Contrary
@contrary
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We back the bold // Publishing research on private tech companies @contrary_res
San Francisco, CA
Joined June 2016
The next Xerox PARC won’t be built over zoom. Today, we're excited to unveil Contrary NYC – a creative workspace for the city’s top builders and technologists, located in the heart of Flatiron. Read on to see how you can get access:
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We’re excited to launch Contrary Sabbatical!. Over the past couple years, we’ve invested in people who want to take time off and build something great; it’s birthed some of the fastest-growing startups we’ve seen. This year, we’re upping the stakes.
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Today we're announcing investments of up to $100k in students taking a gap year to work on a company during the pandemic. Learn more and apply here:.
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Calling all builders, engineers, designers & investors: Venture Partner applications for 2022 are now open!. If you're excited about investing in outstanding startups, talking to smart people working on cool things, and being a part of an awesome community, read on!.
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Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Foundations & Frontiers. A written series by @annasofialesiv that explains how the technologies that govern our world were built, and what solutions startups are working on now to address the challenges of the future!
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Today, we're opening applications for the Contrary Fellowship, a selective community of exceptional future founders. Join us for an exclusive network of talented peers, events, career and company formation help, and so much more.
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We started Contrary five years ago with one simple premise: that exceptional talent could come from anywhere. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve raised $20M for our second fund.
Hello, World!.
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Today we're launching Startup Fair, the best place for undergrad and new grad builders to meet and get hired by breakout startups. Apply now to meet @figmadesign, @tryramp, @stytchauth, @viseinc, and more on July 15th:.
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1/ Contrary’s mission is to identify the brightest, scrappiest, and most talented builders in the world, and support them for life. We do this with our community - and for the past 6 years, our Venture Partner (VP) program has been its heart.
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Thrilled to welcome our newest cohort of Venture Partners to the Contrary family! With nearly 1300 applications, this year was our most competitive yet. We’re excited to work with you all to meet and invest in the next generation of exceptional founders and companies. We also
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We started Contrary five years ago to identify and invest in the world's top talent. Today, we're thrilled to announce we've raised $75M for our third fund to double down on identifying, investing, and relentlessly supporting the world's brightest for life.
We raised $75M to continue building a lifelong platform that invests in the person before the idea. The next decade of venture will be focused on people, and we’re excited to lead the way.
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We mapped out the entrepreneurial ecosystems at dozens of campuses across North America. Check out our How To Start A Startup guides at your campus here, and drop your email for updates:.
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Get your first check from Contrary to quit your job, skip an internship, or take time off of school. We're announcing our First Check Program, where 5 founders will receive up to $100k as an uncapped note to build companies. Apply here!
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Today we're announcing Contrary Talent, a program for the brightest builders nationwide. Through Contrary Talent, access mentorship from successful founders, get help landing the best startup roles, and raise funding for whatever you do next.
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Calling all builders, engineers, designers, investors - Venture Partner applications for 2021 are now open!. If you're excited by investing in university startups, having an excuse to talk to smart people working on cool things, and being a part of an awesome community, read on!.
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Today, we're excited to officially launch Foundations & Frontiers, an essay series by Contrary. Due to the tremendous reader response to the early entries in the series, we're breaking it out into its own media publication.
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From Day 1, Contrary's mission has been to identify and invest in the world's most exceptional people. It’s enabled us to be early backers of companies like Zepto, Ramp, Hallow, Anduril, and many others. Our student Venture Partners are a key part of this process, helping us
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Every year, we search the country for the few dozen most talented and entrepreneurial students to join our team out of thousands of applicants. We're excited to announce this year's class of Venture Partners!.
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We gathered 1k new grad & internship roles & are dropping them on our new platform, @StartupSearch Apply. Find every job you want in one place — APM programs, engineering, & more from companies like Stripe, Google, & Ramp. Sign up at to get first access!.
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Last night's Foundations & Frontiers Zine launch party in SF brought together founders, researchers, and engineers to talk about the technologies that will define the next decade. The event featured talks by Contrary founder @etarczynski on the origin of Foundations & Frontiers,
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Contrary's Venture Partners are core to our mission of supporting the brightest early founders across the country. This year, we received 1,000+ applications to join our VPs at 40+ universities. We are ecstatic to announce the 42 VPs in our newest class!.
