5050 is a program to help great scientists and engineers become great founders.

Regular applications are closed. But we’re accepting applications on a rolling basis until the start of the cohort.

To recommend someone to 5050, please fill out this form.

We help founders translate breakthrough science and start deep tech startups.

150

scientists and engineers have gone through 3 cohorts of 5050. All of them curious about startups but with no clear path to starting a company.

25

companies got started in 5050. Most of these wouldn’t have started if it hadn’t been for 5050.

5050 alumni are creating massive positive impact:

  • Mark Budde co-founded Plasmidsaurus (aka Primordium): overnight full-plasmid sequencing to accelerate routine DNA sequencing.

  • Binbin Chen co-founded V-create: high throughput screening and ML to design immunotherapies.

  • Josie Kishi co-founded Digital Biology: revolutionizing functional sequencing.

  • Michelle Lee co-founded Medra: using robotics and computer vision to automate repetitive wetlab tasks.

  • Michael Chavez co-founded Enoda: developing novel proteins that transform cells into cures for cancer, autoimmunity, aging, and beyond.

  • Brandon Wilson co-founded Range Bio: translational proteomics to enable molecular health monitoring.

  • Floris Engelhardt co-founded Kano Therapeutics: using DNA nanotech and synbio to engineer genetic vectors.

  • James Banal co-founded Cache: enabling unlimited storage and rapid access to biomolecules and DNA data.

  • Jai Padmakumar co-founded Robigo: engineering sustainable biopesticides that protect crops from diseases.

  • Nikita Khylstov and Nicholas Sarai co-founded Huminly: engineering enzymes to recycle textile waste.

  • Uros Kuzmanović co-founded Biosensate: mining microbes to engineer novel, real-time & continuous monitors.

  • 14 more in stealth!

Do I have an idea worth pursuing?

Whether you’re validating an idea or ready to build — 5050 is for you.

Phase I: Explore

April 27th to June 1st, 2024
online + San Francisco or Boston

Over 6 weeks, you’ll work with the 50Y team to find answers to the following questions: How do I turn my breakthrough science into a business? Am I addressing a problem with a large enough market? Am I the right person to do it? How do I recruit a world-class team?

5050 Explore is for anyone who wants to learn about entrepreneurship and commercializing your tech. We’ll help you identify the right team, technology, and market to build in and get you ready to start a deep tech startup.

We’ll fly the whole cohort to San Francisco for a kickoff and a closing weekend.

Phase II: Build

June 8th to August 24th, 2024
San Francisco

Select founders ready to build ambitious deep tech startups and move fast are invited to 5050 Build.

Over 12 weeks, you'll be in a small cohort of founders sprinting to build startups and reach takeoff speed.

Building amongst a cohort of fast-moving founders will challenge you to ramp up. You'll learn all the key skills to start, and we’ll mentor you on one of a startup's most important parameters: speed.

We’ll coach you to level up into a great founder and guide you through the early days of building in deep tech.

1.

Choose the right problem, technology, and market

2.

Learn how to build a deep tech startup

3.

Level up to become a world-class founder

Hear from the 5050 alumni:

“5050 was the fundamental catalyst for the cofounding of Huminly! I don't think Nicholas and I would have met otherwise, and Huminly would have had a very different start, if at all!

Office hours helped me focus on a select number of objectives I needed to hit to spin out of Stanford and fundraise. I remember Alex told me early on to focus on the polyester monomer and meeting technical specs at a viable cost for that, something we're chasing at full speed now!”

Nikita Khlystov, co-founder of Huminly. Prev. Cochran lab at Stanford

Being surrounded by ambitious, entrepreneurially-minded scientists and meeting founders who were recently in my shoes gave me conviction in entrepreneurship as the most impactful way to direct my career.

- Nicholas Sarai, co-founder of Huminly. Prev. Arnold lab at Caltech

The quality of scientists that Fifty Years brought together was incredible. You gain insider knowledge you’d only gain if you talk to and share with peers who are also trying to figure out the entrepreneurial journey themselves.

- Floris Engelgardt, Co-founder, Kano. Prev. Bathe lab at MIT

Building a company seemed like a far and crazy idea, through 5050 everything became more concrete: being surrounded by so many great scientists in the process of founding a company is a real catalyst.

- Gabriele Corso, PhD at MIT

We joined right as we were spinning out, and it's been a game changer. There were numerous times I heard a tip from a 5050 event and used the advice the next day at our company. It's run by former founders who really get it and have been there, done that.

- Eric McShane, co-founder of Electroflow Tech. Prev. Cargnello lab at Stanford

Our team completed 5050 and we started our NewCo. We built our first pitch deck and negotiated our first client deal during 5050! The 50Y team gave us key advice when navigating the first months in our startup. After 5050, our cohort has become a fantastic network to lean on.

- Helena De Puig, Collins lab at Harvard

Surrounding myself with incredibly kind and supportive scientists, founders, and 50Y team gave me the confidence to pursue entrepreneurial ideas that I otherwise would not even consider exploring.

- Erin Huiting, Bondy-Denomy lab at UCSF

5050 is run by 50Y. We’re experts in deep tech entrepreneurship.

At 50Y, we’ve built deep tech companies ourselves. We’ve backed over 100 deep tech companies from the earliest stages and helped them raise 4.6 billion dollars. We've helped our founders achieve many “firsts”:

  • the first carbon-negative molecule factory

  • the first cultivated meat approved in the U.S.

