Afore Capital

The best people to teach founders how to go 0 to 1 are the ones who just did it. That's why so many of the speakers at our FIR & FIR U programs come from the Afore portfolio. This summer we had portfolio founders back in the room sharing what worked and what didn't at this exact stage: Conor Brennan-Burke of Hyperspell, David Yue of Accordance, Chirag Kulkarni of Hobbes, Bill Liu of Seel, and Trevor West of Podqi. They keep coming back because of how it started. As Conor put it: "When Afore invested in me, Hyperspell didn't exist. They weren't betting on traction, they were betting on a person." Today he's serving Fortune 100 customers. That access doesn't stop with the speakers. Every founder in the cohort gets dedicated 1:1 office hours with our team, the same hands-on support that turned these speakers into the founders they are today. Want to join the next cohort? Link is in the comments.

We just wrapped the first week of FIR S26. Rather than sum it up ourselves, we'll let a couple of the founders do it: "I've had an amazing first week at FIR. Being surrounded by ambitious founders and having great conversations with them has been invigorating. Keen to build and excited for what's to come." - Joseph Dowdall "It's great to be in the Afore offices with so many brilliant founders, investors, and advisors. The first couple weeks have been full of ideas, best practices, and hearing from people who have been in our exact situation before." - Victor Wu They’re not just building: sushi & soccer dinner at our office, a workout class, and a farm-to-founder dinner at Plow to close out the week. 21 founders, 12 teams, one summer just getting started. Victor Wu, Rishabh Anand, Kiron Deb, Samuel Cornelison, Ami Zou, Alper G., Sophia Xing, Summer Lee, Niketh Sabbineni, Aabid Ismail, Zach Barry, Joseph Dowdall, Avron Pasag, Zakaria Drebi, Sharoz Javaid, Jonathan Bernal, Drew Carson, Christina Last, Raymond Loong Ng, Mohammed Khambhati. Laura Du, Yulia Urs (Porfireva), Eli Bunting More to come, and if you want to be part of the next cohort, applications are open. Link in comments.

FIR founders don't take the normal route. Take the team behind Verso. Jonathan Bernal came to the US, taught himself the language, trained as an engineer, and worked on AI at one of the biggest companies in tech. Drew Carson studied computer science, dropped out to chase startups, and built and sold a consumer company before he was done. Two very different paths that ended up in the same place. Now they're building together in the FIR cohort. Two founders who've done hard things before, doing it again. That's what FIR looks like. If you're the kind of person who takes the hard road to build something that matters, the next batch is open. Link is in the comments.

There's been an interesting shift: Founders are starting to create. Building in public, founder-led sales, leveraging personal brand as pipeline. On the other hand, creators are starting to build. UGC deals evolving into growth/GTM roles. Turning large audiences into product launchpads. Product vs. distribution has been the classic debate. What's really true? We're bringing a mix of founders + creators together to find out. Come chat about latest trends, growth strategies, opportunities in the creator economy, etc. Thursday 7/23, 5-7pm. Alchemy Springs. Contrast Therapy. Share your hottest takes in the sauna, then shoot some Kevin Hart style interview content in the cold plunge. Spa entry + dinner included! Link to apply in the comments.

High school friends from Milan and LA, now building Krypton AI together in San Francisco. That's Ludovico Cordara & Ray Cabrera, two of the student founders who joined FIR U this summer. What they say about the program says it best: being surrounded by talented student founders working into the early morning pushes you to keep going. And while we're proud to be their mentors and investors, the best part is that every conversation feels like one between equals! If you're a student founder with that kind of drive, we want to meet you. Applications for the next FIR U cohort are open. Link in comments.

Our summer FIR cohort is officially underway. 21 founders, 12 teams, building out of our South Park office at the -1 to 0 stage. What they're building: - Tools for microdramas. - A family-friendly music app. - Causal AI for flight systems. And more we can't talk about yet. We keep it small on purpose. Every team gets real time with our partners, weekly sessions, and a cohort tight enough that everyone actually knows each other. Meet the cohort: Victor Wu, Rishabh Anand, Kiron Deb, Samuel Cornelison, Ami Zou, Alper G., Sophia Xing, Summer Lee, Niketh Sabbineni, Aabid Ismail, Zach Barry, Joseph Dowdall, Avron Pasag, Zakaria Drebi, Sharoz Javaid, Jonathan Bernal, Drew Carson, Christina Last, Raymond Loong Ng, Mohammed Khambhati. Fall applications close September 1. If you have a side project you can't stop thinking about, don't wait until it feels ready. Link in the comments.

FIR U founders are building things most people think are still decades away. Take Subvocal - Arnav Kumar & Aarush Yadav. They're building a wearable that reads your inner voice, the words you say in your head before you ever speak them. They've already hit 45% accuracy on any word in the English language, trained on less than two hours of data. Two hours. And it's getting sharper every week. This is what the FIR U cohort looks like. The next batch is open. If you want to build something this ambitious, link is in the comments. Apply now!

Our summer FIR cohort is officially underway. 21 founders, 12 teams, building out of our South Park office at the -1 to 0 stage. What they're building: - Tools for microdramas. - A family-friendly music app. - Causal AI for flight systems. And more we can't talk about yet. We keep it small on purpose. Every team gets real time with our partners, weekly sessions, and a cohort tight enough that everyone actually knows each other. Meet the cohort: Victor Wu, Rishabh Anand, Kiron Deb, Samuel Cornelison, Ami Zou, Alper G., Sophia Xing, Summer Lee, Niketh Sabbineni, Aabid Ismail, Zach Barry, Joseph Dowdall, Avron Pasag, Zakaria Drebi, Sharoz Javaid, Jonathan Bernal, Drew Carson, Christina Last, Raymond Loong Ng, Mohammed Khambhati. Fall applications close September 1. If you have a side project you can't stop thinking about, don't wait until it feels ready. Link in the comments.