Curated list of startup incubators and accelerators from San Francisco and guides to their programs
San Francisco stands as the undisputed global epicenter of startup innovation and venture capital, where the world's most ambitious founders, investors, and technologists converge to build companies that shape the future. As the birthplace of Y Combinator and home to the highest concentration of venture capital, technical talent, and successful entrepreneurs, San Francisco offers advantages that simply don't exist anywhere else. The city's startup incubators in San Francisco and accelerator programs—including Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Alchemist, and numerous others—have launched thousands of companies worth billions collectively. Despite astronomical costs and intense competition, San Francisco remains the destination for founders with global ambitions who want to build transformative companies at maximum speed with access to unmatched resources.
Entrepreneurs First (EF) is a unique accelerator that doesn’t wait for founders to show up with a startup—it backs exceptional individuals first, then helps them become funded founders. EF is designed for people with talent, ambition, and potential, whether they already have an idea, are exploring one, or have nothing more than the drive to build something big.
What makes EF different:
EF builds cofounding teams from scratch. Through a highly curated matching process, founders gain access to a pool of top-tier talent, meet potential cofounders at retreats and hackathons, and receive expert guidance on selecting the right partner. Many unicorn and high-growth companies—like Sonantic (acquired by Spotify)—were formed entirely through EF’s matching process.
From zero to revenue:
Founders join EF at the earliest stage, often before an idea exists. EF advisors help shape and validate concepts rapidly, with the top-performing teams generating revenue by Demo Day. Founders work closely with advisors in EF’s local offices and receive U.S.-market support from a dedicated San Francisco partner.
Elite network & global exposure:
EF provides private, off-the-record sessions with some of the world’s most iconic founders and tech leaders, including John Collison (Stripe), Adam D’Angelo (Quora), Eric Schmidt (Google), Demis Hassabis (DeepMind), Nat Friedman, Kevin Hartz, and Daniel Gross. Founders also gain access to a powerful investor base: Founders Fund, Greylock, a16z, Index, Khosla, Sequoia, Initialized, and more.
Bridge to Silicon Valley:
EF helps founders relocate, incorporate as a Delaware C Corp, build for the U.S. market, and pitch at EF’s San Francisco Demo Day, attended by 200+ VC partners. Most EF companies raise $1–7M within weeks of Demo Day, with many going on to build venture-backed businesses in AI, robotics, fintech, supply chain, and aerospace.
Founder-friendly funding & support:
Equity-free grant during ideation
Up to $250K investment once the company forms
Up to $3M in follow-on funding
Over $600K in credits (Azure, OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, PostHog, Datadog, ElevenLabs, and more)
Nine months of office space across London, Bangalore, and San Francisco
Track record:
Companies built through EF exceed $13B in total value, including:
Aztec (privacy infrastructure for Ethereum)
Cleo (AI financial management)
Neptune Robotics (robotic ship maintenance)
Omnea (AI supply chain)
Magdrive (satellite propulsion)
EF is ideal for ambitious individuals who’ve consistently outperformed their peers, built products or organizations before, and want to found a U.S.-focused, venture-scale startup.
Neo Accelerator is an intensive, three-month program for highly technical pre-seed and seed founders across North America. Each year, Neo brings together a tight-knit cohort of 20 standout technical teams and gives them the funding, mentorship, community, and network needed to build world-class companies.
Founders begin with a fully-paid, month-long bootcamp in Sunriver, Oregon, living and building alongside mentors and other startups. The experience then continues in Neo’s San Francisco office, where teams can co-work, refine their product, access the broader Neo community, and prepare for Demo Day. The program ends with an all-inclusive retreat in Arizona and a pitch to top-tier investors, engineers, and tech leaders.
Neo offers $600K in founder-friendly funding through an uncapped SAFE with a $10M floor valuation, along with shared upside across the whole cohort. Startups also receive access to world-class mentors—founders and operators from Notion, Google Sheets, Webflow, Dropbox, Figma, Cognition, Airbnb, Scale AI, and more—through weekly 1:1 meetings, workshops, and intimate events.
The program includes substantial technical advantages: $350K+ in OpenAI & Azure credits, priority GPU access, hands-on AI support from Microsoft and OpenAI researchers, and discounted tools across the startup stack. Neo also provides access to one of the strongest engineering recruiting networks in the industry, used by companies like OpenAI, Notion, and Ramp.
Backers of Neo include iconic leaders such as Sheryl Sandberg, Ben Silbermann, Amjad Masad, Akshay Kothari, Sarah Smith, and Henry Kravis—and Neo-backed companies include Cursor, Kalshi, Bluesky, Vanta, Moment, Sapien, Caldera, and Cassidy.
Neo places a strong emphasis on diversity: 45% of its capital has gone to female or underrepresented minority CEOs. Solo founders are welcome, as long as at least one founder is technical.
Founders who join Neo gain lifelong access to a community of 300+ tech veterans, mentors, and operators—a network designed to give far more than it takes.
PearX is Pear VC’s exclusive, small-batch accelerator for pre-seed founders—designed to give early teams the highest possible chance of success. This 12-week program combines meaningful capital, deep founder-to-founder mentorship, and hands-on support that spans everything from hiring to customer acquisition. With a cohort size capped at ~20 teams, PearX delivers a level of personal attention most accelerators simply can’t match. More than 90% of PearX companies go on to raise institutional seed rounds.
