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Applications are open for the South Park Commons Founder Fellowship. Click here to learn more about this opportunity and apply for it.
Opportunity Details
In South Park Common’s experience, most companies don’t fail because they run out of cash or can't find traction. They fail because they never picked the right idea in the first place. They partner with founders pre-revenue, pre-product, and even pre-idea, to make sure you find founder-market fit.
Their approach is boutique and customized. They don’t force strict timelines. They help you avoid local maxima and find your global maximum.
How is SPC different?
Slope instead of intercept
Pre-idea investing is founder-centric investing. We are more interested in potential than we are in traction.
Founder-market fit
The low-hanging fruit has been picked. We set founders up for category-creation, not digital co-option.
Long-term partnership
Great ideas take time. We embrace the messiness of ideation, don’t rush founders, and partner with founders longer than any other investor.
It takes a community
-1 to 0 takes you unexpected places. We take a whole-team approach to supporting the journey—and embed founders in a community dedicated to it.
Program Details
Pre-Fellowship
Founder Fellows get immediate funding and immediate access. We fund teams immediately—you don’t have to wait for the official fellowship kickoff. Our terms are $400k upfront for 7%, plus an additional $600k guaranteed in your next external funding round. We also offer up to $1M in credits and perks from companies including Baseten, OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, GCP, AWS, Render, RunwayML, Figma, and many more.
You become part of SPC as soon as you accept the fellowship offer. You gain immediate access to all SPC offices, programming, resources, and partners.
Bootcamp
During the bootcamp, teams work closely in-person in San Francisco or New York City to build, demo, and share feedback alongside each other. This first intensive period is designed to get you started, but is not the end of the program
Our cohorts are purposefully small and each company works directly with SPC partners several times per week. We help you with bespoke customer discovery, product development, technical scoping, branding, product launches, pitch practice, and more.
You will also take part in regular demos, skills workshops, and unofficial board meetings with our full partner team in order to strengthen your narrative and resolve your most pressing issues. At the end of the bootcamp phase, you will have the option to present at the SPC Demo Faire in front of a curated set of top investors and potential founding engineers.
Residency
After the initial bootcamp, teams enter residency, which lasts as long as you need to reach conviction and get ready to raise your next round. Companies are built over years, not weeks. You will continue to partner closely with SPC investors and have full access to all SPC community programming and members.When you have conviction and are ready to raise your seed round, SPC partners will help you prepare your pitch and make white-glove introductions to investors. The majority of fellowship companies raise follow-on funding from tier 1 funds.
Fellowship teams receive $400k for 7% on a SAFE, along with $600k guaranteed in your next venture round.
Fellows become members of the SPC community, go through a proprietary program refined to help you validate ideas, and receive 1:1 mentorship from SPC partners in a small cohort.
Apply for South Park Commons Founder Fellowship