The fellowship
Don’t go to uni. Start building instead.
Skip the degree. Lock in for 12 months. Rent, food and a job are handled. Come out knowing something nobody knew. No pitch deck, no warm intro, no supervisor. Patronage, back for the age of abundance. Nobody here asks you to justify the question. Only to answer it.
Fucking accelerate.
What you get
9 things, all on us
Everything a funded lab has and a garage doesn’t, in 1 building, on us. No excuses left.
Suite
A workspace with a bed in it
Desk on the window, your own bathroom, a bed in the core for the all nighters. 2 builders to a suite, 1 each side of the wall. No rent, no bond. Turn up with a suitcase. Someone else cleans it.
Laboratories
Containment Level 2 labs and a full machine shop
Wet benches, fabrication, test rigs, shared instruments, sized for 400 at once. They never close. 3am at a bench is normal here.
Compute
Your own slice of the cluster
Allocated up front, yours to burn through. Intelligence is cheap. Use all of it.
Meals
3 a day, chef prepared, on us
Breakfast, lunch and dinner on the top floor, city one way, mountains the other. Chef cooked, organic, nutrient dense. Never on your bill.
Gymnasium and pool
In the building, open all hours
Train, swim, recover. Included. High output needs a body that can carry it.
Quiet rooms
Meditation, float tanks, virtual reality
As far from the machine shop as the building allows. Phone in a locker. Come out sharper.
Silicon
A digital twin that works while you’re at the bench
A Silicon account from day 1. It learns how you think and write, then runs everything that isn’t the experiment. Email, suppliers, paperwork, the patent attorney. You do the science.
Excelsior
Checks the idea, tracks the work, files patents, finds the market
Checked your idea was new before you got in. Tracks every run, what worked, what didn’t. Runs your experiments overnight, files the patents, finds who pays for what you built.
Your company
Yours from the first morning
Everything you make lands in it. Patents drafted and filed, grants written and lodged, none of it on your bill. The upside is yours.
Lock in. Everything you need is already in the building.
A day here
No timetable, no roll call, no closing time
Nobody sets your hours. Most people fall into something like this inside a fortnight. The pace comes from the 399 people beside you.
07:00
The gymnasium and the pool
Both open all hours, neither is busy this early.
08:00
The common table
Chef cooked breakfast with whoever is up. Half the good ideas in the building start here.
08:30
Your twin has been up for hours
Overnight your Silicon twin answered the supplier, chased the part and summarised the 3 papers you flagged. You read it in the lift.
09:00
You seal the run
Write what you expect. Excelsior won’t open the experiment without it. 4 minutes, then go.
10:00
Downstairs
Benches, rigs and instruments built for 400 at once. No queue.
15:00
The machine shop
The part you drew this morning, machined and in your hand by 3.
18:00
The quiet rooms
Meditation rooms, float tanks and a virtual reality room. Phones go in a locker at the door.
21:00
Still going, or not
Nothing closes. Some people do their best work at 2am. The lights stay on.
23:00
Excelsior takes the night shift
Hand it the parameter space before you sleep. It books the rig, runs the sweep and tells you in the morning what moved.
While you build
Housekeeping
Room cleaned, laundry done, bed made, while you’re downstairs.
A workspace with a bed in it, for the all nighters. 2 builders to a suite.
Why 1 year
Maniacal urgency, no perpetual studying
A doctorate is 4 years and most of it is waiting. 12 months is how long a real question takes when nothing is in your way. Nobody here is studying. Day 1 the labs are open and the clock is running. Month 3 show what’s known. Month 6 a result. Month 9 it holds or you’re done. Month 12 walk out knowing something nobody knew. Cheap energy and cheap intelligence are compounding whether you ship or not. Move at their speed.
The year
12 months, 4 gates, 1 question answered
Gates at months 3, 6, 9 and 12, each needs something real to exist. Month 9 is a hard cut. Month 12 you know something nobody knew, written up, dated, patented if it can be, in a company you own.
M00
Commencement
Entity incorporated, intellectual property assigned, research plan lodged
M03
Gate one
Prior art search complete, what is already known written down, disclosure controls set
M06
Gate two
First result, reproduced by someone else, written up
M09
Gate three
Result holds or you’re done. Claims drafted if there’s something to claim
M12
Gate four
Written up, dated, provisional filed, 1 signed letter of intent, pilot or term sheet
Every gate is recorded in Excelsior the day you pass it. Want longer than a year, reapply against the same bar as everyone else.
