Nikola Tesla
Alternating current
Arrived in New York a ditch-digger with a letter of introduction and no company to his name.
Acceleratingtomorrow'sfounders, atthe earliest.Acceleratingtomorrow's founders,at the earliest.
An early stage venture firm. We find builders before anyone else will, and back them once they are ready.
Batch C23-01India → US → EUFounded 2026
They were caught before the world noticed
every one of them needed
a reaction to start.
Steve Jobs
Apple
Sold the van to pay for the first fifty boards, built in a garage nobody visited.
Wright Brothers
Powered flight
Funded four years of failed flights out of the takings of a bicycle shop in Dayton.
None of them looked like a good bet at the time. A ditch-digger (Nikola Tesla) with a letter of introduction. A college dropout (Steve Jobs) in a garage. Two brothers (Wright Brothers) funding failed flights out of a bicycle shop. Every one of them was overlooked by people whose job was to spot exactly this. We think the same people are out there now, doing unremarkable things in unremarkable places, and nobody is looking for them yet.
Transition metal
Element 23 · Vanadium
We accelerate.
We do not take over.
Vanadium : “A catalyst speeds up a reaction without being consumed by it. It is present at the exact moment two things would not otherwise combine, and it leaves unchanged.”
How it works
Thirty days. One team. A real product.
01 →
Discover
Teams form and each one runs five user conversations. One real problem is committed to by day five, and there are no pivots after it.
Days 1–5
02 →
Validate
Demand is proven before a line of product code. A fake door, a landing page or a waitlist goes live, then ten more interviews.
Days 6–10
03 →
Build
An MVP sprint with AI tooling and a stack each team picks. Public checkpoints on day 15 and day 20, so there is nowhere to hide.
Days 11–25
04
Launch
A real public launch, then first users and first revenue attempts. Demo Day in front of mentors, alumni and investors.
Days 26–30
Who enters a batch
Ambition is the only requirement.
Accelerators ask for a company. Pre-seed funds ask for a fundable founder. We ask for one thing, and it is not on anyone’s CV.
- 01
A companyNot required - 02
An ideaNot required - 03
A co-founderNot required - 04
A technical backgroundNot required - 05
FundingNot required - 06Ambition.Required
Three ways in
Pick the one that sounds like you.
Route 01Days 1–10 and 26–30 · Discover, Validate, Launch
Can code, cannot ship
- You bring
- The skill
- You are missing
- A product, a team, a launch
What the batch doesA team on day one, five user conversations by day three, and a public launch on day twenty-six that cannot be quietly skipped.
- Hardest on you
- Rest of the batch
Not for
- A certificate
- Passive learning
- Capital without building
Those are downstream of us.
Batch C23-01 · Applications opening
Twenty-four seats. Thirty days.
Six teams of four, one problem each, one Demo Day. This is exactly what you are applying for.
Catalysis23 · Batch pass
India → US → EU
C23-01
Seat map6 teams × 4
- Duration
- 30 days
- Seat price
- TBC
- Applications close
- TBC
- Demo Day
- Day 30
Image placeholder · 4:3
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How a seat is won
- 01
Apply
One form. No company, no idea, no deck required.
- 02
Interview
One shared rubric for every applicant. Ambition is what gets scored.
- 03
Offer
A payment link ships with the acceptance. You have 48–72 hours to take the seat.
- 04
Seat confirmed
Confirmed by payment, not acceptance. Lapsed seats go to a ranked waitlist.
Apply for C23-01
Hard cutoff five days before day one. We accept more builders than there are seats, so a seat is yours once it is paid for.