Founder Residency

About the job

Are you an experienced business leader who has devised strategies to curb unprecedented challenges? Do you consider yourself a sales and marketing growth-hacker? Do you possess deep industry insights required to build strategic partnerships? Are you a proactive problem solver that can identify industry gaps and come up with scalable commercial solutions? If so, we would like to hear from you! Our Antler US team is looking for founders to join our in-person fall residencies in three US cities (Austin, New York City, and Boulder, CO) starting October 1, 2024.

Antler is a global startup studio and early-stage VC that is changing the way people build companies. At Antler, we believe that every hungry, driven person who wants to build a startup should be able to do exactly that. We lower the barriers to entrepreneurship by helping you find the right co-founder, test and validate your ideas, and provide a transparent, streamlined path to funding.

How do we do this? Through our Residency, which is broken out into two phases:

Phase 1: Founders will have 8 weeks to develop an idea and plan of action. There's no coursework here: your entire focus will be on turning your ideas into investable businesses. The Antler team will provide guidance and coaching as you work to identify areas of opportunity, iterate on your ideas, conduct customer discovery and research, beta test as quickly as possible, and build your product roadmap and GTM strategy. During this time, we'll also host weekly town hall meetings, social sessions, office hours, and speaker series with industry experts and Antler advisors. During Phase 1, you’ll be surrounded by a community of top notch founders to work alongside. You have the opportunity to find a co-founder, brainstorm ideas, test assumptions, share expertise and build close bonds.

Pitch Week: Founders will pitch Antler's Investment Team for a sizeable pre-seed check for your new company.

Phase 2: For founders that successfully raise during Pitch Week, the next step is an all out execution sprint. The Antler team will work with you to build a clear plan for growth—setting objectives and goals across key functions to ensure your business finds product market fit. You’ll be connected to a dedicated Antler coach who will support you as you continue to scale and work with you towards successfully raising your next round of funding.

During Phase 2, we will:

Develop a set of KPIs and map it to a budget and roadmap for the next 12-18 months

Connect you to a dedicated Antler coach who will work with you to begin crafting a GTM strategy

Build seed round fundraising strategy (materials, target investors, events)

Integrate your business into the Antler US portfolio and global network, including introductions to relevant partners and advisors such as discounted legal partners and marketing agencies

Build seed round fundraising strategy (materials, target investors, events)

Bottom Line: We're looking for passionate, driven founders who are at the beginning of their journey. Maybe you've just started building, but haven't yet raised capital. Or maybe you've got an idea and are thinking about getting started, but haven't quite yet made the leap. Either way, if you're in the earliest days of launching a startup, Antler is the right place for you to build a great technology company. Now the question really is: how much can you build in 6 weeks?

THE OFFER:

A place to find your co-founder, test your idea, and launch your startup.

REQUIREMENTS:

Commitment to working on your startup full time in person in one of our 3 US locations (Austin, New York City, or Boulder).

Prior startup founder or experience working in a leadership role

Hands-on, solutions-oriented self-starters; able to thrive in ambiguous environments and think innovatively.

Interested in driving change, adoption, and scaling a business from scratch

Ability lead, connect, fundraise, and deliver a product to market

Passionate about using technology to address an identified problem

Grit, integrity, determination, commitment, humility, and resilience

At the moment, we can only work with founders who are US citizens or US greencard holders

About Antler

Antler is a global startup studio and early stage VC that is changing the way people build companies. We operate in 21 locations worldwide, have supported 4000+ founders through our programs and invested in 450+ startups globally. We launched Antler to build a better on ramp to venture capital. After working in venture backed companies for years, we witnessed our exceptional friends and colleagues struggle to find early support for their own new ventures. Our mission is to provide founders with a structured and transparent process to successfully launch a new venture, a community for support throughout the experience, and a clear pathway to venture funding.

Come build with us.

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