What founders get:
Flexible capital: $250K to $2M invested based on stage and company needs.
Massive technical support: Over $1M in cloud credits from Microsoft, OpenAI, and other top providers.
Dedicated mentorship: 1:1 guidance from Pear partners—experienced founders and operators with deep expertise in your vertical.
A real community: A tight-knit cohort of ambitious founders + the broader Pear network of alumni and operators.
Pear Studio: Free access to a 30,000 sq ft HQ in Mission Bay, SF for six months—offices, meeting rooms, phone booths, collaborative spaces, and more.
Sales & GTM support: Help defining ICP, prospecting, customer discovery, and building a scalable sales engine.
Hiring support: A dedicated in-house recruiter to help you secure key early hires, from founding engineers to designers.
Fundraising preparation: Pitch refinement, storytelling, target investor lists, and deal support to raise a strong seed round.
Program experience:
PearX begins with Camp Pear, a 3-day retreat where founders meet, bond, and align before diving into the 12-week sprint. Each cohort concludes with an in-person Demo Day for top GPs, followed by a virtual Demo Day to thousands of investors.
Who it’s for:
Pre-seed founders ready to build in person in the San Francisco Bay Area. Solo founders are welcome, and Pear can even support co-founder matching. Companies may have raised up to $2M prior to PearX.
Why PearX stands out:
Unlike high-volume accelerators, PearX intentionally keeps its batches small so each company receives deep, personalized support. The result: 90+% of PearX startups successfully raise follow-on funding, and many go on to build category-defining companies.
AI Grant is a global accelerator for pre-seed and seed-stage AI startups, offering one of the most generous and founder-friendly packages in the ecosystem. Each selected team receives a $250K investment on an uncapped MFN SAFE, $350K+ in Azure credits, and access to a world-class network of advisors, operators, and investors shaping the future of AI.
What founders get:
$250K investment with no cap, no discount — one of the most favorable early-stage terms available.
Massive cloud support: $350,000 in Azure credits plus over $700K+ in additional partner credits from OpenAI, Anthropic, Replicate, PostHog, ElevenLabs, Vercel, Cohere, Hugging Face, Stripe, Vapi, and more.
AI Grant Summit in San Francisco: A focused weekend with fellow founders and legendary advisors.
Exclusive Demo Day: Pitch in front of top-tier investors, executives, and AI-focused venture firms.
Founders Hub membership + GTM support: Courtesy of Microsoft for Startups.
A community of top AI builders:
AI Grant’s advisor list includes industry heavyweights such as David Holz (Midjourney), Andrej Karpathy, Tobi Lütke (Shopify), Patrick Collison (Stripe), Alexandr Wang (Scale), Dylan Field (Figma), Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Noam Shazeer, and more — giving founders unmatched access to product, model, and company-building expertise.
Track record:
AI Grant has backed hundreds of AI-native startups across four batches, including products in generative video (Pika), infrastructure (Replicate, RunPod), voice (Play.ht), robotics (Matic Robots), developer tools (Cursor), SaaS automation (Momentic, Abstract AI), geospatial intelligence, model testing, deepfake detection, and more. Alumni span every category of modern AI—from consumer apps to frontier research and specialized enterprise agents.
Who it’s for:
Founders building AI-native products, tools, and applications — especially those who care about iteration, UX, and delivering something users genuinely love. No credentials are required, solo founders are welcome, and teams may even apply before forming a company.
About the program:
Originally launched in 2017 as a research grant initiative, AI Grant has evolved into a full-scale accelerator backed by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, who have invested $10M into the program. Larger follow-on investments (up to $100M) are available through their separate funds.
The Mint by BTV is a dedicated pre-seed program built specifically for fintech founders—the only platform designed by fintech operators for fintech operators. Created by the team behind Better Tomorrow Ventures, who’ve backed 100+ fintech startups and previously ran the 500 Fintech accelerator, The Mint gives founders the specialized support, network, and expertise traditional programs can’t match.
Why it stands out:
Fintech companies face unique regulatory, distribution, and product challenges. The Mint is designed to remove those early friction points by pairing founders directly with seasoned fintech operators, top strategic partners, and the BTV team—people who’ve been building fintech since before it even had a name.
What founders get:
Hands-on support: BTV acts like an extension of your founding team, helping with hiring, culture, go-to-market, partnerships, and fundraising.
Deep network access: Direct introductions to fintech partners, customers, angels, and VCs across the BTV ecosystem.
Fundraising guidance: Strategy, storytelling, warm intros, and prep for raising your next round.
10-week in-person program: Focused workshops, coaching, and fireside chats with leading fintech CEOs—all culminating in a Demo Day with top-tier investors and strategic partners.
Fintech-specific expertise: Legal, pricing, founder-led sales, early product, HR, and more—taught by operators who’ve lived it.
Founder experience:
Alumni consistently highlight The Mint’s collaborative environment, tailored resources, daily interaction with fellow founders, and the low-ego culture that makes it safe to test ideas, ask questions, and move fast.
Who it’s for:
Pre-seed fintech founders who want to build, validate, and scale with the backing of one of the strongest fintech investor networks in the world.
