work sucks, start a company, it’ll be fun,
we invest up to $100k and build with you
50k-100k USD for 8%, we build with you for 6 months
Solo founders welcome, early stage is ok
Mentors who've built multi-million dollar businesses
Host
Founder, CEO, ContactOut
$13M+ USD revenue, $8M+ profit bootstrapped.
Leads a global team of 50 staff.
Limited Partner at hustlefund.vc, iterative.vc, and blackbird.vc.
Angel investor, 500 Startup alum.
Rob’s startup course has 1M+ views on YouTube.
Mentor
Co-founder, Hmlet
Hmlet, a co-living company raised $40M USD from Sequoia
Mentor
Co-founder, BukuWarung
Fintech, raised $80M USD from Peter Thiel's Valar, 400 staff
Mentor
Co-founder, Una Brand
E-commerce, raised $100M USD, $70M revenue
Athena will be your "co-founder" for 6 months
Work directly with Rob on ideation, validation, product, sales and marketing. Our 15 pax product team can help you design and build your MVP, run ads, find mentors and scale up sales outreach. Leverage our experience to move faster. We've made all the mistakes so you don't have to.
8 figure business from zero
We'll guide you step by step how to build an 8 figure business from zero.
Startups are not as risky as you think
Everyone we know who's worked 10 years on startups is making USD 500,000+ in profit. Startups fail because people quit. It takes 10 years to be a doctor, 10 years to be a lawyer, 10+ years to get good at anything. It's the same with being a founder, but your upside is uncapped.
The most actionable startup course ever
Other startup courses will tell you what to do on a
high level.
Athena.vc shows you exactly how to do it step by step:
Study 100 related companies
Talk to 100 users
Talk to 50 industry experts
Build a 10x better product
How To Start A Startup
Rob's startup course: screen shares, step by step tactics, real meeting recordings and case studies with 1 million+ views
Athena Residency Program Structure
$50,000 - $100,000 USD funding for 8% equity on SAFE note
Our 15 person product team will build with you for 6 months, $50,000 in salary equivalent.
Athena will be your "cofounder" for 6 months. Work directly with Rob every week on product, sales and marketing
Asia Pacific based founders, with 2-6 years work experience
Hear from our residents
I don’t have a co-founder, so having someone in my corner—and now I have the other Athena founders—makes it feel a lot less lonely.
It’s awesome to hear Rob believe in my idea and to feel like I’m part of something bigger.
Bryce Altman
Building a better podcast search engine.
Athena gave me the structure and support I needed to fully commit to my startup without juggling freelancing or worrying about funding. It’s not just about the money—it’s about having people in your corner who genuinely care about what you’re building
Nadine Susanto
Fixing Indonesia’s cold storage with electric freezers.
Rob’s feedback and the weekly sessions opened a new dimension in my brain. It’s not that difficult to start a startup, even if you’re a newbie. The program provides clarity, consistency, and the confidence to build something meaningful.
Tania Malhotra
Building a better Google Scholar for faster, open research access.
The weekly updates at Athena were transformative. Writing them forced me to reflect, gave me direction, and helped me secure $100K in LOIs for my new drone idea. The trust and personal attention from Rob make all the difference.
Kshitij Pandey
Developing drones for police surveillance and emergency response.
Having people who’ve built these things share their thought process—it gives you more confidence. It’s not just about this cohort or the next six months—it’s about building something that evolves for the next decades.
Himanshu Daga
Exploring shared mortgages and loans to improve housing accessibility
Athena is a great place to get exposed to amazing people and feedback, especially from outside your own ecosystem. For people starting their own startups, the mentorship and the chance to learn from such a diverse group are invaluable.
Nico Chistian
Fixing Indonesia’s cold storage with electric freezers.
I don’t have a co-founder, so having someone in my corner—and now I have the other Athena founders—makes it feel a lot less lonely.
It’s awesome to hear Rob believe in my idea and to feel like I’m part of something bigger.Bryce Altman
Building a better podcast search engine.
Athena gave me the structure and support I needed to fully commit to my startup without juggling freelancing or worrying about funding. It’s not just about the money—it’s about having people in your corner who genuinely care about what you’re building
Nadine Susanto
Fixing Indonesia’s cold storage with electric freezers.
Rob’s feedback and the weekly sessions opened a new dimension in my brain. It’s not that difficult to start a startup, even if you’re a newbie. The program provides clarity, consistency, and the confidence to build something meaningful.
Tania Malhotra
Building a better Google Scholar for faster, open research access.
