Join a community of founders who will become your earliest supporters
Working on a startup already? Apply to ODX →
Designed to help you go from 💥 collisions
to 🚀 momentum
Draw up to $25,000 to cover living expenses
If you need to cover living expenses while you explore, you can draw up to $25,000 from our Access Initiative via ODF Advance. If you build conviction to start a company, the $25,000 converts to 1.4% equity, and we'll invest another $125,000 via ODX. If you don't, we only ask you to pay it forward to the next founder by contributing back to the Access Initiative.
first – Get to know the community with an IRL summit
On Deck kicks off with a 2-day, an in-person summit in the Bay Area.
Having an anchor in the Bay Area, where relentless optimism and contagious ambition are ubiquitous, has never been more important.
Our 2-day kick-off summit in the Bay Area is carefully engineered to help you build foundational relationships with 100+ founders that will persist beyond the weekend.
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then – Turn initial collisions into co-founders, users and supporters
Our community, software tools and lightly-structured programming will help you find the answers and build the relationships you need to accelerate your company.
Online Community – 2500+ founders to connect with
Join over 2,500 founders who built 800+ companies worth $9 billion. Whether you’re validating an idea, seeking a co-founder, raising money, or just looking for people to build with — you’ll find people help you along the way.
Community Directory & Asks – Find the people & answers you need
Our product helps you find the people and answers you need, when you need them. Easily find the most relevant people for you, and get notified when there are new members who meet the criteria you’re looking for.
Structured Bootcamps – navigate the idea maze or find a co-founder.
Find the right partner through Co-founder Sprint. Meet founding team members and collaborators through the community, curated 1:1 introductions, and virtual and IRL social and networking events.
Fundraising Support – everything you need to get fundraising-ready
We’ll help you prepare for your first round of financing when you’re ready. This includes a Fundraising Bootcamp, where you’ll learn to craft your narrative, build your deck and assemble your investor CRM, and First Look, a quarterly event to kick-off your process in front of an audience of angels.
SF Pop-up Space – More collisions, more momentum
Post-collision, we’ll help you close the loop on follow-up. That might mean additional intros, growing your Circles, or surfacing relevant updates going forward.
Credits and Perks – don't break the bank when getting started
Over $800k in credits and discounts from AWS, Google Cloud, Ramp, Brex, Carta, Eight Sleep incorporation law firms and much more.
If you’re ready to build, we’re ready to back you
We believe in you and your ideas. When you join ODF, we commit to this handshake deal: 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%.
Access our playbooks right now
We invested hundreds of hours to co-develop On Deck playbooks with industry experts.
Problem validation
Validate ideas & markets with Asher King Abramson
Build a founding team
Hire your early team with Keith Rabois
Apply today
On Deck founders have raised $2 billion from top investors and leveraged the community to find their first customers, hires and investors
On Deck helped us hire our first employee, raise $900k in pre-seed, and accelerate our GTM motion within the network. Our Series B wouldn’t have happened without On Deck.
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On Deck helped me recruit our team, find our first beta customers, and build a community of support to get through the challenges of the founder to CEO transition.
Frequently Asked Questions
ODF is a community for founders who’re exploring starting something soon, have taken the leap to start, or are an early-stage founder looking to accelerate with the support of a community.
ODF is a 12-month program. It kicks off with a two-day in-person summit in San Francisco on Friday April 21st. After the retreat, you’ll have 4 weeks of IRL and virtual programming designed to meet your goals. Afterwards, you'll continue to have access to the community for another 12 months.
The first few weeks are a structured onboarding into the community. We strongly encourage everyone to attend the 2-day kickoff summit in San Francisco.
Post-summit, the 4-week programming will offer a combination of networking, building, and actively learning from structured sessions.
For the rest of the year, how much time you invest in ODF is largely up to you. You’ll continue to have access to a vibrant online community, regular programming and frequent IRL happenings, as well as a community hub in SF.
We welcome global founders from all over the world to apply and join our community. We want founders to meet in person, then carry their relationships with them wherever they go. We encourage founders to try to spend as much time in SF as they can during the program. You will get the most value from participation if you take this as an opportunity to invest in building your Bay Area network.
Additionally, the community mainly consists of founders whose companies are selling to US/EU/LATAM-based customers. Our programming is also mostly geared towards US-based startups, and happens mostly on US-friendly hours. If you are not planning to sell to US/EU/LATAM customers, you may find less utility from ODFs.
When you join ODF, you get:
✅ Four weeks of onboarding alongside 100+ high-momentum founders
✅ A year of access to the ODF community, including 2,500+ talented alumni and weekly events
✅ Access to our legendary Slack and Community Platform
✅ Thousands of hours of recorded workshops and how-tos
✅ >$800k in perks from companies like AWS, Brex, and Carta
Absolutely. ODF is for all early-stage founders, anywhere from pre-idea through pre-seed stage.
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.
On Deck’s Admissions team accepts applications on a rolling basis. Check out ODF Admissions Process to learn more.
You can participate in ODF fully virtually. However, we have thriving alumni communities in many major metros, and host regular IRL events in startup-centric metros like San Francisco, New York, and London.
The next cohort of ODF (ODF17) kicks off in April with an in-person kickoff summit in San Francisco.
Yearly membership for ODF is $2,990. This includes the 3-day kickoff summit, access to the San Francisco community space, 4 weeks of programming and our virtual community.
On Deck lives by four core guiding values, crucial to the culture we strive to foster in the community: Service, Confidentiality, Gratitude, Family.