A pre-seed program built to take founders from 0 to 1.
Velocity is Village Global’s bespoke program for pre-seed founders, offering capital, a global peer cohort, and unmatched access to one of the strongest networks in tech. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Funding:
Village Global invests up to $1M to help founders reach their next major milestone. When it’s time for follow-on rounds, they provide pitch refinement and warm introductions to top investors.
Network Access:
Founders can leverage the Village Global network for hiring, expert guidance, customer intros, and—over time—direct access to the program’s high-profile luminary LPs (many of whom built iconic tech companies).
Global Participation:
Velocity is fully remote-friendly. Founders can join from anywhere, and those wanting to relocate to the U.S. receive immigration legal sponsorship through Alma, covered by the program.
AI Compute Benefits:
AI teams receive premium benefits from major partners, including:
Up to $350K in Azure credits with GPU cluster access
$10K in OpenAI credits, usage upgrades, and early technical access
Anthropic credits, priority support, and top rate limits
Peer Community:
Velocity emphasizes shared learning through curated Mastermind groups, founder meetups, masterclasses, and the annual Villagers Retreat, where founders connect with peers a few steps ahead.
Accel Atoms is a pre-seed incubator designed for Indian and Indian-origin founders building from anywhere in the world. The program blends Accel’s global network, operational playbooks, and hands-on mentorship to help early teams scale fast and stay in “perpetual beta”—constantly iterating, testing, and uncovering new possibilities.
What they focus on:
Atoms backs ambitious founders across the full AI stack—from foundational models and developer tooling to enterprise AI agents, consumer AI products, and frontier “physical AI” applications. They’re also open to bold ideas outside these themes.
Program highlights:
Highly selective cohort: Only 8–10 startups per batch.
Deep personalization: No cookie-cutters—support is tailored to each startup’s stage and needs.
Community access: Connect with 350+ founders, 100+ investors, and Accel’s global operator network.
Customer access: Warm introductions to early enterprise buyers, end-users, and the Accel portfolio of 200+ startups.
1:1 Mentorship: Monthly office hours with Accel partners plus direct sessions with top global AI leaders.
Applications for the AI 2025 Cohort close on September 1, with the program kicking off in November.
A long-term home for ambitious builders in emerging tech.
Founders, Inc. backs early founders with checks of up to $250k, investing primarily in AI/ML, AR/VR, gaming, hardware, Web3, dev tools, and consumer tech. Their model blends funding with a deep, hands-on support system rather than a traditional accelerator or VC setup.
Accepted founders get a dedicated seat on the F.inc Campus in San Francisco, surrounded by prolific builders, daily community lunches, office hours, events, media resources, a hardware lab, and ongoing support. There are no pitch decks—founders apply, build on campus for a short trial, and decisions are made based on real traction and execution.
They take 4–7% equity, offer long-term residency rather than a fixed cohort timeline, and often support founders before and after programs like YC. Founders join when they have a clear direction, early traction, and a strong point of view on what they’re building. Those not yet ready can join shorter 4–6 week programs to build momentum and prepare for funding.
Founders, Inc. is designed for builders with curiosity, technical drive, ambition, and a distinctive perspective—founders who want a community, not just capital.
Editor's Note:
According to founders, the Forum Ventures application process combined an online application, interviews, and customer references in a streamlined approach that emphasized mutual fit, startup potential, and a discovery-oriented experience tailored for B2B SaaS startups.
Here’s what the founders had to say about the structure of Forum Ventures’ application process…
One founder’s application to Forum Ventures involved an initial outreach from the accelerator, an informational call for mutual learning, followed by a structured process of interviews, with the decision influenced by the program’s specialized focus on B2B SaaS startups, offering tailored support and relevant resources.
Another founder’s application to Forum Ventures started with an online application and followed by interviews to explore the startup’s vision and assess mutual fit for growth support.
A third founder remembered the application involving submitting an online form, an interview with the cohort’s program manager, and providing three customer references.
For other founders, a pitch submission, forms, a video demo, and video interviews were also involved.
Editor's Note:
Founders recommended engaging with the Forum Ventures community on LinkedIn to stay updated and visible, and emphasize showing customer traction and a grand vision in applications, as these elements demonstrate viability and growth potential, significantly boosting the application’s appeal to accelerators and VC-minded investors.
Here are the founders’ tips on Forum Ventures’ application process…
One founder advised actively engaging with the Forum Ventures community, following their LinkedIn for updates on events and deadlines, and interacting with their posts to increase visibility and stay informed about opportunities, emphasizing that such engagement can significantly enhance an application by demonstrating interest and initiative.
Another founder emphasized prioritizing customer acquisition to demonstrate traction and solid unit economics, suggesting that retaining and expanding customer contracts showcases viability. They also recommended pairing this with a grand vision for substantial growth to cater to accelerators and investors with a VC mindset.
Editor's Note:
According to the founders, Forum Ventures offers flexible funding options to startups, including cash for equity deals and SAFE notes for early-stage financing without immediate valuation, reflecting a commitment to invest up to $100,000 with evolving practices like rolling intake and a pre-seed level fund.
