work sucks, start a company, it’ll be fun. we’ll match your salary, you keep 93% equity

Free program with optional investment

Free program with optional investment

Mentors who've built multi-million dollar businesses

Host

Founder, CEO, ContactOut

$10M USD revenue, $5M 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

Hmlet, a co-living company raised $40M USD from Sequoia

Mentor

BukuWarung, a fintech companyraised $80M USD from Peter Thiel's Valar, 400 staff

Mentor

Una Brand an e-com company, raised $100M USD, $70M revenue

Hi there! We are Athena. We're helping:


1 million founders start their first business.


To create a university for entrepreneurship.


Start Silicon Valley ecosystems all over the world.

And accelerate science, technology and progress.

No experience required

You'll learn step by step how to build an 8 figure business from zero. We'll guide you on finding co-founders, ideation, product, sales, marketing.

Athena will be your "co-founder"
for 6 months

Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP. We'll help you fund raise. Leverage our experience to move faster. We've made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

Startups are not risky.

Everyone we know who's worked 10 years on startups is making $500,000 USD 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

View Athena's Curriculum

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

Group coaching sessions

Weekly Ask Me Anything sessions.

Here participants share business challenges and our mentors will help brain-storm solutions.

Free to join, we prioritise questions from Athena founders.

Join AMA Session

A community for the
very best founders

Focus group

6 founders meet for 1 hr/week to share learnings and discuss challenges, either in person or online. This is the core of Athena Founders. The discussion structure is based on YPO forum a learning group attended by 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

Online community

Founders will share weekly updates on: goals, learnings, activities, challenges, and provide feedback and hold each other accountable.

Mentorship sessions

Meet with successful founders who have built $1million+ businesses. We’ll invite speakers and we’ll teach each founder group how to find their own industry relevant speakers via Linkedin outreach.

Athena is

Strategies and tactics. Gain insights, ideas, and guidance from fellow founders.

Safe space. Judgment-free zone where you can share successes, failures, and challenges

Hitting goals and accountability.

Making friends. Find your next cofounder. Create business relationships.

Raising money. Our community has raised over 40 million and are connected to major VC firms.

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.

Grit and 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.

Program structure

Founders Community
  • Free to join, no equity requirement

  • 1 hour / week group coaching

  • 1 hour / week founders focus group

  • Post weekly updates on goals, learnings, progress, challenges

Cash prizes for achieving goals:

  • $100 USD for studying 10 competitors

  • $100 for talking to 10 users writing up learning

  • $100 for talking 5 ex-founders / industry experts

  • $100 for building in public and posting weekly updates

Athena Residency
  • We'll match your salary for 6 months so you can work full time on your startup, you keep 93% equity.

  • Athena will be your "cofounder" for 6 months. Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP.

  • Suitable for founders with 2-6 years work experience earning $20,000 - $80,000 USD salary based in Asia Pacific.

  • $20,000 - $50,000 USD funding for 7% equity on a post money SAFE

    • For Singaporean founders. We'll help you apply for an additional $20,000-$50,000 in matching government grants.

  • Worst case you'll learn something and go back to your job with no loss in income, best case you'll be running a successful company.

  • You do not need a cofounder, or a business idea, or any startup experience. Just need to learn fast and work hard.

  • Learn more about Athena Residency.

Appendix

Athena's mission

Fund 1 million founders in developing countries

  • Create a university for entrepreneurship

  • Start Silicon Valley ecosystems all over the world

  • Accelerate science, technology, human progress

  • Create trillions in wealth

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. You don't need a business idea. Our acceptance rate is 10x higher than mainstream venture capital firms. But it's 100% up to you, complete all your goals, put in the work, we will fund you. 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.

Our funding terms are 20k-50k for 7% equity. This is only supposed to match your salary so you can work full time on the startup with no loss in income.

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 don't work with later stage founders who already have traction and can raise a seed round. e.g if you can raise 500k from YC, Athena is not a fit. If you can raise 5m from Sequoia then YC is not a fit.

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.

An alternative to university

Steve Wozniak (Apple) didn't learn anything about computers at university, he taught himself in high school by reading textbook and chip manuals and designing computers on paper. Einstein discovered the theory of relatively whilst working as a desk clerk and reading physics papers in his spare time. Elon Musk taught himself how to build SpaceX and Tesla.

Paul Graham (YC) describes school as Prison: a place to memorize meaningless facts so adults can get on with their day. Where all the work is pointless, and achieving results doesn't matter, so everything devolves into a popularity contest.

