Introducing Elbow Grease
“Two or three brawny Fellows in a Corner, with mere Ink and Elbow-grease, do more Harm than an Hundred systematical Divines with their sweaty Preaching.” — Andrew Marvell (1672)
Today we are excited to announce Elbow Grease: A Hardworking AI Accelerator by Gutter Capital in NYC. Elbow Grease is something new, but it is also a return to our roots.
In 2019, after I sold Managed by Q to WeWork, I began advising a handful of companies in NYC including Opus, Bikky and Faraday. I was drawn to mission-driven founders who had hard learned insights, but limited experience building software. I helped them navigate to product-market-fit and build world-class teams from my network. In the depths of COVID, we rented a small office together in Chinatown and formed an in-person community in a WFH world. It was a bright light in a dark time.
In 2021, inspired by the opportunity to lead rounds at Forerunner, Bikky, and Opus, we raised a small fund. Gutter Capital was born. Fast forward exactly 4-years, and our Fund I is in the top 5% of all venture funds in the world. Gutter companies are 3x more likely to graduate from Seed to Series A than their peers. We moved across Canal Street, and now Gutter HQ is home to 50 people across 10 companies.
Elbow Grease is back to basics — working with a small group of founders and doing everything in our power to help them succeed. We do not aspire to build a start-up factory, or a finishing school for fancy fundraisers. This is not a speed run, but rather the first steps in what we hope will be a lifelong partnership.
Key details:
- 5 companies selected for $300k pre-seed investment from Gutter Capital
- 8 week program at 221 Canal in NYC, starting January 2026
- 1:1 mentorship from veteran founders, weekly off-the-record conversations with industry leaders, high impact workshops
- 30+ incredible mentors, speakers, and presenters from the Gutterverse including Scott Belsky, Claire Hughes Johnson, Miguel McKelvey, Satya Patel, Eric Glyman, and many many more
- Applications open now through Thanksgiving
We are looking for a few founders hell-bent on building companies of consequence to join our small but mighty community. If you think that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.
With love and elbow grease,
Dan Teran & James Gettinger
p.s. thank you to our sponsors at Perkins Coie, Ramp, and Microsoft for Startups.