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We’re excited to share that @annasofialesiv has joined Contrary as a Writer! . Anna’s talent lies in her diversity of interests. Growing up, she wanted to be a journalist. But her adventure into startups took her all over: Bridgewater, Founders Fund, 8VC.
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Each year, we’re honored to welcome the most entrepreneurial students from across the continent as Venture Partners. Meet the 34 hackers, writers, and doers joining our class of 2022!.
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Every company is a story of people and products tackling hard problems. To better tell those stories we're excited to launch Contrary Research @Contrary_Res and share that Abdullah Al Rezwan @borrowed_ideas & Francis Odum @investianalyst have joined the team!
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We're excited to release our annual University Report, where we rank America's universities by their entrepreneurial ecosystems. Here's what's new in this year's addition:.
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Last week, we had our team offsite in Lake Tahoe. The team has doubled in size over the last 6 months, and we have a lot of irons in the fire. Stay tuned -- exciting things coming.
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Contrary Venture Partner applications are now open!. If you're a builder on campus, interested in investing in exceptional startups, and want to be part of one of the most selective communities in tech, read on.
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.@benjlaufer and @LukePiette are two of the most unique doers and thinkers around. They've spent the past several years working on new kinds of educational institutions, and we're excited to formally welcome them into the fold at @contrarycapital today!.
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We're excited to announce three special people joining the Contrary HQ team!. Read on 👇.
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Today, we're kicking off the search for our second cohort of the most talented early-career builders, investors, and operators. Is that you?
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We're recruiting our next class of Venture Partners. Learn more about how you can get involved here! .
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We’re excited to announce Contrary Radio, a podcast that tells the stories of world-class founders who got their start at a university!. Visit for episodes with @nathanblec of Airbnb, @macklindan of SoFi, and @samyagan of SparkNotes and OkCupid!.
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Calling all builders, engineers, designers, investors, and everything in between - Contrary Venture Partner applications for 2023 are now open!
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We’re thrilled to share that Kyle Harrison @kwharrison13 has joined the team as General Partner from Index. After 7 years at Index, Coatue and TCV, we’re beyond excited to have Kyle lead our later stage practice.
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DeepTech startups are tackling massive opportunities like space mining, quantum computing, & climate change. The funding ecosystem for these ventures is fragmented between grants, a few VCs, accelerators, etc. So, we put together this guide:.
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We're continuing to build the most sophisticated tech stack for VC & Talent in existence. Today, we’re excited to share that Judith Lao has joined the engineering team! . Judith joins us from Bloomberg and studied neuroscience at Brown.
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Finding, landing and retaining talent for your startup has never been as challenging as it is today. We polled our network to see where the brightest young minds want to work in 2021 and these were the results.
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The Foundations & Frontiers dinner last night in SF brought together some of the most brilliant builders working on the frontiers of tech. Thanks to @mattparlmer for co-hosting and @solarCTO @NickPinkston @meawoppl @sdamico @k2pilot @Ben_Reinhardt @loewenkc @ErikSchluntz.
Cheers to @contrary for bringing together such an impressive group of people tonight at the @genfabco SFO lab to discuss rebuilding the industrial base, I had some very fruitful discussions and enjoyed it immensely
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Each year we bring the entire Contrary community together for Retreat. It's a time to catch up with old friends, make new friends, and grow together. This year was no different. Energized to continue supporting and building for this group of talented builders.
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Today we’re launching Home(work), a virtual community for the brightest engineers, designers, and product builders to collaborate on projects remotely. Learn more about the perks of Home(work) and apply here: .
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We're hiring for three new roles at Contrary HQ!. Thread on each role and a link to apply: 👇👇👇.
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Every year, we partner with a dozen startups and work with them heads-down over the summer. Today, we're announcing our 2020 Accelerator Program. Learn more and apply here:
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1/ NY Tech Week is just around the corner and we’re thrilled to announce our lineup of events at Contrary NYC. Read on below for more details on each event and how to register — we can’t wait to meet so many of the city’s best builders next week!