Here’s what the founders had to say about Forum Ventures’ funding support…
Forum Ventures offers funding options to admitted startups, previously including $50,000 for 5% equity or $100,000 for 7% equity, with the flexibility for startups to choose based on their comfort with equity exchange, and a continued commitment to invest up to $100,000 in each joining startup.
Forum Ventures provided funding through a SAFE note based on a million-dollar valuation, offering an upfront $100,000 USD investment for equity, with evolving practices including a transition to rolling intake and operation of a pre-seed level fund, reflecting their continued financial support for startups in their programs.
Upon joining, Forum Ventures provided immediate funding in exchange for equity, though the exact model and amount may have changed since the founder’s experience.
The investment from Forum Ventures was made through a SAFE note, a simple and efficient early-stage financing agreement that enables startups to receive funding without setting an immediate valuation, with standardized terms and equity details publicly accessible
Editor's Note:
A typical day at Forum Ventures varied from virtual engagement and mentorship for startups, to structured programs with expert coaching, and in-person sessions for deep dives with industry leaders, all within a community-centric environment featuring collaborative platforms like Slack to enhance support and learning.
Here’s what founders had to say about Forum Ventures’ program structure…
A typical day at Forum Ventures involved participating in a virtual program, engaging with an extensive network of mentors and supporters, weekly personalized one-on-one sessions with a managing director who had a strong finance background, and benefiting from the openness and engagement of the community without geographic limitations.
During COVID, the founder’s daily routine at Forum Ventures featured a 16-week program with structured sessions every other day, including coaching by experienced professionals, rigorous schedules, pitch days, and investor weeks, all coordinated to facilitate opportunities to present to potential investors.
Pre-COVID, one founder attended Forum Ventures in-person, flying weekly to San Francisco for hands-on initiatives and benefiting from intimate mentorship sessions with leaders like the CEO of Gainsight, which provided valuable insights applicable to their post-revenue startup with existing customers.
Within Forum Ventures, days featured insightful lectures and a collaborative Slack channel for mentorship and advice, enriched by a “five-minute favor” initiative that fostered a strong sense of community and support among current participants and alumni, particularly benefiting product launches and collaborative efforts.
The sessions were intimate, with 10 to 12 participants for in-depth discussions, highly beneficial for our post-revenue startup with existing customers, making the insights directly applicable and valuable.
Jon Corrin, Co-Founder & CEO @ XILO’s
Editor's Note:
Founders highlighted Forum Ventures’ B2B SaaS focus and investor network, structured guidance at the pre-seed stage, sales mentorship and access to high-caliber professionals, and the transformative mentorship and environment as key elements that stood out, significantly influencing their startups’ growth and development trajectories.
Here’s what the founders had to say about Forum Ventures’ standout features…
Its B2B SaaS specialization, offering tailored advice and resources, and the access to a curated network of investors, simplifying the fundraising process and significantly enhancing their startup’s exposure and growth opportunities.
The standout feature of Forum Ventures for one founder was its provision of a clear roadmap and structured guidance at the pre-seed stage, offering personalized feedback that saved time, effort, and steered them away from costly mistakes, illuminating their path in the startup journey.
For this founder, Forum Ventures stood out for its sales mentorship and access to high-caliber professionals, providing invaluable guidance for structuring their sales organization and offering exposure to executives from renowned companies, significantly benefiting their growth and development.
Their mentorship and overall environment shaped our approach to business, making Forum Ventures instrumental in our trajectory.
Forum Ventures have been pivotal in shaping our approach to building and running our business, highlighting the profound influence the program has had on our trajectory.
Ted Spare, Co-Founder & CEO @ Rubric Lab
With locations in California and New York, AngelPad has supported more than 180 startups since 2010, including well-known names like Postmates, Buffer, and AllTrails. The team intentionally keeps the program small, choosing to work with only a handful of startups so they can stay true to their mission: partnering closely with companies they genuinely believe in.
Every six months, AngelPad selects about 15 teams for an intensive three-month program.
Each startup receives $120,000 in funding, plus up to $300,000 in cloud credits from AWS, Google, and DigitalOcean.
Throughout the program, AngelPad helps founders tackle the essentials: finding product-market fit, defining the right target market, and validating their business for the first time.
The program is built around one-on-one mentorship, a tight-knit cohort community, and warm introductions to experts and investors.
To apply, you visit their homepage, complete an online application, and go through an interview. AngelPad is one of the most selective accelerators in the world, with an acceptance rate of under 1%.
Based in New Jersey, SOSV has helped launch more than 2,300 startups, including companies like Roadie, Perfect Day, and Motiv.
SOSV runs several industry-focused accelerator programs covering hard tech, enterprise solutions, life sciences, mobile apps, decentralization, and blockchain.
Their programs last 3 to 6 months and are highly competitive, with an acceptance rate below 5%.
They offer access to a global network of 2,000+ founders and more than 1,000 mentors. Most programs include an investment of $150,000 to $250,000, with equity taken based on the amount invested.
After completing a program, SOSV continues to support founders through follow-on investment. They typically contribute up to 20% of subsequent seed or series rounds. In 2021 alone, SOSV invested $46 million in post-program funding.
You can apply for the program that best fits your startup through their website. The process includes an application form followed by an interview for shortlisted founders.
Next on the list is Techstars, which has backed more than 3,500 startups, including well-known names like Uber, Twilio, and DigitalOcean.