The weekly updates at Athena were transformative. Writing them forced me to reflect, gave me direction, and helped me secure $100K in LOIs for my new drone idea. The trust and personal attention from Rob make all the difference.
Kshitij Pandey
Developing drones for police surveillance and emergency response.
Having people who’ve built these things share their thought process—it gives you more confidence. It’s not just about this cohort or the next six months—it’s about building something that evolves for the next decades.
Himanshu Daga
Exploring shared mortgages and loans to improve housing accessibility
Athena is a great place to get exposed to amazing people and feedback, especially from outside your own ecosystem. For people starting their own startups, the mentorship and the chance to learn from such a diverse group are invaluable.
Nico Chistian
Fixing Indonesia’s cold storage with electric freezers.
I don’t have a co-founder, so having someone in my corner—and now I have the other Athena founders—makes it feel a lot less lonely.
It’s awesome to hear Rob believe in my idea and to feel like I’m part of something bigger.Bryce Altman
Building a better podcast search engine.
Athena gave me the structure and support I needed to fully commit to my startup without juggling freelancing or worrying about funding. It’s not just about the money—it’s about having people in your corner who genuinely care about what you’re building
Nadine Susanto
Fixing Indonesia’s cold storage with electric freezers.
Rob’s feedback and the weekly sessions opened a new dimension in my brain. It’s not that difficult to start a startup, even if you’re a newbie. The program provides clarity, consistency, and the confidence to build something meaningful.
Tania Malhotra
Building a better Google Scholar for faster, open research access.
The weekly updates at Athena were transformative. Writing them forced me to reflect, gave me direction, and helped me secure $100K in LOIs for my new drone idea. The trust and personal attention from Rob make all the difference.
Kshitij Pandey
Developing drones for police surveillance and emergency response.
Having people who’ve built these things share their thought process—it gives you more confidence. It’s not just about this cohort or the next six months—it’s about building something that evolves for the next decades.
Himanshu Daga
Exploring shared mortgages and loans to improve housing accessibility
Athena is a great place to get exposed to amazing people and feedback, especially from outside your own ecosystem. For people starting their own startups, the mentorship and the chance to learn from such a diverse group are invaluable.
Nico Chistian
Fixing Indonesia’s cold storage with electric freezers.
What we’re looking for:
Technical ability
You can code or you are technical in another field like engineering, biotech or hardware. You're a maker. You build stuff.
Fast learner
You've gone through at least 10+ books and courses last year. You're a self directed learner and independent thinker.
Determination
You don't give up. You will succeed or die trying. 10 years to be a doctor, 10 years to be a lawyer, same with being a founder.
Hi there! We are Athena. Our 30 year goal is to help
1 million founders start their first business.
So we can create a university for entrepreneurship.
Start Silicon Valley ecosystems all over the world.
And accelerate science, technology and progress.
Join Athena Founders
Appendix
First believers
Athena will fund you when no other investor will. We'll write your first check. We'll fund: solo founders, young founders, weird founders - we like weird founders. We believe anyone can achieve anything they set their mind to. Fancy university degrees, senior job titles doesn't count for crap. If you work hard, learn fast and build stuff, you're in. You can learn everything else.
The main point of the program is working with our team for 6 months. Our 15 person team helps with ideation, design and building MVP. We try to play a shadow co-founder role for solo founders. Instead of finding a business cofounder and giving up 50% equity. We'll fund you as a solo founder without a business idea, work with you to validate and test ideas, raise funds and hire in a business person later on, where you'll give away much less equity. You could compare Athena to venture studios like HVF Labs or Idea Lab except they take much more equity (25% - 50%)
Power of individuals
The most impactful technologies are built by individuals and small groups. JavaScript was designed by 1 person as a summer project. Google was written by 2 people. Steve Wozniak single handedly built the Apple II including all the hardware and software. Microsoft's first BASIC was written by just Bill Gates and Paul Allen. There at 4 core researchers at OpenAI. All you need is enough money to pay for the founders living expenses to work full time. You don't need much money. You need hustle and determination. More money, more people will only slow you down. Hire once you get product market fit not before.
How to change the world
You have the entire trove of human knowledge in a device in your pocket.
WTF are you waiting for?
Pick an important problem. What are you passionate about? What are the most important problems and technologies in the world?
Study 100 companies in a high impact industry on YC and Crunchbase
Read 100 journal articles Google Scholar, nature.com unlock with Sci Hub
Talk to 100 mentors, ex-founders, industry experts
Become an expert and come up with a product that is 10x better than what's already out there.
That's how Elon Musk, and Sam Altman did it.
