When we started the 16VC Founder Fellowship, the idea was simple.
Bring ambitious founders together. Give them access to people who could help. Create a space where founders could learn from each other. See what happened.
The fellowship was online
.
At the time, that made sense.
Founders could join from anywhere. We could bring together people from different markets and backgrounds without asking them to relocate. We could build a global community without requiring everyone to be in the same place.
And we met some great founders.
But we also learned something.
The best parts were often the parts that happened when people were actually together.
A conversation that starts after a session.
A founder explaining a problem to another founder over coffee.
Someone making an introduction because they happened to hear what another company was working on.
A quick conversation turning into a completely different idea.
Those moments are difficult to manufacture online.
A remote fellowship can create a community.
But building a company is different.
You build.
You talk to customers.
You change things.
You get stuck.
You ask someone for help.
You find someone who has seen the same problem before.
And sometimes you just need another person sitting across the table saying:
“I think you’re looking at this the wrong way.”
That changed how we thought about the next version of 16VC.
So we’re taking it offline.
We’re launching the 16VC Accelerator.
This is our first accelerator, and we’re intentionally starting small.
20–25 companies.
Across:
San Francisco · New York · London
We don’t want to build a program where founders disappear into a huge cohort and hear from us once a week.
We want to know the people we’re working with.
We want to understand what they’re building.
And when something important comes up, we want to be close enough to actually help.
$200K. And then the real work begins.
Every selected company receives $200,000 through a post-money SAFE, targeting approximately 6% ownership upon conversion, subject to the definitive investment documents and applicable SAFE terms.
The capital matters.
But it isn’t the whole reason we’re building this.
When we invest in a company, we have skin in the game.
If you’re trying to land your first major customer, we should be thinking about who in our network could help.
If you’re struggling with distribution, we should be working through it with you.
If you’re hiring someone important, we should help where we can.
If you’re fundraising, we should be able to open the right conversations.
If you’re trying to solve a difficult product or technical problem, there should be someone in the broader 16VC network who can sit down and work through it with you.
That’s the relationship we want with founders.
Not more advice.
More building.
What the accelerator looks like
The first cohort will be on-site across San Francisco, New York, and London.
Selected founders will have access to a coworking space in their city and a local Entrepreneur in Residence who works closely with the founders there.
You’ll also work with the broader 16VC team and network.
The work will depend on what each company actually needs.
For one founder, that might mean customer introductions.
For another, distribution.
For another, fundraising.
For another, hiring, product strategy, partnerships, or a technical problem that has been sitting on the founder’s desk for three weeks.
We’re not interested in creating a curriculum just so we can say we have a curriculum.
The company comes first.
Who we’re looking for
We’re primarily focused on pre-seed and seed-stage companies.
We’re particularly interested in founders building in:
AI and machine learning
Enterprise software
Fintech
Deep tech
Emerging technology
But we don’t expect every interesting company to fit neatly into a category.
You might already have customers.
You might have revenue.
You might have a product that people are starting to use.
You might be much earlier.
What matters more is the founder, the insight behind the company, and the size of the opportunity.
We’re looking for people with strong conviction.
People who understand their problem deeply.
People who move quickly.
People who have a reason why they are the person to build this company.
And people who are willing to have their thinking challenged without losing the conviction that made them start in the first place.
Why only 20–25 companies?
Because this is our first accelerator.
And because we don’t want the number of founders to get in the way of the reason we’re doing this.
If we’re telling founders that we’re going to work closely with them, we need to be able to actually do that.
A smaller cohort gives us a chance to know the companies.
To know the people behind them.
To see how they build.
To have the conversations that don’t fit into a scheduled session.
We’re not trying to become the biggest accelerator.
We’re trying to build one where founders can actually feel the difference of having 16VC around.
Three cities. One network.
The first cohort will be based across three cities:
San Francisco
A deep technology and venture ecosystem with an enormous concentration of founders, investors, engineers, and operators.
New York
A major hub for enterprise, fintech, technology, finance, and global business.
London
A strong base for AI, fintech, technology, international business, and companies building for global markets.
The cities give founders a local place to build.
The broader 16VC network connects them beyond that city.
That’s important to us.
We don’t want three separate groups.
We want one cohort of founders who happen to be building in three places.
What we learned from the fellowship
The fellowship wasn’t a failure.
It did what experiments are supposed to do.
It showed us what worked.
It showed us what didn’t.
And it made one thing particularly clear:
If we want founders to commit deeply, we need to commit deeply too.
It’s easy to say you want to help founders.
It’s harder to build something that gives you the proximity and responsibility to actually do it.
That’s what we’re trying to do differently this time.
We’re putting founders in the same physical spaces.
We’re keeping the cohort small.
We’re putting capital behind the relationship.
And we’re building the program around the problems founders are actually dealing with, rather than forcing those problems into a predetermined schedule.
The journey
Applications are now open.
We’ll speak with shortlisted founders and spend time understanding the company, the market, the team, and the opportunity.
Selected companies will receive the investment and join the cohort.
From there, it’s three months of building alongside the 16VC team, local EIR, other founders, customers, investors, and the broader network.
The first cohort begins January 11, 2027.
The program runs through March, finishing with Demo Day in San Francisco on March 16, 2027.
And we don’t expect the relationship to end there.
If we believe in a company, we want to keep being involved as it grows.
A few questions founders will probably have
How much does 16VC invest?
Selected accelerator companies receive $200,000 through a post-money SAFE, targeting approximately 6% ownership upon conversion, subject to the definitive investment documents and applicable SAFE terms.
Is this remote?
No.
The first cohort is designed to be on-site in San Francisco, New York, or London.
Do I get a workspace?
Yes.
Selected founders will have access to a coworking space in their accelerator city.
What is the EIR?
Each city will have a dedicated Entrepreneur in Residence working with founders locally.
They’ll help with the day-to-day challenges of building and connect founders with the broader 16VC team, network, and ecosystem.
What stage should I be at?
We’re primarily looking for pre-seed and seed-stage companies.
You can be very early or already have a product, customers, or revenue.
Do I need to have raised funding?
No.
We are open to founders who haven’t raised institutional funding.
Can solo founders apply?
Yes.
Do I need to live in the US or UK?
The program is based in the US and UK, so founders need to be able to participate in one of the three locations.
If you’re currently elsewhere and are willing and able to relocate, you can still apply.
Do you provide visa support?
Visa or immigration support may be available for selected founders depending on individual circumstances and applicable requirements.
We cannot guarantee visa approval or immigration support.
How many companies are you selecting?
Approximately 20–25 companies for the first cohort.
We’re keeping it intentionally small.
What happens after the accelerator?
We want the relationship to continue.
16VC may continue to support and invest in exceptional companies as they grow, subject to our investment decisions and opportunities.
We’re looking for the first 20–25.
There are a lot of accelerators.
We’re not trying to pretend otherwise.
The reason we’re building this one is because the fellowship showed us that there is a better way for us to work with founders.
More time together.
More proximity.
More skin in the game.
Less distance between “I think we can help” and actually helping.
We’re starting with a small first cohort because we want to learn this alongside the founders we back.
We don’t know exactly what 16VC will look like five years from now.
But we know what we want it to feel like.
A place where ambitious founders have people around them who are willing to get in the trenches.
A place where an introduction can happen quickly.
Where a difficult problem can become a conversation.
Where capital comes with actual involvement.
And where the relationship continues long after Demo Day.
If you’re building something ambitious, we’d like to meet you.
Applications are open until October 4, 2026.
Build with us.
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16VC