Techstars invests up to $120,000 in each company. This includes $20,000 upfront plus the right to purchase 6% of your fully diluted shares at your next qualified financing round (typically when you raise $250,000+). The 6% common stock is issued right before that financing event. Full investment terms are available on the Techstars website.
You apply through an online form, which usually takes 2–5 hours to complete. Many founders speak with Techstars mentors beforehand to make sure their application communicates their startup clearly and effectively.
If your application makes it through the initial review, you’ll receive an invitation to a two-round interview, usually within four weeks. Common interview questions include:
If I gave you $200K to hire people, who would you hire?
Who are your target customers?
What outcome are you hoping to achieve by joining Techstars?
What are your most important leading indicators or KPIs this week?
How did you validate this market, and how big is the opportunity?
If you pass the interview rounds, you’ll meet with the Techstars screening committee, which includes the managing director, program manager, mentors, and corporate partners. Clear that stage, and you officially join the three-month Techstars program.
Month 1 is all about building your network. You’ll meet around 100 mentors from the Techstars ecosystem—experts across product, marketing, leadership, hiring, fundraising, and more.
Month 2 is about execution. You’ll use what you learned to push your startup forward: building product milestones, hitting KPIs, onboarding early users, or sharpening your business model.
Month 3 focuses on storytelling and fundraising. You’ll polish your pitch deck, develop investor materials, and practice communicating your vision to customers, investors, and future team members. The month ends with Demo Day.
After the program, Techstars continues supporting founders through its alumni network and ongoing mentorship.
Y Combinator is one of the most well-known startup accelerators in the world. They’ve helped launch more than 4,000 companies, including Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, and Twitch.
If you get accepted, YC invests a total of $500,000 through two SAFE agreements:
$125,000 for 7% equity (post-money SAFE)
$375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with MFN terms
You can apply online, but you must own at least 10% of your company to be considered.
After applying, your team may be invited for an interview.
If accepted, you join the next YC batch.
The program runs for three months and is currently remote. During the batch, you get access to mentorship, top speakers, group office hours, and the well-known Demo Day.
Even after the three months end, YC continues supporting founders with mentorship, warm introductions, and ongoing access to the YC alumni network.
Soma Fellows is a program for exceptional student builders or founders creating the next generation of transformative companies. We provide up to $1M in uncapped SAFE funding and access to our world-class network of investors, founders, and industry leaders.
Soma Capital Fellowship Overview
Here’s a quick snapshot of what the Soma Capital Fellowship offers in terms of structure, funding, and focus areas:
Program Type: Fully remote with optional in-person networking events (e.g., dinners, NBA games)
Location: Global (remote access)
Investment: $100,000 via uncapped SAFE
Equity Taken: 0% equity
Program Duration: 6 weeks to 3 months (varies by cohort)
Program Fee: None
Stage: Pre-seed / idea stage to early traction
Industries of Focus: AI, B2B SaaS, deep tech, technical innovation
Pro Tip: Best suited for technical founders with high-potential ideas—not for traditional e-commerce or consumer goods startups.
SPC’s Founder Fellowship is a different way for entrepreneurs to start a high growth, venture-scale startup. We give founders their first outside investment, help them ideate and iterate to a viable product, and assist them in raising from the best VCs in the world. As a founder fellow, you become a lifetime member of the South Park Commons community.
We take a boutique approach to helping founders. Our cohort sizes are small, with one partner for every two companies. We do not have a demo day, and when the time is right for you to raise, we’ll make introductions to the best investors. We do not force strict timelines.
We offer $400,000 in exchange for 7% equity via a SAFE, plus $600,000 guaranteed in your next venture round. We help you identify the right market, support you as you build your first product, find your first customers and teammates, and help you raise follow-on funding.
We group Fellows into two cohorts a year, with applications deadlines ahead of the cohort start date. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis while the application is open. We fund teams immediately on acceptance to the program, even if the official start date isn't for a while.
Formed as a partnership between the Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, SkyDeck combines the consulting know-how of traditional accelerators with the vast resources of its research university.
This robust partnership is coupled with SkyDeck’s unique mentorship program to create a powerful environment for startups. Its SkyAdvisors, Partners, and large network of accredited investors connect their SkyTeams to the expertise and capital they need to launch and grow…to the moon.
Conviction is a new venture firm built specifically for the next generation of AI-native, “Software 3.0” companies—the ones poised to become tomorrow’s defining businesses. If Software 1.0 was driven by human-written code, and Software 2.0 by labeled datasets, Software 3.0 is powered by the ability to shape and steer foundation models. We’re still in the earliest phase of turning these models into real products that reshape entire industries.
Pushing into frontiers like this can feel exciting, strange, and a bit lonely. That’s why small, tight-knit communities matter. To support founders working at the edge of AI, we created Embed—an invitation-only program for exceptional early teams. Embed brings together a deep network, hard-earned company-building insight, and an AI-native community where founders learn from each other and gain an edge.
We’ve already run three cohorts and had the privilege of working with teams behind Chai, Cognition, Listen Labs, Physical Intelligence, Pika Labs, Reflection, Somite, Yutori, and others. And we’re just getting started.