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We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Foundations & Frontiers Vol. 2 Zine!. Join us in SF on June 26 as we bring together the sharpest minds working across science, tech and business to celebrate over 2 years of Foundations & Frontiers sparking discussions on the history
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A few moments from Retreat 2023, our annual event dedicated to bringing our community together. Continue to be grateful for and inspired by this community that traveled from near and far to spend the weekend growing with old and new friends. #retreat2023
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.@Replit is bringing the next billion software creators online, and they’re just getting started. We’re excited to invest in their new $97M round alongside @a16z and @khoslaventures. Read the story here:
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Join us for our first NYC Tech Talk of the year, featuring eng leads and founders from @ramp, @warpdotdev, @Railway, and Moment. Designed by eng for eng — each company will deliver live demos of their latest features for leading builders in NYC.
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Today, Contrary turns five. @etarczynski wrote some reflections on the milestone, and what's ahead. We're incredibly grateful for the partnership that our founders, community, and LPs have entrusted us with.
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We also select one VP each year to serve as our Chief of Staff. This year, we’re excited to announce that @straightupjac has joined us in this role. She is an exceptional builder with a strong commitment to community, and we are thrilled to work alongside her this year.
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Congratulations to @samir_vasavada and @RunikM for announcing @viseinc's Series C!. We're incredibly excited for everything ahead that will continue empowering financial advisors.
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With no formal list to pull from, respondents chose a slew of companies they'd like to join. These 10 came out on top:. 1. @figmadesign.2. @anduriltech.3. @retool.4. @NotionHQ.5. @tryramp.6. @stripe.7. @OpenAI.8. @pipe.9. @scale_AI.10. @RobinhoodApp.
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This summer we're working with a dozen of the top university-started companies nationwide. Learn more and apply here!
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We’re thrilled to announce that we will be hosting an in-person Design Week event series at Contrary NYC starting May 16th — join us throughout the week to mingle and learn from leading designers in tech.
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We're recruiting our next class of Venture Partners. Learn more about how you can get involved here! .
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‼️ Multiple Venture Roles Open ‼️. We’re hiring on both the investment and platform teams. High agency, high ownership - optimizing for hands-on learning. All roles are US-based and remote friendly. 3 $ETH referral bonus if they join unless otherwise specified.
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Congrats to Contrary alumni @gw_smiles @indysofian @wesleysamples!. @soraschools is a startup to watch, and they're hiring!.
"Sora is a bold swing towards a new type of school: a network-driven learning platform that is individualized to each student." . @usv is excited to lead the seed round in @soraschools as they tackle reinventing high school. More here:
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The Contrary Venture Partner experience isn't just about what you do, but who you do it with . Join us on Sept 7th to learn more about the VP role and to meet our community and HQ team members
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The first piece is a deep dive into the past and future of metallurgy. Metals are so crucial to the modern world, the more we learned about their properties, the more kinds of technologies we were able to make.
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VCs who don’t operate like startups won’t be around in a decade. We’ve scoured the country for the right leader to build the most sophisticated tech stack in existence. @Jenyangwong is that person, and we’re thrilled to welcome her to the team.
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Excited to share that we've backed Ramp. Over the past couple of years, @karimatiyeh, @eglyman, and the @tryramp team have done nothing but execute, and we're thrilled to be supporting them!.
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Although about 71% of the Earth is covered in water, only a small portion of it is freshwater which we can use to drink and irrigate crops. In the upcoming decades, population growth and the increased frequency of droughts could put pressure on that limited supply.
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We're looking to hire an Associate on the investing team at Contrary!. We've hired people from all walks of life. If you're scrappy and love to build, consider joining us:.
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Last year, in the height of the pandemic, we launched Gap Year 2020. It was a call to action to the next generation to build – to take that idea that had been germinating in the back of their minds and put it on full display. So this year, we’re back for round 2.
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This week, Foundations & Frontiers investigates what a post-Moore’s Law world might look like.
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Venture Partner applications for 2022 are open!. If you’re a student in undergrad or business school, love to build, talk to smart people and learn about startups, this is for you.
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Since Contrary's inception, we’ve grounded everything we do in the belief that people matter most. And people are at the heart of NYC’s energy, which is undergoing a rebirth as a stomping ground for some of the brightest builders in tech. 40% of our community is now NYC-based.
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Just wrapped up our summer Contrary women’s dinner series across SF, NYC and Boston. Lots more to come as we continue supporting these incredible women in their careers and beyond.
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We're excited to share that our investing team is growing! Megan Kao is joining us after spending the last few years at Doordash. She's ambitious and curious, and we can't wait to have her work with future Contrary founders.
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Congrats to Brandon Duderstadt, @Andriy_Mulyar, and the entire @Nomic_ai team on raising their Series A and continuing on their journey to democratize access to AI.
