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Powell is a community of technologists with deep engineering backgrounds building generational AI companies.
There's no deadline and no form-letter rejection. Tell us what you're building and what you're after, and we'll review it properly.
Admissions
Powell has been invite-only since 2024. All 24 members were admitted by invitation from the existing community. There has never been a public application. This is the first time we have opened one.
The standard has not changed with the process: demonstrated achievement in engineering or applied AI research, judged by the founders who built this community.
24
Members, every one admitted by invitation
9
Companies produced by members
a16z · YC
Funds backing member companies
What we look for
There is no checklist, and no credential gets anyone in on its own. The people we admit tend to be unusually strong on at least one of these:
You've built something hard
Infrastructure that carries real load, models that actually train, research that holds up after other people poke at it. We read code and papers, not résumés.
You went first
You built it before it was obvious, or built it in a way nobody had tried. A tidy version of something that already exists is a harder sell.
Your name already comes up
When we ask people who work in your corner of the field, they know what you have done. Most members are here because someone would not stop talking about them.
You're close to starting something
You have founded a company, joined one early, or are visibly about to. Most teams here met their co-founders and found their idea after they arrived.
How we decide
- 01
Application
A written application. There is no fee, and no place can be bought, assigned, or inherited.
- 02
Founder review
Each application is read by the Powell founders building closest to your work, the same people who invited every current member.
- 03
Interview
A working conversation with the founders reviewing your application, followed by time with the community.
- 04
Decision
Admission is decided by the reviewing founders. Anyone who has worked with an applicant recuses themselves.
Who reviews applications
Applications are reviewed by the Powell founders whose companies are backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator. They are not staff and not an outside committee. They are practicing founders and engineers who invited every current member, and who assess applicants in the fields they build in every day.
The companies they have founded out of Powell:
- DoubleSpeed (a16z)
- Jooba (a16z)
- Canvas (YC F24)
- Sciloop (YC F25)
- Antigen (YC F25)
- Hex Security (YC W26)
- Twolabs (YC X26)
- Cybe (YC X26)
- Kaaro (a16z SR006)