  • the first microgeo satellite for internet connectivity

  • the first in-orbit space factory that manufactured pharmaceutical drugs

  • the first de novo synthesis of a 1000+ base DNA molecule

  • and many more

We supported these founders when they barely had a working prototype. We backed Sean Hunt and Gaurab Chakrabarti when they had just built a janky prototype reactor with wood, PVC pipes, and zip ties from Home Depot. Solugen has now built a 63 foot tall carbon-negative molecule factory that offsets over 30,000 tons of CO2 a year and is on the path to decarbonizing 90% of the chemicals humanity needs.

We backed John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko when Astranis was an idea on a whiteboard. They've now launched satellites, closed ~1 billion dollars in contracted revenue, and are on the path to connecting 3 billion people to the internet.

We started supporting Mark Budde, the founder of Plasmidsaurus (aka Primordium), in the inaugural 5050 cohort. He was still a postdoc at Caltech, researching mammalian synthetic cell circuits.

We helped him realize the workflows he built to speed up his research could help accelerate every biologist’s work. He set up a shack in his backyard and began delivering overnight plasmid sequencing.

Two years post-founding, Plasmidsaurus is the fastest-growing startup we’ve seen, profitable, and now serving scientists across 49 U.S. states and in the UK.

The story of Plasmidsaurus

Scientists and engineers have the potential to build civilization-bending companies.

We help them get started.

The 5050 experience

Phase I: Explore

A 6-week onramp to deep tech entrepreneurship.

Join a cohort of ambitious scientists, engineers, and builders. We help you answer:

  1. Do I have an idea worth pursuing? Is my science ready to commercialize?

    We’ll help you figure out if your idea has the potential to massively move humanity forward. We'll help you diagnose and mitigate risks, pivot quickly if necessary, identify the problem you can uniquely solve, and make a solid plan to commercialize your tech.

    Does the idea chunk nicely into milestones? Is it too risky, or not risky enough? Is there a market for it? Do the technoeconomics make sense? Does it pass the Mr Burns test? Is your invention 10x cheaper, better, or faster than how things are done today?


  2. Am I ready to start a company?

    You can meet successful founders and hear about their journey. We’ll help you understand if entrepreneurship is right for you (it’s not for everyone!). We’ll share the traits and habits of great founders and guide you through the early days of your startup.


  3. What? Where?

    We’ll fly the entire batch to SF for kickoff and closing weekends. The remainder of 5050 Explore consists of weekly office hours with 50Y partners and weekly sessions in SF/Boston or held remotely.

Those ready to build an ambitious deep tech startup and who demonstrate that they can move extremely fast are invited to 5050 Build.

Phase II: Build

A 12-week program to level up and build your deep tech startup.

Join a select cohort of high-speed founders solving massive world problems.

  1. We’ll help you build faster. Every delayed solution can cost real lives and entire ecosystems. Speed matters. 5050’s intensity will help you de-risk your technology, hit milestones, raise a first round, and commercialize your research faster.

    You’ll work with our team to set unreasonably ambitious milestones to hit by the end of the cohort. We’ll teach you the best deep tech approach to hiring, fundraising, selecting your co-founder, engaging customers, and becoming great storytellers to increase your chances of success.

  2. You’ll level up as a founder. Most people have more potential than they realize, and we’ll help you reach further than you think possible. Personal growth workshops will help you push past your edge and limiting beliefs. You’ll develop essential traits shared by all great founders. 

  3. What? Where? 5050 Build consists of weekly group office hours, a 3-day off-the-grid weekend experience, and weekly workshops alternating between Tuesday evenings and Saturdays. Most sessions are in person in San Francisco. We encourage everyone in 5050 Build to move to the Bay Area. However, we understand some of you might have unmovable experiments, and we’ll accommodate hybrid options, too.

FAQ

  • Scientists, engineers, builders, and hackers interested in entrepreneurship. Whether you’re actively building a company or deciding whether entrepreneurship is right for you, we can help you accelerate the journey to build a company to solve humanity’s biggest problems.

  • Deep tech companies require deep technical expertise to drive breakthroughs in areas like: energy, climate tech, materials, bioengineering, transportation, hardware, computation, communication, health, aerospace, and AI. If you're building something that could be a civilizationally important tech, we'd probably call it deep tech!

  • Not at all. Many cohort members are simply talented, curious, and ambitious builders. Those with an idea will use the first 6 weeks to make it even stronger.

  • Everyone in 5050 Build will have first gone through the 5050 Explore phase. If you already know you are all-in to pursue our company, 5050 Explore will help you diagnose and tackle major risks and learn the essential aspects of building a valuable business, like hiring, recruiting, or fundraising, to help increase your chances of success.

  • No, only select teams who 1) commit to building their company full-time, 2) are tackling an ambitious world problem, and 3) have shown they can move extremely fast by making impressive progress on the first 6-weeks of the program will be invited to 5050 Build.

  • If you need more time to validate your idea, you can spend the next few months de-risking. If you make impressive progress, you can get invited to a subsequent 5050 Build cohort. You can go through Explore another time too!

  • One weekly workshop or session on Tuesday evenings or a full-day Saturday session. Every 5050er joins a weekly 1-hour long group office hour and has access to on-demand 15-min individual check-ins. 5050 has a cohort-wide Friday - Sunday retreat in June. Explore runs for 6 weeks. Build runs for 12 weeks.

  • Nope! The program is free.

  • The goal of 5050 is to help more indispensable companies get started! Scientists and engineers are the best people to solve some of the world’s biggest problems; we want to increase their chances of success regardless of whether 50Y backs the founders who go through the program!

  • Shoot us an email at ale@50y.com.