Applications for The House Residency are now being accepted on a rolling basis. Apply here.

The House Residency

The House Residency is an accelerator program built to provide Berkeley students, faculty, and alumni with what they need, when they need it, to turn a startup into a scaleable, venture backable business. We offer investment (up to $120k) to all companies that join the program and work with our companies to raise their seed and Series A rounds of financing to prepare them for growth.

We’ll work with you to map out your next big milestones and build a personalized pathway of resources to get you there – including help raising your seed or Series A round, closing the first few contracts or on-boarding the first few thousand users, bringing in experienced founders as CEO mentors, providing dedicated office space at The House, offering a host of free resources to reduce the cost of running your business, and opening up access to The House’s network of founders, executives, talent, and investors.

Philosophy

We’ve built a program that is flexible and adapts to the needs of each startup that we support. So you won’t find one-size-fits-all concepts like cohorts, group deadlines, and demo days within The House Residency. Instead, you’ll find a more flexible, personalized accelerator program that focuses on the needs and timelines of each individual company.

The Program

Up to $120k in Funding

We invest up to $120,000 in companies when they join The House Residency. Beyond that investment, one of the biggest ways we deliver value is by helping our companies raise the capital they need through The House’s investor network.

Dedicated Office Space

Get access to dedicated office space in the heart of Berkeley at our award-winning space @ 2560 Bancroft Way. Work amongst a community of other founders, gain easy access to The House’s network, and reduce the cost of starting up.

Mentorship

Get hands-on support from experienced founders and operators. Our mentor network includes founders that have taken companies from founding to IPO, founders with previous $1B+ exits, executives across the Fortune 500, and more to help you build your business.

We also have a pool of topic-area experts to help you solve specific problems along the way – from sales, to marketing, to press and communications, to technical support, and more.

Community

Building a company in isolation is hard. Get connected to a peer group of founders in The House to learn from, to celebrate the successes with, and to lean on when times are tough.

Free Resources

Get access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in free and discounted resources to reduce the cost of starting up. A sample of our offerings…

– Over $100,000 in free server credits

– Free and discounted hardware

– Free and discounted legal services

– Free and discounted access to dozens of APIs and SaaS tools

Customers

We actively manage relationships with the Fortune 1000 and other corporations to give our companies access to their target customer base and key insights for each via a proven Customer Development Campaign. For consumer companies, we run a personalized User Acquisition Campaign.

Events and Education

We help train our founders to be ready for building and scaling their businesses through a series of events, educational content, and coaching.

Talent

We actively help our portfolio companies recruit for both junior and senior roles with a managed network of UC Berkeley’s best talent.

Timeline

Every company has a different timeline and associated set of goals. So for each company joining the program, we work with them to set a 3, 6, 9, or 12 month timeline. This helps us serve companies that are working to scale quickly and immediately, while also supporting those that have longer runways or lead time.

Apply To The House Residency

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Portfolio

We’ve backed several dozen companies through The House Residency. Here’s a small sample of our portfolio.

Diagnoss

Indoor Reality

Symbio

Wildfire

BoxBot

Ongo Science

Unite Genomics

Valitor

“The House has been able to provide me and Indoor Reality with game-changing support in building the foundations for this new business.”

Avideh Zakhor

Founder, Indoor Reality | Professor, EECS | (prev co. acq by Google)

“As a Professor of EECS at UC Berkeley, I knew when we decided to found SumUp Analytics that we had some very exciting technology. The House Residency played a critical role in helping us create focus in the product, raise funding, connect with customers, and a community of Berkeley’s best founders. I couldn’t imagine building this business without The House’s deep network, insights, and hands-on support.”

Laurent El Ghaoui

Founder, SumUp Analytics | Professor, EECS

“The House Residency was a major inflection point in building Wildfire. Immediately upon joining, the power of The House’s brand and network gave us a huge boost forward. And when it came to fundraising, product development, and user acquisition, they were side-by-side with us making key decisions to take the Wildfire to the next level.”

Hriday Kemburu

Founder/CEO, Wildfire

“When we decided to start Unite Genomics, my Co-Founder – Professor Anthony Joseph – and I left our lab on campus and came straight to The House Residency. We work in a space surrounded by brilliant founders and have access to a constant stream of relevant investors and corporate executives. There’s no better network or community that we’d want to work within.”

Taner Dagdelen

Founder/CEO, Unite Genomics

“Serial founders have many choices in starting their next company. The House has drawn an extremely high-caliber group of entrepreneurs: folks who’ve built successful companies from the earliest stages. The House Residency provides a powerful network of Berkeley founders willing to go the distance together.”

Anand Kulkarni

Founder/CEO, Crowdbotics

Team

Cameron Baradar

Founder & Managing Director

Keyan Sarrafzadeh

Head of Business Development

Christine Cheung

Operations Manager

Sarah Sarkissian

Operations

Have a question? Check to see if we answer it here, and if not feel free to shoot us an email at berkeley@thehouse.build

Image Credit: Architect and Designer — FENNIE + MEHL Architects | Photographer — Omied Arvin