San Francisco's greatest advantage is its unparalleled concentration of venture capital—the city and surrounding Bay Area contain more VC firms, angel investors, and startup funding than any other region globally. Startup incubators leverage this capital density to connect founders with investors who not only provide funding but also strategic guidance, network access, and credibility that accelerates growth exponentially.
Programs like Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Alchemist Accelerator, and Techstars SF have direct relationships with every major VC firm on Sand Hill Road and beyond. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Accel, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and hundreds of other top-tier firms actively scout talent from San Francisco accelerators, attending demo days and taking meetings with promising founders.
San Francisco accelerators provide capital access advantages:
– Direct relationships with top-tier venture capital firms
– Regular investor office hours and pitch practice sessions
– Demo days attended by hundreds of active investors
– Angel investor networks including successful founders turned investors
– Understanding of investor expectations and deal terms
– Negotiation guidance and term sheet evaluation
– Introduction to corporate venture arms and strategic investors
– Access to secondary markets and growth equity investors
What makes San Francisco unique is not just capital availability but capital sophistication. VCs in the Bay Area have funded thousands of startups, understand technology deeply, and can evaluate opportunities quickly. They're comfortable writing large checks for pre-revenue companies if they see potential for massive scale. This risk appetite and pattern recognition create opportunities for ambitious founders to raise substantial funding earlier than possible elsewhere.
San Francisco's investor density also creates competition for deals, which benefits founders. When multiple top VCs compete to invest, founders gain leverage to negotiate better terms, higher valuations, and strategic partnerships. This competitive dynamic rarely exists outside the Bay Area at the same intensity.
The ecosystem's depth means founders can find specialized investors for any category—AI/ML, crypto, biotech, climate, consumer, enterprise, hardware. This specialization provides not just capital but domain expertise, customer introductions, and strategic guidance that generalist investors cannot match.
For founders building venture-scale businesses that require significant capital, San Francisco's combination of capital availability, investor sophistication, competitive dynamics, and specialized expertise creates advantages that justify the region's astronomical costs and intense competition.
San Francisco's extraordinary ecosystem density creates network effects that compound advantages for startups in ways impossible to replicate elsewhere. The concentration of founders, investors, engineers, designers, and operators means that critical connections, partnerships, and opportunities happen with remarkable frequency through chance encounters, introductions, and community interactions. Startup accelerators amplify these network effects by connecting founders to the broader ecosystem systematically.
Programs like Y Combinator have created particularly powerful networks—YC alumni companies help each other with introductions, advice, and partnerships that create billions in value. 500 Startups has built a global network connecting startups across continents. Alchemist specializes in enterprise software, creating networks between B2B founders and enterprise buyers.
San Francisco accelerators leverage network effects:
– Alumni networks providing introductions, advice, and partnerships
– Regular community events connecting founders across cohorts
– Shared Slack channels and communication platforms
– Mentor networks including successful founders and executives
– Connections to potential customers and distribution partners
– Introduction to later-stage founders who've scaled companies
– Access to specialized service providers (lawyers, recruiters, PR firms)
– Community resources including coworking spaces and events
San Francisco's density means that critical people are accessible through one or two degrees of separation. Need to meet a specific VP at Google? Someone in your network probably knows them. Looking for an expert in machine learning infrastructure? Multiple people in the ecosystem can help. This accessibility accelerates learning, partnerships, and growth exponentially.
The ecosystem's intensity also means that information flows quickly. Founders learn about market trends, competitive moves, funding dynamics, and talent availability through constant conversations. This information advantage helps startups make better decisions faster and avoid mistakes that plague companies in less connected ecosystems.
Coffee meetings, happy hours, meetups, and conferences in San Francisco regularly produce valuable connections. A casual conversation at a coffee shop might lead to a co-founder, major customer, or key investor introduction. This serendipity—driven by density—creates opportunities that would take months to manufacture through cold outreach elsewhere.
For founders who understand how to leverage networks, San Francisco's ecosystem density and network effects create compounding advantages that accelerate every aspect of company building—from recruiting and fundraising to partnerships and learning.
San Francisco attracts the world's most talented engineers, researchers, and technical leaders who want to work on cutting-edge technology and solve the hardest problems. The city's startup incubators help founders access this exceptional talent pool and build technical cultures that push boundaries. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to biotechnology and quantum computing, San Francisco leads global innovation across emerging technologies.
Programs like Y Combinator, Alchemist, and university-affiliated accelerators at Stanford and UC Berkeley connect founders with technical advisors from Google, Meta, Apple, and leading research institutions. These mentors bring expertise in building systems at massive scale, cutting-edge AI research, and solving technical challenges that most companies never face.
San Francisco accelerators provide technical advantages:
– Access to world-class engineers from top tech companies
– Connections to AI/ML researchers and experts
– Technical architecture and scaling guidance
– Recruiting strategies for competitive talent market
– Understanding of latest technologies and tools
– Open source community connections
– Research collaborations with universities
– Technical due diligence preparation for investors
San Francisco's technical talent doesn't just build products—they push technological boundaries. Engineers in the Bay Area have built the world's largest distributed systems, trained cutting-edge AI models, and solved problems at scales that force innovation. This experience becomes invaluable when startups face technical challenges that have no existing solutions.
