian fabrics often reserved for menswear. Named in honor of Audrey’s beloved Irish grandparents, the brand has grown intentionally into a woman-owned, woman-led leader in sustainability. Frank & Eileen achieved B Corp certification in 2020 and continues to hold the highest impact score for any woman-owned, globally recognized apparel brand in the United States. Celebrating seventeen years of growth through wholesale partnerships and direct-to-consumer e-commerce, Frank & Eileen recently opened its first US flagship store—an Irish country house on the corner of Madison Avenue, NYC. The 2026 launch of the Frank & Eileen Foundation marks a new chapter in Audrey McLoghlin’s commitment to use entrepreneurship as a force for good.
Frank & Eileen Foundation Giving Club | Join the Movement
To support its mission and foster collaboration, the Frank & Eileen Foundation launched the Giving Club, a community-powered, tiered monthly donor program designed to make giving accessible and generationally impactful. Donors will join a collaborative movement of supporters committed to creating the next generation of women entrepreneurs—transforming the Foundation’s mission into a collective legacy of positive change.
The Frank & Eileen Foundation will continue to roll out additional initiatives and programming throughout 2026 and beyond. Follow along at www.frankandeileen.org and @frankandeileen. Media contact: [email protected].
About MIT Sloan
The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu.
About the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
Founded in 1991, the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship is one of the oldest academic entrepreneurship centers in the world providing a rigorous, practical, customized, and integrated educational experience for MIT students. Companies that have come through the center include HubSpot, PillPack, Klaviyo, Okta, Biobot Analytics, and thousands more in industries as diverse as biotech, climate and energy, AI, healthcare, software, and more. In its first 10 years the renowned MIT delta v accelerator helped launch companies who have raised over $3 billion in funding.
As the world moves faster every day due to the power of artificial intelligence, the Martin Trust Center continues to innovate how we educate the world-changing entrepreneurs who will build the next generation of innovation-driven enterprises. The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship accepts and welcomes our leadership role to advance the field of entrepreneurship education at MIT as well as globally.
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CONTACT: Casey Bayer MIT Sloan School of Management 914.584.9095 [email protected]