After month 12
What you walk out with
A company you control, something nobody knew before, a patent if there was one to file, and the record of how you got there. Most people keep going, faster.
01
At month 12
New knowledge and a company
Written up and dated, in a company you control. If it’s patentable a provisional is lodged, your priority date locked, 12 months to decide what to do with it.
Written up and dated, in a company you control. If it’s patentable a provisional is lodged, your priority date locked, 12 months to decide what to do with it.
02
The record
Every dated entry, failed runs included
Excelsior holds the whole year, every run, what worked, what didn’t, every piece of intellectual property, dated. The file a patent attorney, a licensee or a buyer reads in diligence.
Excelsior holds the whole year, every run, what worked, what didn’t, every piece of intellectual property, dated. The file a patent attorney, a licensee or a buyer reads in diligence.
03
Your options
Build it, license it, raise on it, or sell it
Keep building, license it, raise on it, or sell it. You hold the majority. Your call.
Keep building, license it, raise on it, or sell it. You hold the majority. Your call.
04
What Ad Astra holds
A convertible note, up to 39 per cent
Accelerate Industries holds a convertible note in your company. We can convert it to 39 per cent before it matures. You keep 61 per cent and control, every time.
Accelerate Industries holds a convertible note in your company. We can convert it to 39 per cent before it matures. You keep 61 per cent and control, every time.
05
Commercialise
Excelsior finds the market for it
Excelsior scans the market for what you built and who pays for it, then lines up pilots, licensees and letters of intent from the record. The technology ships.
Excelsior scans the market for what you built and who pays for it, then lines up pilots, licensees and letters of intent from the record. The technology ships.
The money
Follow the money, day 1 to month 12
7 steps. You personally pay nothing at any point. Here’s how.
01
Day 1
A company in your name
You own it, you run it. Everything you invent lands in it the moment you invent it.
You own it, you run it. Everything you invent lands in it the moment you invent it.
02
What you get free
The room, the food, the patent work
Your room, 3 meals a day, the gym, the pool, the quiet rooms, your Silicon twin, the patent work. All on us.
Your room, 3 meals a day, the gym, the pool, the quiet rooms, your Silicon twin, the patent work. All on us.
03
What your company is charged for
The research capacity, and nothing else
Labs, machine shop, instruments, compute, Excelsior, consumables, supervision. $500,000 a year, priced line by line by an independent valuer.
Labs, machine shop, instruments, compute, Excelsior, consumables, supervision. $500,000 a year, priced line by line by an independent valuer.
04
How the fee is paid
Invoiced on day 1, paid when the refund lands
Ad Astra invoices your company $500,000 on day 1, on 12 month terms. It pays nothing until the research and development refund lands, then $217,500 from the refund. Accelerate Industries settles the other $282,500 for a convertible note. No cash from us lands in your company. No bank in the middle.
Ad Astra invoices your company $500,000 on day 1, on 12 month terms. It pays nothing until the research and development refund lands, then $217,500 from the refund. Accelerate Industries settles the other $282,500 for a convertible note. No cash from us lands in your company. No bank in the middle.
05
What Ad Astra takes
39 per cent, for the intellectual property
The note carries interest and we can convert it to 39 per cent before it matures. 39 and not 40, because at 40 your turnover aggregates with ours and the refund stops. You keep 61 per cent, the board and the company. No seat, no veto, no say in your research. We only win if you do.
The note carries interest and we can convert it to 39 per cent before it matures. 39 and not 40, because at 40 your turnover aggregates with ours and the refund stops. You keep 61 per cent, the board and the company. No seat, no veto, no say in your research. We only win if you do.
06
What you leave with
The company, the knowledge, the record
The intellectual property is in your company, where it’s been since day 1. You leave with the Excelsior record of everything you did.
The intellectual property is in your company, where it’s been since day 1. You leave with the Excelsior record of everything you did.
07
The tax treatment
The fee is ruled eligible
Your company claims the research and development tax incentive on what it spends, and the fee is ruled eligible. The position rests on Ad Astra not being an associate of your company, no shares, no board seat, no say.
Your company claims the research and development tax incentive on what it spends, and the fee is ruled eligible. The position rests on Ad Astra not being an associate of your company, no shares, no board seat, no say.
Every number goes to you in writing before any interview. Nothing gets signed until you’ve read it and taken your own advice.