The region's innovation culture also encourages experimentation and risk-taking with new technologies. Founders can recruit engineers excited about working on novel problems with emerging technologies rather than maintaining existing systems. This innovation orientation helps startups attract talent who want to build the future rather than maintain the present.
San Francisco's proximity to Stanford and UC Berkeley provides access to cutting-edge research and exceptional student talent. Many breakthrough companies started with technology developed in university labs or with founders who met in graduate programs. These academic connections create pipelines for both technical talent and research collaboration.
The concentration of technical expertise also creates learning opportunities. Engineers regularly share knowledge through meetups, conferences, blog posts, and open source contributions. This knowledge sharing accelerates technical learning and helps startups avoid reinventing solutions to solved problems.
For technically ambitious founders building cutting-edge products, San Francisco's combination of exceptional talent, innovation culture, academic connections, and technical knowledge sharing creates an environment where technological boundaries can be pushed further and faster than anywhere else.
San Francisco's startup incubators excel at helping founders think about scaling from day one—building companies designed to grow rapidly, serve global markets, and achieve venture-scale outcomes. The ecosystem's focus on growth, scaling, and creating massive value shapes how accelerators teach founders to think strategically about product, operations, team building, and market expansion from the earliest stages.
Programs like Y Combinator particularly emphasize rapid growth, with their famous motto "Make something people want" followed immediately by "Talk to users and build fast." 500 Startups focuses on growth marketing and customer acquisition. Alchemist teaches enterprise go-to-market strategies that scale efficiently. These programs share scaling knowledge accumulated from thousands of companies.
San Francisco accelerators teach scaling fundamentals:
– Growth strategies and customer acquisition frameworks
– Building scalable technical architectures from the start
– Hiring and team building for rapid growth
– Sales and marketing playbooks that scale efficiently
– Operations and processes that don't break under growth
– International expansion strategies and timing
– Managing growth's financial and cultural challenges
– Preparing for and managing hypergrowth phases
The concentration of scaled companies in San Francisco provides access to operators who've managed hypergrowth firsthand. Mentors have scaled engineering teams from 10 to 1,000 people, grown revenue from $1M to $100M ARR, and expanded from one market to dozens globally. This operational experience helps founders anticipate and prepare for scaling challenges before they become crises.
San Francisco's investor community also reinforces growth focus. VCs expect and reward rapid growth, pushing founders to think bigger and move faster. This pressure—while intense—often helps companies achieve more than they thought possible by removing artificial constraints and encouraging ambitious thinking.
The ecosystem's scaling expertise extends beyond technology to include go-to-market, operations, finance, and organization building. Founders can access CFOs who've taken companies public, sales leaders who've built global teams, and operators who've scaled customer success organizations supporting millions of users.
San Francisco accelerators also help founders understand when and how to scale different functions. Premature scaling kills more startups than almost any other mistake, but under-investing in growth at the right time means missing market windows. The ecosystem's pattern recognition helps founders time these decisions correctly.
For founders building venture-scale businesses with ambitions to serve global markets and create massive value, San Francisco's scaling expertise, growth focus, and access to operators who've successfully navigated hypergrowth provide knowledge and support that dramatically increase chances of reaching ambitious outcomes.
San Francisco's startup culture celebrates ambitious risk-taking, moonshot thinking, and building companies that could change the world rather than just creating incremental improvements. The city's incubators embrace this culture, encouraging founders to think bigger, take calculated risks, and pursue opportunities that others consider impossible. This cultural permission to be audaciously ambitious attracts founders who want to build transformative companies rather than just successful businesses.
Programs like Y Combinator famously encourage founders to "make something people want" but also push them to think about ideas that could create billions in value. The ecosystem celebrates companies like Airbnb (initially ridiculed), DoorDash (in a "solved" market), and Stripe (taking on payments infrastructure)—all companies that seemed unrealistic but pursued ambitious visions.
San Francisco accelerators encourage ambitious thinking:
– Permission to pursue ideas others consider crazy
– Support for founders tackling massive, complex problems
– Connections to investors comfortable with high-risk, high-reward bets
– Access to talent excited about moonshot opportunities
– Frameworks for managing risk while pursuing ambitious goals
– Stories and lessons from founders who've succeeded against odds
– Cultural acceptance of failure as learning opportunity
– Encouragement to pivot toward bigger opportunities
San Francisco's culture distinguishes between smart risk-taking and recklessness. The ecosystem has developed sophisticated frameworks for validating assumptions, testing hypotheses, and pursuing ambitious goals through disciplined execution. Founders learn to de-risk bold visions through strategic sequencing, careful validation, and building credibility incrementally.
The cultural acceptance of failure also provides psychological safety to attempt difficult things. In San Francisco, failure is often seen as valuable learning experience rather than career-ending mistake. Many successful founders failed with previous companies before achieving breakthrough success. This perspective helps founders take risks they might avoid in less forgiving cultures.
San Francisco investors actively seek moonshot opportunities. While other ecosystems might prefer "safer" bets with clear paths to profitability, Bay Area VCs understand that power law returns come from companies that achieve truly massive outcomes. This capital availability for high-risk, high-reward opportunities enables founders to pursue ideas that would struggle to find funding elsewhere.
The ecosystem also provides access to people who've succeeded with moonshot ideas—founders who built companies worth billions by pursuing visions others considered impossible. These role models demonstrate that ambitious goals are achievable and provide practical guidance on turning moonshots into reality.
