BUILD YOUR COMPANY FROM DAY ZERO

Not quite, we’re inception stage investors, backing founders often before they’ve found their co-founder or developed their idea. We take massive pride in helping our founders identify, develop, validate, and start scaling their ideas and business models quickly through our residencies. We don’t launch and leave; instead, we keep supporting our founders throughout their company's life cycle.

Our initial commitment ranges from $500K-$1M. We aim to be your first institutional investor and a partner for the entire journey of your startup.

Outlier achievers with edge, velocity, and deep domain strength. Builders who move fast and take big swings. We back founders across AI, enterprise SaaS, consumer, fintech, climate, deep tech, health, and emerging new categories.

Antler is built for founders who are here to build real companies. As a Resident, you’re joining a high-caliber community with shared ambition, pace, and respect for one another’s time and craft. At a high level, we expect three things: You’re here to build: Residents come with genuine intent to start a venture. You are here to test ideas, form teams, and work toward building an investable company. You don’t need a fully formed or incorporated startup on day one, but you should be deeply motivated to create one. You commit meaningfully to engaging in the community: Antler works best when founders show up fully, collaborating, giving feedback, sharing insights, and contributing to a culture of generosity and momentum. This is a highly engaged, peer-driven environment, and your participation helps elevate everyone around you. You engage seriously in the investment process: Residents are expected to prepare thoughtfully for pitch opportunities, incorporate feedback, and participate professionally in the process of being evaluated for investment. We ask that Antler retains the opportunity to be the first investor to hear you pitch. In return, Antler commits to offering every Resident a genuine opportunity to build, connect, and, if ready, be considered for funding of $500K–$1M.

Co-founders are welcome, but at least one founder needs to be full-time in residency. Solo founders are also welcome. The residency is perfect for networking and meeting potential co-founders as well.

Residency is designed to support full-time company building while staying flexible to where you are in your journey. Each month includes a mix of workshops, speakers, and social events, alongside weekly standups, office hours, Town Halls, and family dinners to keep the community tight and momentum high. Most programming is optional. If you’ve already shipped, you should be talking to customers instead of attending an MVP workshop; if you’ve formed a team, you may prioritize building over hackathons. What isn’t optional is the commitment: “full-time” means dedicating 100% of your working energy to your startup and actively contributing to an engaged, in-person community of founders building together.

No, there is no fee to join the Antler Residency.

The Antler Residency experience is consistent across New York, Austin, and San Francisco. All three follow the same structure, timeline, and investment process, with the same start and end dates and shared virtual programming that connects founders across cities. Each location is supported by a strong local team of seasoned investors and operators, so the core experience doesn’t change, only the backdrop does. We recommend choosing based on proximity to your home base or closeness to your customers, partners, and talent, as each city offers its own unique tech ecosystem and network.

To join the Antler residency, at least one co-founder will need to already have work authorization that lets you build your company here. Antler does not provide visa sponsorship. We welcome founders to apply if they are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or otherwise hold a status that provides independent, indefinite, and unrestricted work authorization.