RippleX Founder Fellowship

Newly revamped program to support underrepresented student founders building B2B software from idea to revenue and funding.

Applications Open for the H1'24 Batch!

Looking to get from idea to your first dollars of revenue and funding? You've come to the right place.

Apply Now

RippleX Founder Fellowship

The RippleX Founder Fellowship is newly launched program focused on helping underrepresented student founders building B2B software companies get from idea to their first dollars of revenue and funding.

It's a 6-month intensive program powered by Ripple Ventures that runs twice a year.

Throughout each cohort, founders are coached and taught the intricacies of building venture-backable B2B software companies. It is a remote program that helps founders access playbooks, customer networks, and funding opportunities to kickstart their companies.


6-month remote program
Content, milestone setting, and coaching every single week, for six months.
Up to 10 companies per cohort
Bringing together 10 companies founded by underrepresented founders building B2B software.
Deep mentorship and coaching through weekly discussions
Hour-long discussions on building venture-scale companies with Ripple Ventures, industry veterans, and other founders.
Workshops with industry leaders
Bringing in seasoned founders and investors to share their learnings and experiences with our companies.
Milestone setting to get from zero to one
Helping set tangible goals for participating companies and helping them achieve them through resources, customer introductions, and funding opportunties
Opportunity to receive funding from the Fellow Fund
At the end of the program, companies will have an opportunity to receive funding from the Fellow Fund

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the requirements to apply?
-
Companies founded by current students, recent grads, or dropouts (within the past two years)
- At least one founder must be from underrepresented backgrounds inclusive of: Women (femme-identifying / presenting); Indigenous Peoples; Racialized, Black and/or people of color (visible minorities); Persons who identify as LGBTQ2IA+ and nonbinary individuals; and Persons living with disabilities
- The company must have an idea in B2B software, meaning tools that are used in a professional or business setting (ie. Figma (design tool), Quickbooks (SMB accounting software), Supabase (backend development platform), to Amazon Web Services (enterprise cloud infrastructure))
- Founders must be based in North America
- The company must be or plan to be incorporated in North America Companies that apply must not have previously raised any institutional venture capital funding
What does B2B software encompass?
B2B software to us means tools that are used in a professional or business setting (ie. Figma (design tool), Quickbooks (SMB accounting software), Supabase (backend development platform), to Amazon Web Services (enterprise cloud infrastructure)).
What can founders expect in the program?
Founders can expect weekly 1 hour calls with the Ripple team and cohort members, biweekly content modules to complete that are in tandem with real business outcomes, milestone setting for every month, hands-on support and guidance from the Ripple team and mentors and alumni from RippleX, and a Demo day to present and potentially receive funding
What are some example workshops we’ll cover during the program?
Incorporation and structure, Setting up the right team, Problem space identification, Problem space validation with customers, Market validation and vision, ICP identification, Problem-solution-fit, Product-market-fit, Sales and monetization, Fundraising
What is the value add to founders? 
- Access to the Ripple Ventures and RippleX Alumni network for close mentorship, networking, and guidance on company building
- An opportunity to receive an investment from Ripple Ventures through the Fellow Fund
- A deep community of other founders who are in the same stage, as well as further stages (Series A+) to provide coaching and support
- Highly tactical and structured programming to help get you from idea to first dollars of revenue and funding
What are the terms of Founder Fellowship? 
The Standard Fellow Fund SAFE includes:
- Standard YCombinator SAFE note with a valuation cap as per this link
-
USD $2,000,000 post-money valuation cap
- USD $50,000 investment from Ripple
- Standard side letter with the right for Ripple to have standard pro-rata rights as well as an optional fixed additional investment of $300K USD at a $3M USD post-money capped SAFE note within 12 months of the first investment
What is the application process? 
- Written and video application
- First round interviews
- Final round interviews

So what about the old program?

Our existing program will live on through the online course, which will remain totally free and accessible to anyone in the world. The selected cohorts in our flagship program going forward will be solely focused on the Founder Fellowship. We are also working on a VC stream in the future to provide more hands-on and real-life experience for the aspiring investors.

Wall of Love

See All

Join our community of student
founders and investors.

Join our community of founders, operators, and investors.