Founder Fellowship

We support founders before they’ve settled on an idea.

If you have the ambition to start a venture-scale company, the Founder Fellowship can help you get from -1 to 0. We give founders their first outside investment, guide them from idea to product to high growth startup, and help them raise from other top VCs.

We believe a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works in an industry where only 0.01% of companies succeed. Our approach to helping founders is boutique and customized. We do not force strict timelines. We do not have a demo day, so you can raise when the time is right. Our cohort sizes are small, with one partner for every two companies.

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Founder Fellowships

Founder Fellowship Stories

Alvaro & Kshitij
Andrew & Praveen
Gavin & Michael
Alvaro Morales & Kshitij Grover
Alvaro & Kshitij

They built conviction they can change a $2 trillion industry.

After years of collaboration at Asana, these engineers decided to make the jump and found a company together. They joined the Founder Fellowship to navigate the hardest part of the early company-building process: building conviction in an idea you plan to spend years of your life on. Alvaro and Kshitij succeeded and founded Orb, a company changing how the building blocks of the internet run the can’t-fail billing process.

Andrew Wynn & Praveen Chekuri
Andrew & Praveen

These second-time founders knew: go slow to go fast.

Second-time co-founders Andrew and Praveen knew how hard the idea phase is after their previous company was acquired. Planning to start a new company but unsure what problem to tackle, they joined the first Founder Fellowship cohort to be deliberate in their process. The result was Ascend, the first modern insurance payments platform that has raised $39M.

Gavin Nachbar & Michael Bock
Gavin & Michael

Taking on a monopoly by making tax-prep less awful.

When they left Waymo to start a company together, Gavin and Michael had a core guiding principle: find a problem where consumers were being utterly failed and fix it. After joining the Founder Fellowship, they followed this principle right to tax prep. Column Tax was their solution.

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What do Founder fellows get?

  1. 1.

    Capital

  2. 2.

    Startup Forum

  3. 3.

    Services

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Capital

$400,000 for 7% equity via SAFE, plus $600,000 in your next venture round.

8 Week Curriculum

Program put on by the SPC Community with other founders and domain experts centered around a proprietary curriculum. We have collected time-tested articles, videos, and books on thinking about markets, ideas, and products the way the world’s best founders and investors do. This helps founders avoid common pitfalls and increase their chances of finding a successful high growth startup.

Luminary Chats

Intimate discussions with tech luminaries such as public company CEOs, domain experts, and investors. Past guests have included Mike Krieger (Instagram), Mathilde Collin (Front), Tope Awotona (Calendly), William Hockey (Plaid), Nathan Blecharczyk (Airbnb), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), and more.

Milestone-Based Workshops

Work with fund partners and peer fellows to hit milestones in the ideation, validation, and prototyping phases. These sessions help share goals, build momentum, and drive accountability.

Alumni Forum

An online forum to continue the conversation with other founders in your cohort and SPC alumni to ask for advice and help others in the community, even after graduating.

Domain Experts

We'll connect with you with domain experts across a variety of fields in artificial intelligence, machine learning, self driving vehicles, blockchain, fintech, social networks, energy, developer tools, and more.

Founders  Network

Access to a network of founders and executives from the seed stage to IPO at companies ranging from OpenAI, Google, and SpaceX to breakout companies such as Figma, Notion, Airtable, Pilot, Compound and more.

Fundraising Support

We’ll help you raise your next round of financing when you're ready, including guidance crafting a pitch deck and introductions to top angel investors, seed firms, and VCs. We do not have demo day deadlines. We can also support you through non-traditional fundraising routes like token offerings.

Credits

$200k in credits from AWS, Google Cloud, Brex, Pulley, and other companies.

South Park Commons
380 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA
© 2022 All rights reserved.
South Park Commons
380 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA
© 2022 All rights reserved.