Foundry Fellowship

Learn from world-class founders and operators

From the world you study,
to the world you build.

The Foundry Fellowship backs the most talented technical people to build, or join, the world's best frontier tech companies.

Applications: 19 May - 21 Jun.
Cohort: 20 July - 28 Aug.

The people who end up building the things that reshape the world never stopped building while they were learning.

While studying a problem, they ship. While publishing a result, they build products.

Demis Hassabis was designing games at 17, running a startup in his twenties, and publishing neuroscience in Nature before DeepMind and a Nobel Prize.

Soumith Chintala went from a Masters at NYU to building PyTorch at Meta, now the scaffolding most AI research on earth runs on.

Deep technical work and making things that matter are not sequential, they are simultaneous.

The Foundry Fellowship is for people who want to work that way.

What Fellows Get

Access to the best founders and operators, peers who'll push you, and a path forward.

Learn directly from founders and operators building the best frontier tech companies

You’ll hear from the people behind companies like PsiQuantum, Fleet Space, Coherence Neuro, Vexev, Gilmour Space, plus many more. They will tell you the version of their story that does not make it into the press release.

One-on-one time with a Blackbird investor

They will push on what you are thinking about, ask you the questions you have been dodging, and help you figure out what to do next.

A published body of work

This could be an essay, a GitHub repo, a dataset, a manifesto, a new algorithm or any other meaningful artefact. This should be a body of work outlining where you think your field is going, what you think is true that most people do not, and what you would build if you decided to. Some fellows use it to start a company. Others use it to land at a rocket-ship company that needs them.

A cohort of peers who will raise your ambition

Ten to fifteen of the most technically ambitious ANZ’ers. Working alongside them for six weeks will change what you think is possible for your field, for what you could build, and for yourself.

You are on a steep slope of learning.

You grow faster than you can explain. A year ago you didn't know what a partial differential equation was (or Shor's algorithm, or transformers, or CRISPR). Now you have strong opinions about them that most of your peers would find slightly excessive.

You care more about what is true than what the group believes.

You have been told, more than once, to be more reasonable. You have started to wonder if you should be less so.

You are more interested in doing something than in being someone.

You don’t care what the next line on your CV will say. You only care about making or producing the best version of your “thing”.

You have been building, shipping, or experimenting since you were young.

Code nobody asked you to write. Papers your advisor didn't assign. Side projects that started as curiosities and became obsessions. You did not wait for institutional permission to start learning the hard things.

You have a connection to Australia or New Zealand.

You could be based here. Or you may have been raised or studied here. We believe deeply in the latent potential of the southern hemisphere’s talent.

Who this is for

The Foundry Fellowship is for top early-career engineers, builders, and researchers. We connect fellows to Blackbird's frontier tech portfolio. For future founders, we provide knowledge, our network, and momentum to commit.

Mentors and companies

Meet the people building ANZ's most
ambitious companies.

David Bell

CEO, Co-founder – Remedy Robotics

Jekaterina Viktorova

CEO, Co-founder – Syenta

Hemant Chaurasia

CTPO – Fleet Space

John Carroll & Eamonn Colley

Co-founders – Vexev

Flavia Tata Nardini

CEO, Co-founder – Fleet Space

Craig H. Barratt

Barefoot Networks, Atheros, Google, Intel

Ratu Mataira

CEO, Co-founder – Openstar Technologies

Elise Jenkins

CTO, Co-founder – Coherence Neuro

Dylan Saunders

Principal Scientist – PsiQuantum

David Bell

CEO, Co-founder – Remedy Robotics

Jekaterina Viktorova

CEO, Co-founder – Syenta

Hemant Chaurasia

CTPO – Fleet Space

John Carroll & Eamonn Colley

Co-founders – Vexev

Flavia Tata Nardini

CEO, Co-founder – Fleet Space

Craig H. Barratt

Barefoot Networks, Atheros, Google, Intel

Ratu Mataira

CEO, Co-founder – Openstar Technologies

Elise Jenkins

CTO, Co-founder – Coherence Neuro

Dylan Saunders

Principal Scientist – PsiQuantum

David Bell

CEO, Co-founder – Remedy Robotics

Jekaterina Viktorova

CEO, Co-founder – Syenta

Hemant Chaurasia

CTPO – Fleet Space

John Carroll & Eamonn Colley

Co-founders – Vexev

Flavia Tata Nardini

CEO, Co-founder – Fleet Space

Craig H. Barratt

Barefoot Networks, Atheros, Google, Intel

Ratu Mataira

CEO, Co-founder – Openstar Technologies

Elise Jenkins

CTO, Co-founder – Coherence Neuro

Dylan Saunders

Principal Scientist – PsiQuantum

FAQs

You are circling a question or idea, not building a company. You might have a thesis, a hunch, a domain you can't stop thinking about, but you haven't committed to the answer yet. You're not sure if you want to start a company or join one, but you know you want to work on frontier technology solving gnarly problems.
Check out the main Foundry program. Applications for Cohort 7 open at the end of July.
No. The fellowship is part-time and designed to run alongside your existing work. Time commitment is opt-in but we recommend 2 - 4 hours per week.
A public artefact about where your field is going and what you think is true that most people don't. We’re flexible on format but this should feel part thesis and part manifesto. We'll give you examples and help you shape it across the six weeks.
No. Program participation is 100% free and we take no equity.
Technical people, makers, and researchers with strong ties to Australia or New Zealand. You may have been born here, raised here, studied here, or worked here. You can be based anywhere in the world!
Apply anyway. The fellowship is designed to help you decide whether you want to start a company, join one early, or go back to your work with sharper conviction about what you're building toward.
10 - 15 per cohort.
Email Saron at sberhane@blackbird.vc