How to change the world

You have the entire trove of human knowledge in a device in your pocket.
WTF are you waiting for?

That's how Elon Musk, and Sam Altman did it. There's no course at university for how to build SpaceX, Tesla or OpenAI.

Got a question?

Talk to our venture partners Rishi and Muskan

Join us at Athena Founders

Free program with optional investment

© 2024 Athena VC. All rights reserved.

Our Founders

Resources

Book a call

work sucks, start a company, it’ll be fun. we’ll match your salary, you keep 93% equity

Free program with optional investment

Free program with optional investment

Hi there! We are Athena. We're helping:


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.

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

View Athena's Curriculum

No experience required

You'll learn step by step how to build an 8 figure business from zero. We'll guide you on finding co-founders, ideation, product, sales, marketing + more.

Athena will be your "co-founder" for 6 months

Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP. We'll help you fundraise. Leverage our experience to move faster. We've made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

Startups are not as risky as you think.

Everyone we know who's worked 10 years on startups is making USD 500,000 USD 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.

Mentors who've built multi-million dollar businesses

Host

Founder, CEO, ContactOut

$10M USD revenue, $5M 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

Hmlet, a co-living company raised $40M USD from Sequoia

Mentor

Fintech, raised $80M USD from Peter Thiel's Valar, 400 staff

Mentor

E-commerce, raised $100M USD, $70M revenue

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

Group coaching sessions

Weekly Ask Me Anything sessions.

Here participants share business challenges and our mentors will help brain-storm solutions.

Free to join, we prioritise questions from Athena founders.

Join AMA Session

A community for the very best founders

Focus group

6 founders meet for 1 hr/week to share learnings and discuss challenges, either in person or online. This is the core of Athena Founders. The discussion structure is based on YPO forum a learning group attended by 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

Online community

Founders will share weekly updates on: goals, learnings, activities, challenges, and provide feedback and hold each other accountable.

Mentorship sessions

Meet with successful founders who have built $1million+ businesses. We’ll invite speakers and we’ll teach each founder group how to find their own industry relevant speakers via Linkedin outreach.

Athena is

Strategies and tactics. Gain insights, ideas, and guidance from fellow founders.

Safe space. Judgment-free zone where you can share successes, failures, and challenges

Hitting goals and accountability.

Making friends. Find your next cofounder. Create business relationships.

Raising money. Our community has raised over 40 million and are connected to major VC firms.

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.

Program structure

Founders Community
  • Free to join, no equity requirement

  • 1 hour / week group coaching

  • 1 hour / week founders focus group

  • Post weekly updates on goals, learnings, progress, challenges

Cash prizes for achieving goals:

  • $100 USD for studying 10 competitors

  • $100 for talking to 10 users writing up learning

  • $100 for talking to 5 ex-founders / industry experts

  • $100 for building in public and posting weekly updates

Athena Residency
  • We'll match your salary for 6 months so you can work full time on your startup, you keep 93% equity.

  • Athena will be your "cofounder" for 6 months. Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP.

  • Suitable for founders with 2-6 years work experience earning $20,000 - $80,000 USD salary based in Asia Pacific.

  • $20,000 - $50,000 USD funding for 7% equity on a post money SAFE

  • Worst case you'll learn something and go back to your job with no loss in income, best case you'll be running a successful company.

  • You do not need a cofounder, or a business idea, or any startup experience. Just need to learn fast and work hard.

  • Learn more about Athena Residency.

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. You don't need a business idea. Our acceptance rate is 10x higher than mainstream venture capital firms. But it's 100% up to you, complete all your goals, put in the work, we will fund you. 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.

Our funding terms are 20k-50k for 7% equity. This is only supposed to match your salary so you can work full time on the startup with no loss in income.

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 don't work with later stage founders who already have traction and can raise a seed round. e.g if you can raise 500k from YC, Athena is not a fit. If you can raise 5m from Sequoia then YC is not a fit.

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.

An alternative to university

Steve Wozniak (Apple) didn't learn anything about computers at university, he taught himself in high school by reading textbook and chip manuals and designing computers on paper. Einstein discovered the theory of relatively whilst working as a desk clerk and reading physics papers in his spare time. Elon Musk taught himself how to build SpaceX and Tesla.

Paul Graham (YC) describes school as Prison: a place to memorize meaningless facts so adults can get on with their day. Where all the work is pointless, and achieving results doesn't matter, so everything devolves into a popularity contest.

How to change the world

You have the entire trove of human knowledge in a device in your pocket.
WTF are you waiting for?

