Find your people and build the future.

Catalyst is On Deck’s home for undergrads, grad students, and early-career people (<5 years of work experience). It's for people who are hyper-ambitious and looking for a community of peers from around the world.

Catalyst Founders is for people starting or looking to start a company.

Catalyst Scouts is for people looking to break into VC and help early-stage founders grow their startups.

Watch our record Q&A here. If you have additional questions not answered here, please email odc@beondeck.com.

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Catalyst Founders & Scouts are both free programs. 

There is no upfront cash fee to participate in Catalyst Founders. When you join the community, we commit to this handshake deal via a Memorandum of Understanding: if you start a company within the next year, you'll join ODX, and we'll invest on our standard terms of $125,000 for 7%. There's no penalty or cost if you decide not to. Put another way: by joining ODF, you’ve already gotten your first firm investment commitment, even if you’re pre-traction, pre-team, or pre-idea.

Catalyst Scouts is a free program with a commitment to find and refer founders to On Deck.

Catalyst Scouts is a 8 - 10 hour/week time commitment, designed to be completed alongside a full-time job or school. You should expect to meet with founders, attend a partner meeting, attend a workshop, and engage with the community each week. 

Catalyst Founders follows the ODF schedule. How much time you invest in ODF is largely up to you. For your first month, we recommend spending at least 4 hours per week attending onboarding sessions and getting to know your cohort. After that, ODF is flexible. Some weeks you may want to spend 20 hours taking calls with fellows or attending sessions. Other weeks you may choose not to do anything. Many ODF fellows are working around families and jobs, and we fully support and respect these commitments.

Catalyst programs help early-career people launch their company with Catalyst Founders or find breakout startups with Catalyst Scouts.

Catalyst Scouts should expect to: 

• Learn how venture capital works 
• Build their investor track record
• Activate their startup ecosystems 
• Make lifelong friends 
• Build their tech networks 
  

Catalyst Founders should expect to: 

• Get the tools and support they need to start a company 
• Find a cofounder or early team members 
• Explore and validate their ideas 
• Learn fundamental founder skills 
• Make lifelong friends
• Build their tech networks

We offer rolling admissions for Catalyst programs so the sooner you apply, the sooner you can be accepted. As the programs do fill up throughout the application period, we encourage you to apply early so that you have a better chance of being accepted.

Yes: Catalyst programs are run entirely remotely. This enables participation from all corners of the world.

We'll have some casual in-person meetups in locations where restrictions allow, however, the core programs will remain a remote-first experience.