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Conviction Embed (MSFT)

Conviction is a new venture firm purpose-built to serve AI-Native, “Software 3.0” companies, and to help them achieve their potential as the most important companies of tomorrow. If "Software 1.0" was about human-written code, and
"Software 2.0"
⁠
is about dataset labeling, "Software 3.0" will be about manipulating foundation models. We are extremely early in the translation of powerful AI models to powerful end-user products that transform industries.
Frontiers like this are exciting, weird and lonely places, and they lead to small but strong communities. To support these companies on the AI frontier, we're launching Embed, a highly selective, eight-week program for extraordinary early (pre-seed, seed-stage) founding teams. Embed harnesses a powerful network and tribal knowledge on software company-building, while creating a community for shared learning about AI-native challenges.
Embed is meant to be lightweight but powerful, giving great teams a Schelling Point and access, and leaving the rest up to them. Once a week, we will convene teams to share progress and challenges, and bring in friends and partners from the ecosystem to help (founders, customers, leading researchers, practitioners, model/cloud/tooling providers). Demo Day is open to the broader investor community.

To apply, please
submit this form
⁠
(takes 15 minutes or less) by 8/4/2023.


Some specifics:
$150K investment, uncapped MFN SAFE
[$300K in Microsoft Azure credits], $50K of other credits:
OpenAI
⁠
,
Anthropic
⁠
,
Baseten
⁠
and access to technical advisory from model and cloud partners
Eight weeks:
Kickoff: 9/4
Week 1: First round of office hours with Conviction
Weeks 1-7: Weekly group meals are held in SF, but can be attended remotely
Week 5: Second round of office hours with Conviction
Week 8: Teams should expect to spend the last week in SF
Fundraising bootcamp with Conviction
"Hiring Demo Day" 11/8, with attendance exclusively by screened engineers and researchers interested in working at early stage AI startups
Engineer interested in attending? Request an invite
"Investor Demo Day" 11/9, with attendance by General Partners from A16Z, Benchmark, General Catalyst, Greylock, GV, Index, Lightspeed, Sequoia, and leading solo GPs and angels.
Investor interested in attending? Request an invite
Dinner guests, advisors and visiting partners:
Ivan Zhao, CEO Notion
Henrique Duburugas, CEO Brex
Anu Bharadwaj, COO Atlassian
Amjad Masad, CEO Replit
Kaz Nejatian, COO Shopify
Harrison Chase, CEO Langchain
David Hsu, CEO Retool
Matei Zaharia, CTO Databricks
Guillermo Rauch, CEO Vercel
[Dylan Field, CEO Figma] - need to confirm timing
Research office hours w/ Noam Brown (Meta, OpenAI), Arthur Mensch (Deepmind, Mistral), Kelvin Guu (Google)
Organized with our friend Mike Vernal

FAQ

What kind of founders are we looking for?

We have backed engineers, researchers, product folks, domain experts and dropouts. We gravitate towards technical teams who build with velocity and pragmatism. We’re lucky to already be in business with extraordinary founders like
Alex
⁠
,
Arthur
⁠
,
Ashish
⁠
,
Bret
⁠
,
Douwe
⁠
,
Gabe
⁠
,
Mustafa
⁠
,
Niki
⁠
, and
Sarah
⁠
. We’re excited to meet more like them.

When can I expect to hear back?

Applications will close 8/4. We’ll get back to all participants with a decision by 8/18 (within two weeks).

I just got started/haven’t incorporated/don’t have a cofounder. Am I too early to apply?

No! We’re excited to work with folks from very early on in their journey.
If you’re a solo founder or actively looking for a cofounder, fill out the Embed application and check the box for “looking for a cofounder.” We’ll be actively helping match participants before and during the program.

I’ve already raised some money. Are we too late to apply?

No, we expect some of our class to have raised money already, but the focus of Embed is to create a community around extraordinarily early teams and to allow them to use one another for support, motivation, and shared learning.

Do I have to be in person in San Francisco?

We don’t require teams to be in person other than November 6-9th for the fundraising office hours, hiring demo fair, and investor demo day. However, community is much of the value and we expect many teams will choose to work locally. All events throughout the program (i.e. weekly dinners/discussions) will be hosted in person, but we’ll offer opportunities to participate virtually as well.

I’m a sponsor/mentor/customer who wants to help. How do I get in touch?

Please get in touch at
embed@conviction.com
⁠


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