Get involved

Back a founder
who is already
building.

Our founders do not need to be discovered. They need the things displacement took away: a network that vouches for them, capital that will price them fairly, and a room where their idea gets taken seriously.

Three ways to supply one of those.

01

Offer founder support

Mentor a founder against a specific problem, lead a workshop, or take office hours during an accelerator week. The most useful hour you can give is a narrow one.

What we need →
02

Invest

Fund the investment pool graduating founders pitch into, sponsor a named prize at demo day, or co-invest alongside us in a company you believe in.

Ways to invest →
03

Run a program with us

Host a city week, send your faculty, or fund a cohort. Antler, Rutgers and Schmidt Futures each did one of these, and the program exists because they did.

Partner with us →
A founder on the Spree at sunset during Berlin accelerator week
Berlin accelerator week.

01 · Offer founder support

The most useful hour you can give is a narrow one.

Open-ended offers of help tend to die in a calendar. We match against a stated need: a term sheet to read, a supply chain to price, a market to size, a go-to-market strategy to challenge, so you know before you say yes what the founder needs from you.

  • Mentor a founder

    Get matched to one founder based on a specific need and your experience, with clear expectations on both sides. Most mentors meet with their founder for around an hour each month.

  • Lead a workshop

    Teach one of our six bootcamp modules, or lead a session during an in-person week in New York City, Washington DC, Toronto, or Berlin. Bring your own material and the expertise you already have.

  • Take office hours

    Give us a block of time and we will fill it with short, back-to-back sessions with founders working through specific problems. High volume, low commitment, and consistently one of the most valuable parts of the program.

  • Judge at graduation

    Sit on the panel founders pitch to at the end of the program and give the kind of direct feedback a first-time founder rarely gets from an investor.

  • Give professional services

    Incorporation, immigration, IP, accounting, banking. For a founder navigating an unfamiliar legal or financial system without a local network, these practical barriers can stop a good company before it starts.

Offer support See who you would be working with
The cohort together in the courtyard at Antler's Berlin office
The cohort at Antler's Berlin office.

02 · Invest

Capital that arrives before anyone else will look.

Every founder here has already been selected twice and spent six months testing their idea with real customers. By graduation, we know considerably more about how they build, learn, and respond to evidence than a pitch deck can show.

But they are still early and many lack the networks, track record, and warm introductions that usually open the door to institutional capital. That is the gap we invest into and are looking for others to join us.

  • Fund the capital pool

    Fund the capital our graduating founders pitch for, seed grants and equity investments of up to $100,000, decided at the end of each cohort.

  • Sponsor a prize In development

    Name and fund a prize that you care about. It can be a sector prize, a city prize, or a prize in someone's memory. Structure, amounts, and how winners are chosen are being developed now. We'll give you a shortlist of highly qualified founders that meet your criteria.

  • Co-invest with VBB In development

    Invest alongside VBB in a graduating company, pooled with other backers so individual checks can remain small. Vehicle and terms are currently being developed.

Talk to us about investing Read the thesis
A working session during the Toronto accelerator week
Accelerator week, Toronto.

03 · Run a program with us

The program exists because institutions said yes.

The 2023 pilot ran with Antler and Schmidt Futures. Berlin's accelerator week was hosted in Antler's office. Faculty from Rutgers and University of Toronto Scarborough have taught our founders how to build and test their value propositions. Programs and workshops are routinely delivered by individuals who want to support this space.

None of that was philanthropy in the abstract. Each was one concrete thing an organization already had and chose to share. All you need is time.

  • Host a city week

    Give us the space and the gravity that comes with an address founders want to be at. A week of rooms is worth more to a cohort than most cash gifts of the same value.

  • Send your faculty

    Business schools have the curriculum and teaching capacity already built. We have a hundred founders who would otherwise never have access to it.

  • Fund a cohort

    Underwrite a full cycle from bootcamp through graduation in a city or for a displaced population your organization already works with.

  • Open a corridor

    Give a portfolio company access to customers, distribution, suppliers, or a first contract. If you can offer licenses or trials, our founders are ready to accelerate their work with the most helpful tools. For an early business, that can be worth more than the investment.

Explore a partnership See current partners

Not sure which of these you are?

Most of our partnerships started as a conversation with someone who was not certain what they had to offer. Tell us what you do and we will tell you what would help.

Get in touch Meet the founders