That's how Elon Musk, and Sam Altman did it. There's no course at university for how to build SpaceX, Tesla or OpenAI.

Got a question?

Talk to our venture partners Rishi and Muskan

© 2024 Athena VC. All rights reserved.

work sucks, start a company, it’ll be fun. we’ll match your salary, you keep 93% equity.

Join our community

Free program with optional investment

Free program with optional investment

Mentors who've built multi-million dollar businesses

Host

Founder, CEO, ContactOut

$10M USD revenue, $5M 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

Hmlet, a co-living company raised $40M USD from Sequoia

Mentor

Fintech, raised $80M USD from Peter Thiel's Valar, 400 staff

Mentor

E-commerce, raised $100M USD, $70M revenue

Hi there! We are Athena. We're helping:


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.

No experience required

You'll learn step by step how to build an 8 figure business from zero. We'll guide you on finding co-founders, ideation, product, sales, marketing + more.

Athena will be your "co-founder" for 6 months

Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP. We'll help you fund raise. Leverage our experience to move faster. We've made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

Startups are not as risky as you think.

Everyone we know who's worked 10 years on startups is making USD 500,000 USD 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

View Athena's Curriculum

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

Group coaching sessions

Weekly Ask Me Anything sessions.

Here participants share business challenges and our mentors will help brain-storm solutions.

Free to join, we prioritise questions from Athena founders.

Join AMA Session

A community for the very best founders

Focus group

6 founders meet for 1 hr/week to share learnings and discuss challenges, either in person or online. This is the core of Athena Founders. The discussion structure is based on YPO forum a learning group attended by 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

Online community

Founders will share weekly updates on: goals, learnings, activities, challenges, and provide feedback and hold each other accountable.

Mentorship sessions

Meet with successful founders who have built $1million+ businesses. We’ll invite speakers and we’ll teach each founder group how to find their own industry relevant speakers via Linkedin outreach.

Athena is

Strategies and tactics. Gain insights, ideas, and guidance from fellow founders.

Safe space. Judgment-free zone where you can share successes, failures, and challenges

Hitting goals and accountability

Making friends. Find your next cofounder. Create business relationships.

Raising money. Our community has raised over 40 million and are connected to major VC firms.

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.

Program structure

Founders Community
  • Free to join, no equity requirement

  • 1 hour / week group coaching

  • 1 hour / week founders focus group

  • Post weekly updates on goals, learnings, progress, challenges

Cash prizes for achieving goals:

  • $100 USD for studying 10 competitors

  • $100 for talking to 10 users writing up learning

  • $100 for talking to 5 ex-founders / industry experts

  • $100 for building in public and posting weekly updates

Athena Residency
  • We'll match your salary for 6 months so you can work full time on your startup, you keep 93% equity.

  • Athena will be your "cofounder" for 6 months. Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP.

  • Suitable for founders with 2-6 years work experience earning $20,000 - $80,000 USD salary based in Asia Pacific.

  • $20,000 - $50,000 USD funding for 7% equity on a post money SAFE

    • For Singaporean founders. We'll help you apply for an additional $20,000-$50,000 in matching government grants.

  • Worst case you'll learn something and go back to your job with no loss in income, best case you'll be running a successful company.

  • You do not need a cofounder, or a business idea, or any startup experience. Just need to learn fast and work hard.

  • Learn more about Athena Residency.

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. You don't need a business idea. Our acceptance rate is 10x higher than mainstream venture capital firms. But it's 100% up to you, complete all your goals, put in the work, we will fund you. 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.

Our funding terms are 20k-50k for 7% equity. This is only supposed to match your salary so you can work full time on the startup with no loss in income.

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 don't work with later stage founders who already have traction and can raise a seed round. e.g if you can raise 500k from YC, Athena is not a fit. If you can raise 5m from Sequoia then YC is not a fit.

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.

An alternative to university

Steve Wozniak (Apple) didn't learn anything about computers at university, he taught himself in high school by reading textbook and chip manuals and designing computers on paper. Einstein discovered the theory of relatively whilst working as a desk clerk and reading physics papers in his spare time. Elon Musk taught himself how to build SpaceX and Tesla.

Paul Graham (YC) describes school as Prison: a place to memorize meaningless facts so adults can get on with their day. Where all the work is pointless, and achieving results doesn't matter, so everything devolves into a popularity contest.

How to change the world

You have the entire trove of human knowledge in a device in your pocket.
WTF are you waiting for?

