Launching the Primary NYC Founders Fellowship

We’re thrilled to announce the Primary NYC Founders Fellowship, a 6-month, part-time immersion in business creation for aspiring entrepreneurs to supercharge the next wave of NYC business creation. This program helps aspiring entrepreneurs go from having an idea and a desire to start a business to getting funded and pursuing a billion-dollar opportunity.

The challenges of starting a company from scratch are overwhelming. Aspiring founders face a complex set of choices and decisions. But the journey has been traversed before and frameworks for analysis, experimentation, peer-support, and coaching are all essential to getting set up for success. From our experience investing in and working alongside early-stage founders at Primary, we believe that the best founders excel at the following:

• Identifying white space. This starts with a vision for how the world should be, tied to a customer pain point that is specific to a market. Rigorously researching and validating your sense of white space is the first step to unlocking a massive business.
• Establishing an early team. Who you start the journey with (and it could be just yourself) will inform every step of the way.
• Developing a go-to-market strategy. This strategy must be informed by research, expert advice specific to your category, and early tests.
• Raising money. If you have done the first two steps correctly, this part comes easier. But it still takes work: developing a phenomenal pitch deck, building a support network, and completing a seed round.
• Mastering the inner game. Starting a company is a demanding, complex, and psychologically challenging endeavor. Peer support, honest feedback, and coaching is all needed.

The NYC Founders Fellowship is designed to coach you on all of these skills to become an exceptional founder. If this is of interest to you, you have come to the right place. This program is completely tailored with aspiring founders’ interests in mind:

• Part-time. We think it’s important to enable aspiring founders to explore their business ideas without the risk of quitting a full-time job. Aspiring founders deserve the chance to mitigate risk and explore new opportunities in a collaborative setting with no strings attached.
• No equity. Primary takes no equity for being a part of this program. This is a platform for participants to learn, explore, and potentially start a business on their terms.
• Coaching. We think that a big part of supporting founders is coaching them, not just giving them access to great speakers and resources. This program is committed to giving participants the mental tools they need to succeed.
• Peer-based. This program centers around the cohorts. Fellows will learn from each other and get consistent feedback from other aspiring founders. If nothing else, participants will come away with an incredible network.

Who should apply?

If you’re an aspiring founder with the beginnings of an idea and a desire to explore it further, we’d love to talk. We are interested in people who meet the following criteria:

• Stage: You haven’t yet raised a Seed round, but you have honed in on a target market or focus area. We welcome founders who have raised small pre-Seed or Angel rounds.
• Location: You’re seeking to start a company in New York City, although you may be remote during the program.
• Experience: You have “earned insights” and a competitive advantage in a market or domain from prior work experience.

What are the nuts and bolts of the program?

The program will last 6 months, with peer groups of 4–5 fellows. The program will consist of weekly peer group meetings, monthly pitch sessions, and office hours with the Primary team. We are also thrilled to partner with some amazing Startup Experts, leading investors and entrepreneurs in the New York tech ecosystem, who will sit down for fireside chats and participate on panels for the fellows twice a month.

All of this programming will be overlaid with our Startup 101 curriculum, a series of readings and content covering the most important basics of starting a company. A typical week in the program could include:

• A peer group session with 3–4 other fellows to share progress and challenges
• A practice pitch session with your peer group
• Optional office hours with the Primary team
• An optional fireside chat with a Startup Expert
• Assigned readings on a specific entrepreneurial topic (e.g. go-to-market strategy, brand, fundraising)

We are starting this program because we want to reduce the frictions that prevent talented people in New York from building businesses. We hope this opportunity enables some of you to make that leap and begin exploring.

To apply, please fill out the application here by March 2nd. The first cohort will begin on March 29th. Feel free to reach out with questions to tobias@primary.vc. We look forward to meeting you soon!