For founders with audacious ambitions who want to build companies that change industries or create entirely new markets, San Francisco's culture of ambitious risk-taking, moonshot thinking, and acceptance of intelligent failure provides an environment where world-changing ideas can receive support, capital, and talent needed to become reality.
Building a startup in San Francisco means operating in the world's most competitive, expensive, and opportunity-rich startup ecosystem. The city offers unmatched advantages but demands peak performance, careful resource management, and strategic thinking. Whether you're launching a SaaS platform, AI company, or consumer product, here are practical tips to help you succeed in Silicon Valley's epicenter.
Prepare for Astronomical Costs
San Francisco is extraordinarily expensive—accept this and plan accordingly. Office space, salaries, and living costs will consume capital faster than anywhere else. Build realistic budgets including 30-50% cost premiums. Many startups minimize costs through remote work, shared housing, and strategic spending. Your capital efficiency must be exceptional to survive.
San Francisco and Bay Area locations serve different needs:
– San Francisco (SOMA, Mission): Consumer, startup density, coworking, expensive.
– Palo Alto/Stanford: VCs, enterprise, university connections, very expensive.
– Mountain View/Sunnyvale: Google proximity, technical talent, moderate costs.
– East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley): More affordable, creative, growing tech scene.
– South Bay (San Jose): Hardware, manufacturing, lower costs.
Consider fundraising needs, talent access, and budget.
Stanford and UC Berkeley produce exceptional talent and groundbreaking research. Build relationships through career fairs, research collaborations, and startup events. Many successful Bay Area companies started with university connections that provided co-founders, technical innovations, or early talent.
San Francisco rewards active networking. Attend events, take coffee meetings, join communities, and build relationships continuously. The ecosystem moves fast—staying visible and connected creates opportunities. However, be strategic—focus on relationships that create mutual value rather than networking for its own sake.
San Francisco values execution over planning. Build quickly, ship often, iterate based on feedback. Slow decision-making means competitors will execute faster. The ecosystem rewards builders who deliver results rather than those who perfect plans before acting.
Bay Area talent is exceptional but expensive and highly competitive. Offer competitive compensation including meaningful equity, emphasize mission and impact, provide growth opportunities, and build compelling culture. Many top engineers and designers have multiple competing offers—you need compelling reasons for them to choose your startup.
San Francisco investors and ecosystem expect ambitious, scalable businesses. Build products and operations designed to scale globally. Think about how your company could serve millions of users or generate hundreds of millions in revenue. This mindset shapes product decisions, architecture choices, and go-to-market strategies.
San Francisco has unmatched VC concentration—build relationships with multiple firms early. Attend office hours, get warm introductions, share progress updates. Having multiple interested investors creates competitive dynamics that improve terms and valuations. Don't depend on single investor relationships.
San Francisco's intensity and pressure can lead to burnout quickly. Set boundaries, maintain exercise and health routines, build support networks, and create sustainable rhythms. The goal is peak performance sustained over years, not sprinting until collapse. Use Bay Area advantages—hiking, beaches, wine country—to decompress.
San Francisco's ecosystem generates constant distractions—new trends, networking opportunities, competitive pressures. Stay focused on your product, customers, and metrics that actually matter. Many startups fail by chasing every trend rather than executing their core vision consistently.
San Francisco isn't optimal for every company. If you're building bootstrapped business focused on profitability, serving regional markets, or targeting customers outside tech, consider whether SF's extreme costs justify its advantages. Many successful companies build elsewhere where capital efficiency matters more than ecosystem access.
San Francisco rewards founders who leverage the ecosystem's unmatched advantages in capital, talent, and networks while managing costs carefully and maintaining focus despite intense competition and constant distractions. The city offers opportunities that exist nowhere else—but requires peak performance, strategic thinking, and exceptional execution to convert those opportunities into successful companies. If you're building for venture-scale outcomes with global ambitions, San Francisco remains the world's epicenter of startup innovation.
San Francisco and the Bay Area have long been the global epicenter of startup innovation and entrepreneurship. Home to Silicon Valley, this region has produced more unicorns and successful exits than anywhere else in the world. The city's unique ecosystem of accelerators and incubators provides founders with unparalleled access to capital, mentorship, and networks.
Access to Capital: Proximity to top-tier VCs and angel investors on Sand Hill Road
World-Class Mentorship: Learn from founders who've built billion-dollar companies
Network Effects: Connect with fellow founders, potential co-founders, and early customers
Tech Talent Pool: Access to engineers, designers, and operators from top companies
Innovation Culture: Surrounded by cutting-edge technology and ambitious builders
San Francisco's accelerator landscape ranges from generalist programs like Y Combinator to highly specialized vertical-focused accelerators in fintech, biotech, climate tech, AI, and more. Whether you're pre-seed or Series A, B2B or consumer, hardware or software - there's a program designed for your stage and sector.
The true value of Bay Area accelerators extends beyond the 3-6 month program. Alumni networks remain active for years, creating lasting connections that lead to follow-on funding, partnerships, and acquisition opportunities. Many founders stay in San Francisco long after graduation to build their companies in the heart of tech.
Explore San Francisco's vibrant startup and business community.