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Today, we're welcoming @sethkimmel3 to the Contrary team, and announcing @jchen623's promotion to Principal!.
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First, @ninarstepanov is joining as our head of platform!. We're known Nina for several years, and are super excited to finally work with her. Drawing from her experience building @Acceleprise, she'll be growing Contrary's platform side from the ground up.
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Last month, we announced Contrary NYC, a place for the city’s best technologists, thinkers, and builders. This month, we took Insider behind the scenes and into what Contrary NYC really is: why it exists, what it looks like, and the people behind it.
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We’re investing up to $250,000 in up to 5 companies. Anyone can apply - no caps or restrictions on work experience. Tech employees, quit your job. Students, take a gap year. Read more here:
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We're excited to announce @joinLeland's pre-seed round!. @JohnKoelliker has been a part of the Contrary family from the very start. We're both grateful for his friendship, and proud to support such a kind and ambitious person. Read more:
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We’re excited to share that James Hennessy, @jrhennessy, has joined Contrary as a Writer! . James comes from Business Insider, is one of the most talented writers we know, and has covered everything from the politics of facial recognition to gaming, and everything in-between.
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Zepto has raised $665 million at a $3.6 billion valuation. In less than 4 years, the company has surpassed $1 billion in annualized sales. We’re excited to continue supporting Aadit, KV, and the Zepto team:.
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Contrary is providing a workspace for NYC’s top builders to create something new in Web3. For 4 weeks, work alongside a curated group in a beautiful space; for those who build something incredible, a chance to join our community & receive funding. Apply:
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Three years after Contrary was founded, our community is better than ever. Thanks to all of Contrary's venture partners and alumni for a great Retreat Weekend filled with laughter and inspiration!
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Many forget that advancements in battery tech are what made our world of portable and powerful electronic devices possible in the first place. That’s why this week on Foundations & Frontiers, we’re investigating the frontier of battery tech!
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🎉 We're excited to welcome @whrobbins to the full-time team at Contrary! Over the past two years, Will has stood out as a quick builder, thoughtful investor, and most importantly, a great friend to everyone in the Contrary family:.
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We're incredibly excited to welcome @DanielleFrider to the Contrary HQ Team!. Joining as our 1st Head of Community, Danielle brings a wealth of community-building & marketing exp. to our platform team. Learn more about Danielle & the growth of Contrary HQ:
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Last night's Frontiers of Manufacturing dinner was an incredible evening featuring a tour of @MachinaLabs_, which co-hosted the event. Discussions centered on an emerging new vision for flexible and rapid manufacturing.
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We're excited to partner with @MisraTushar, @vignanv8, @aroraharshita33 and the AtoB team. Starting with fuel cards, AtoB is building the financial layer for the transportation industry — the vital logistics platform that powers the rest of our economy.
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We’re excited to share that Hiroki Hayama has joined us from Uber Eats to lead Data Science. Hiroki spent the past 8 years building Uber’s ride sharing and food delivery businesses, and has touched nearly every facet of Eats.
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Applications to join Contrary are now open! We're looking for student investors, engineers, designers, and marketers to help build the definitive platform for university entrepreneurship.
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Today we're launching Startup Search, a newsletter curated with the best job opportunities at startups. Subscribe at
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We're excited to share that Sachin Maini (@sachinmaini) has joined the team as Editor!. Sachin spent the bulk of the past decade in tech & venture, previously serving as content lead at NFX. At Contrary, he's working across Contrary Research, Foundations & Frontiers and more.
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Today, we had the privilege of hosting 100 top early-career builders and 15 incredible breakout startups for a day of 1:1 meetings, founder-led fireside chats, and virtual booths.
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Next, @zackabaker is joining as our head of operations. In past lives, Zack started a SaaS company, worked in product strategy, and studied philosophy. He'll be wearing every hat within the fund and Contrary Talent.
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2022 Fellowship Applications close November 30th. If you’re a builder tinkering on projects and soon want to build a category-defining company, the Fellowship is for you.
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How To Start a Startup is live on @ProductHunt!. How To Start a Startup is the most comprehensive list of resources for student founders at 35+ universities. We've curated funding sources, classes to take, clubs to join, and a lot more. Check it out:.
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If you're based in NYC and are a builder at your core, get referred by an existing member or apply here
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