That's how Elon Musk, and Sam Altman did it. There's no course at university for how to build SpaceX, Tesla or OpenAI.

Got a question?

Talk to our venture partners Rishi and Muskan

© 2024 Athena VC. All rights reserved.

work sucks, start a company, it’ll be fun
we’ll match your salary, you keep 93% equity

Free program with optional investment

Mentors who've built multi-million dollar businesses

Host

Founder, CEO, ContactOut

$10M USD revenue, $5M 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

Hmlet, a co-living company raised $40M USD from Sequoia

Mentor

Fintech, raised $80M USD from Peter Thiel's Valar, 400 staff

Mentor

E-commerce, raised $100M USD, $70M revenue

Hi there! We are Athena. We're helping:


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.

No experience required

You'll learn step by step how to build an 8 figure business from zero. We'll guide you on finding co-founders, ideation, product, sales, marketing + more.



Athena will be your "co-founder" for 6 months

Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation. Our 15 pax product team can help you design and build your MVP. We'll help you fund raise. Leverage our experience to move faster. We've made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

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

View Athena's Curriculum

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

Group coaching sessions

Weekly Ask Me Anything sessions.

Here participants share business challenges and our mentors will help brain-storm solutions.

Free to join, we prioritise questions from Athena founders.

Join AMA Session

A community for the very best founders

Focus group

6 founders 1 hr meeting/ week. Share learnings and discuss challenges. You can meet in person or online. This is the core of Athena Founders. The discussion structure is based on YPO forum which is attended by 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

Online community

Founders share weekly updates on: goals, learnings, activities, challenges on Discord. Provide feedback and hold each other accountable.

Mentorship sessions

Group coaching with successful founders who have built $1million+ businesses. We’ll also teach founders how to find their own industry relevant mentors using LinkedIn.

Athena is

Strategies and tactics. Gain insights, ideas, and guidance from fellow founders.

Safe space. Judgment-free zone where you can share successes, failures, and challenges

Hitting goals and accountability

Making friends. Find your next cofounder. Create business relationships.

Raising money. Our community has raised over 40 million and are connected to major VC firms.

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.

Program Structure

Founders Community
  • Free to join, no equity requirement

  • 1 hour / week group coaching

  • 1 hour / week founders focus group

  • Post weekly updates on goals, learnings, progress, challenges

Cash prizes for learning entrepreneurship:

  • $100 USD for studying 10 competitors

  • $100 for talking to 10 users writing up learning

  • $100 for talking to 5 ex-founders / industry experts

  • $100 for building in public and posting weekly updates

Athena Residency
  • We'll match your salary for 6 months so you can work full time on your startup, you keep 93% equity.

  • Athena will be your "cofounder" for 6 months. Work directly with Rob on refining your business idea and customer validation.

  • Our 15 person product team can help you design and build your MVP.

  • Suitable for founders with 2-6 years work experience earning $20,000 - $80,000 USD salary based in Asia Pacific.

  • $20,000 - $50,000 USD funding for 7% equity on a post money SAFE

  • Worst case you'll learn something and go back to your job with no loss in income, best case you'll be running a successful company.

  • You do not need a cofounder, or a business idea, or any startup experience. Just need to learn fast and work hard.

  • Learn more about Athena Residency.

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. You don't need a business idea. Our acceptance rate is 10x higher than mainstream venture capital firms. But it's 100% up to you, complete all your goals, put in the work, we will fund you. 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.

Our funding terms are 20k-50k for 7% equity. This is only supposed to match your salary so you can work full time on the startup with no loss in income.

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 don't work with later stage founders who already have traction and can raise a seed round. e.g if you can raise 500k from YC, Athena is not a fit. If you can raise 5m from Sequoia then YC is not a fit.

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.

An alternative to university

Steve Wozniak (Apple) didn't learn anything about computers at university, he taught himself in high school by reading textbook and chip manuals and designing computers on paper. Einstein discovered the theory of relatively whilst working as a desk clerk and reading physics papers in his spare time. Elon Musk taught himself how to build SpaceX and Tesla.

Paul Graham (YC) describes school as Prison: a place to memorize meaningless facts so adults can get on with their day. Where all the work is pointless, and achieving results doesn't matter, so everything devolves into a popularity contest.

How to change the world

You have the entire trove of human knowledge in a device in your pocket.
WTF are you waiting for?

That's how Elon Musk, and Sam Altman did it. There's no course at university for how to build SpaceX, Tesla or OpenAI.

Got a question?

Talk to our venture partners Rishi and Muskan

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