Why We Take Zero Equity (And Why That Matters)

Y Combinator takes 7%. Techstars takes 6%. Most accelerators take 5-10% of your company. That's the standard deal — mentorship and money in exchange for a piece of what you build.

We take 0%.

You build it, you own it. All of it. This isn't a marketing thing. It's a fundamental difference in what we're building.

The standard model doesn't fit students

Traditional accelerators are designed for companies that are already raising venture capital, already have traction, and are aiming for massive scale. The equity model makes sense there — they're making a bet on your growth.

But most student founders aren't in that situation. You're learning how to build. You're developing skills that'll serve you for decades whether this specific project becomes a unicorn or not.

Taking equity from students feels wrong to us because:

The value is in the learning, not the exit. Most student projects won't become billion-dollar companies. That's not failure — that's reality. The skills you develop are worth way more than any single project.

Students don't have leverage. When you're 20 with no track record, you'll take whatever deal you can get. We don't think it's right to extract equity from people who don't have the experience to negotiate.

It misaligns incentives. If we own part of your company, we're incentivized to push you toward venture-scale outcomes even if that's not right for you. We want you to make the best decision for your learning and your life, not our portfolio.

It creates the wrong relationship. We're educators, not investors. Those are different things.

What we actually care about

Our success metric isn't "how many unicorns did we produce." It's:

• Did students ship real products?
• Did they develop skills they can actually use?
• Do they continue building after the program?
• Can they confidently talk about their experience in interviews?

None of that requires us to own part of your company.

What you get instead

When you don't give up equity, you have freedom. Freedom to experiment with ideas that might not be venture-scale. Freedom to focus on learning instead of growth metrics. Freedom to pivot, or quit, or try something completely different — without guilt.

Whatever you build is 100% yours. If it takes off, you keep everything. If it doesn't, you still own the code, the learnings, and the experience.

What we ask for

We don't take equity, but we do ask for something:

Show up and do the work. Document your process. Help your peers. And when you're further along — come back and help the next cohort.

That builds something stronger than equity ever could.

We're building an educational community, not an investment fund. That difference matters.