How to Get Accepted to Antler: A Founder First Guide

Antler Residency has become one of the most distinctive entry points into venture-backed company building. While often grouped with accelerators and incubators, Antler operates on a fundamentally different model.

Antler is a day zero investor. It backs founders before they have a company, before they have a cofounder, and sometimes before they have chosen an idea. The core belief is that every great company starts with remarkable people. Strong teams pursue strong ideas. When exceptional founders are placed in the right environment early, venture-scale companies emerge faster and more reliably.

Many applicants approach Antler with a pitch deck or early product. That can help, but it is not required. Antler is not primarily evaluating what you are building. Antler is evaluating whether you are the kind of person who can build something that matters at global scale. Acceptance is driven less by readiness and more by trajectory.

The Residency is designed to remove the two biggest early founder barriers.

• Finding the right cofounder

• Accessing credible early capital

What Antler Actually Is

Antler is a global venture investor founded in 2017. It is not an accelerator and not an incubator. Antler is a day zero venture investor that backs exceptional founders from the moment they decide to build. The partnership continues through growth and exit.

Traditional programs teach ideas or nurture early concepts. Traditional investors wait for traction. Antler does something different. It invests in people first, then helps them build venture scale companies at speed. This founder first approach is why Antler calls itself a day zero investor.

What Antler Offers Founders

Antler combines three capabilities rarely available together at the start of a venture.

Meaningful Capital

Antler provides early stage funding immediately after founders pass the Residency investment committee. Investment structures and cheque sizes vary by location, but total capital commitments typically range from approximately 200K to 500K in local currency equivalents.

Funding is commonly structured through SAFE or convertible instruments, combining an initial pre seed cheque with reserved follow on capital that becomes available as companies reach key milestones. This model gives founders meaningful runway while allowing them to retain operational control.

Follow on funding is available through Antler growth vehicles, including dedicated funds exceeding 280M USD. Antler has invested more than 20M USD into individual companies across multiple rounds, demonstrating its ability to remain a long term capital partner as founders grow and scale.

Structured Cofounder Matching

Antler forms curated cohorts of high potential founders and runs structured collaboration sessions. Participants test ideas together, work on real execution, and form teams based on proven working compatibility rather than surface networking.

Founders also join a global network of more than 8,000 Antler backed peers, creating lasting support, hiring channels, and shared learning.

Elite Operating Support

Antler provides access to a network of over 600 experienced operators, advisors, and domain experts. Founders receive hands on guidance across customer discovery, product development, business modeling, go to market planning, and fundraising preparation.

Additional resources cover recruiting, legal setup, marketing, and technology

infrastructure. Partnerships with leading technology providers further reduce early operational friction.

Founder DNA: What Antler Looks For

After reviewing more than 160,000 applications each year and investing in over 1,500 companies globally, Antler has identified four founder traits that consistently correlate with long term startup success. These characteristics form the core of what Antler defines as Founder DNA.

Relentless Execution Cadence

Successful founders turn ideas into tangible progress quickly. Antler looks for individuals who demonstrate strong trajectory, meaning week by week meaningful progress on whatever they pursue. Signals include achieving milestones earlier than peers, consistently shipping projects, and operating effectively under ambiguity.

Creative Problem Solving Intelligence

Antler values intelligence expressed through real world problem solving rather than academic credentials alone. Founders are evaluated on critical thinking, adaptability, and the ability to navigate obstacles through unconventional solutions.

Grit

Early stage startups involve constant setbacks. Antler seeks founders who demonstrate resilience, sustained motivation, and the ability to operate through uncertainty and repeated failure without losing momentum.

Strong Communication Skills

Founders must communicate vision to investors, customers, and teams. Antler continuously assesses clarity of thought, structured reasoning, and the ability to articulate complex ideas simply throughout every interaction in the selection process.

How the Antler Residency Works

The Antler Residency is a full time in person company building program that runs between six and ten weeks depending on region. It supports founders from pre idea stage through team formation, validation, product development, and investment review. Participation requires full time commitment. Founders pause other employment to focus entirely on building.

