On Deck is a global, invite-only community aimed at equipping our members with the network, tools and resources to unlock their full potential and thrive in their entrepreneurial endeavors.Over the years, we have become masters of engineered serendipity. We have continued to fine tune our events and community culture to create an environment that's conducive to deep bonding, brainstorming, and collaboration.

Starting a company is hard. And worse, the lack of adequate resources and infrastructure available at this formative stage makes it even harder.The goal of On Deck is to help amazing people that are "on deck" for their next thing find the following:

• Co-founders
• First hires
• Investors
• Startup tools and resources
• Confidentially brainstorm and bounce ideas off of each other
• Exclusive advice from top-tier investors and entrepreneurs
• Referrals to job opportunities at early stage breakout startups

The On Deck Fellowship is an invite-only 8-week program, designed to bring the very best talent from across the On Deck network together to connect over a series of dinners, co-working days, expert workshops, 1:1 introductions, and more.

The goal of the Fellowship is ultimately to help more people build better companies by forming stronger, better aligned founding teams; fast-tracking early hires; and helping founders construct a community around themselves at the very earliest stages.We aim to have several cohorts per year. For more information, see our announcement post

The Fellowship costs $1,290 to join.

This is fully inclusive of an overnight retreat, 8 weeks of co-working space in San Francisco, weekly dinners and other events, including thousands of dollars worth of value from our partners (i.e. $10k AWS credits, and discounts with 20+ products/services), and ultimately: the opportunity to build relationships with 200 high potential co-founders, early hires and lifelong collaborators.

We believe great founders don’t need funding to get started building a company. Indeed, many in our community come out of high paying senior engineering and product roles, and/or have had past successes as founders. People for whom personal runway is no problem — but giving away equity too early doesn’t make sense.

‍However: our goal is to make the Fellowship accessible to the absolute best talent around. For this reason, we’re excited to be able to offer scholarships, a few sponsored places, and are working on other options to provide assistance to those who have all the skills and potential, but don’t have the means.

Please apply to be considered for the Fellowship first, you’ll have the option to request financial assistance after your offer.

You should join the On Deck community:

1. If you’re considering founding a company in the next 6 months, or if you’ve recently started on this path but you're still early on
2. If you’d like to apply your unique talents to joining a high caliber startup
3. If you have deep subject matter expertise and a track record of success, where you'd like to mentor or advise early stage entrepreneurs

This is the perfect place to meet people looking to hire, both for small and big companies. We also recently built Via, a referral-based hiring platform where top talent can request introductions to companies they're interested in.

In-person events are currently being hosted across the United States: with the most active being in San Francisco and New York. We’ve also gone international with active communities in London, Sydney, and elsewhere. We’re intentionally keeping each community small to create tight-knit groups of founders and ensure confidentiality.

First, your name will be completely confidential and there will be a strict off the record policy. And don’t worry: A few great founders/investors will be attending dinners as "advisors," so if you get caught, you can just say you’re there to "advise.” We'll cover for you.

Participation is held in strict confidence. Even if you’re happy to share, you are requested to respect the privacy of other members who aren’t ready to make their plans public.

We’ve developed a framework for assessing candidates on at least one of the following:
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1) Raw entrepreneurial potential and network
Previously founded or was early generalist employee of a notably successful company, and is now moving on to a 2nd/3rd/etc venture.

2) Technical excellence
Has advanced degree and/or recognized as a research leader within applicable technology fields (e.g. machine learning, STEM).

3) Product leadership
Held senior roles at notable companies, and can point to examples of products they’ve built/scaled to hundreds of thousands of people.

4) Industry experience
Worked in X industry for Y years, and has developed + can speak to unique insights or unfair advantage they possess vs. all others.

5) Exceptional promise
None of the above, but shows exceptional promise and has referral/reference from a trusted source.

We heavily prioritize those that are early along in the process. Some may have a few ideas floating around, others may be looking for co-founders, and most haven’t started fundraising.

We feel the formative stages of a company are the most critical, and that they set the foundation and trajectory for the journey ahead. We want to ensure founders at this early stage have the adequate resources and infrastructure they need to succeed.

Historically, roughly 40% came into the fellowship with a specific idea but were open to changing, 35% were openly exploring or looking to latch onto others' ideas, and 25% had some initial MVP/prototype or were getting ready to fundraise.

We are willing to accept up to 120 participants in San Francisco, and 60 from around the world.

However, we will not compromise on participant quality for the sake of hitting this threshold.

In addition to the current cohort, we have an Alumni community of 300+ founders (and growing) that we love to keep engaged with the community and to have opportunities to interact with the new cohort.

If you're not based in San Francisco, we encourage global Fellows to commit to spending as much time in San Francisco as they can during the 8-week program.
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We believe that it has never been more important to be deeply connected in San Francisco, but never less important to actually build your company here.

If you plan to build an impactful, global technology company, you don’t have to live in San Francisco, but you will have to visit and develop your network here.

You will get the most value from participation if you take this an opportunity to invest in building your Bay Area network, and can take those relationships back home to stay connected remotely. At a minimum, we think you should come for the kickoff retreat on March 7th, and spend at least 1–3 weeks throughout the program.

‍If you’re offered a place in the Fellowship but can’t make this happen for various reasons, talk to us — we’re working on some solutions for you.

Thanks for being upfront. The community works best when members are all at similar stages of planning to found a company or transition into something new in the immediate future. If you think you’ll be a bit longer, come back once you feel the timing is right.

On Deck lives by four core guiding values, crucial to the culture we strive to foster in the community:

• ‍Service: On Deck is bigger than any one person. For this community to thrive, it must be driven by a spirit of service to others. Be generous with your time, knowledge, and support. Karma has a way of finding its way back.
• Sacredness: By default, everything is off the record. Many in this group are searching for something deeper in their lives or making big transitions, and others may not yet have publicly shared this with friends, family, or employers. Please honor that, and avoid sharing anything you learn about each other without explicit permission.
• ‍Respect: You are all now part of the On Deck family. You’re all embarking on what will surely be a rollercoaster of a journey — but you’re in this shared experience together. With that comes a sense of responsibility: be inclusive, stick together, and respect one another.
• ‍Gratitude: have a spirit of curiosity and gratitude. We’re bringing together 200 fascinating people, most of whom likely have never met each other…how amazing is that? Get to know each other, and make the cohort what you want it to be for yourself.

Yes! the On Deck community is super active in New York, London, Sydney, and Melbourne, and we are launching chapters in L.A., Boston, Seattle, Toronto, and open to others. Drop us a line via team@beondeck.com