The program unfolds across five phases.

Phase 1: Team Formation

Founders join a curated cohort of vetted peers and enter structured collaboration sessions. During this phase, participants explore ideas together, test working dynamics through real execution, and form balanced founding teams based on proven compatibility rather than surface-level networking.

Phase 2: Validation and Ideation

Teams shift focus to customer discovery and hypothesis testing. Founders conduct user research, refine problem statements, validate proposed solutions, and shape early business models. Throughout this phase, Antler partners provide hands-on coaching to support rapid iteration and informed decision-making.

Phase 3: Launch and Growth

In this phase, teams build minimum viable products and begin testing early traction. Founders develop go-to-market strategies, run experiments to measure user response, and track weekly execution progress. The emphasis is on learning quickly and improving through continuous iteration.

Phase 4: Investment Committee

Teams present their progress to Antler investment partners for formal evaluation. Funding decisions are made at this stage. Selected teams receive pre-seed investment, while teams not selected exit the program without giving up any equity.

Phase 5: Post Investment Support

After the investment, founders continue receiving mentorship and strategic guidance. They gain access to follow-on funding opportunities and become part of Antler’s global platform of founders, advisors, and operators, ensuring long-term support beyond the Residency.

Investment Terms and Capital Structure

Antler does not charge for the Residency. If a team does not receive investment, Antler takes no equity.

Teams approved by the investment committee receive pre seed investment. Typical investment ranges by region are:

Region	Typical Investment Commitment	Notes
India	Up to ~470K USD total	Often structured as an initial cheque plus reserved follow on capital. AI focused tracks may include enhanced support.
United States	Up to ~500K USD total	Typically includes an initial pre seed cheque with dedicated follow on capital.
United Kingdom	~210K GBP initial	Additional structured follow on funding available through Antler growth vehicles.
Canada	~250K CAD initial	Similar structure to US with access to continued funding.
MENAP	Up to ~500K USD total	Ten week residency sprint model with staged capital commitment.
Netherlands	Up to ~500K EUR total	Structured build residency with initial investment plus reserved follow on.
Singapore	~250K USD initial	One of Antler’s earliest hubs with follow on access.
Australia	~225K AUD initial	Residency based investment with growth funding access.
Germany	~200K to 250K EUR initial	Part of Antler Europe platform with follow on opportunities.
Nordics	~200K to 250K EUR initial	Regional residency model with staged funding.

Note that Antler periodically updates regional terms, so figures represent typical current ranges rather than fixed guarantees.

Antler Residency Application Process

Step 1: Online Application

The process starts with an online submission where applicants share their professional background, motivation for founding, and preferred location. No startup idea or existing team is required at this stage. Applications are reviewed by local Antler Residency teams through a human led evaluation process that looks for Founder DNA signals.

Step 2: Application Review

Local Antler teams assess each application for founder potential. Shortlisted applicants are identified, and responses are typically shared within a few weeks.

Step 3: Partner Interview

Shortlisted applicants are invited to conversational interviews with Antler partners. These discussions explore motivation, resilience, communication ability, and problem solving approach, with emphasis on how applicants think under uncertainty.

Step 4: Offer

Successful candidates receive an offer confirming cohort start dates and program details. Participation requires full time commitment, and applicants are expected to pause existing employment and relocate to the program location if required.

Build With Ellenox Venture Studio

Antler backs founders at day zero and supports them through team formation, validation, and early growth. Yet many founders begin their journey before entering structured programs, needing a focused environment to shape ideas into real products and early traction.

Ellenox Venture Studio partners with early-stage founders to move from concept to execution. We work alongside teams to validate real problems, design and build minimum viable products, and establish early traction with users. Our approach helps founders convert ambition into tangible progress and clear business direction.

For founders who want hands-on support while building their first product, Ellenox provides the execution partner to accelerate momentum and sharpen focus before and beyond any accelerator or residency experience.

Start building with Ellenox today