The Residency Research
What it is
The Residency is a network of live-in founder houses, not a venture fund. Nick Linck (ex-IBM AI researcher) and Peter D'Ambrosio started it in 2023 as a single house in Berkeley. By mid-2026 it ran about 14 houses on four continents, seven operated directly and the rest run by partners under the brand. The pitch is "college meets accelerator": three to six month cohorts where residents go full time on a company, with housing, co-working space, coaching, weekly syncs, weekly demo days and a final Demo Day attended by investors.
Investment thesis
The Residency does not publish a check size or a fund. Its thesis is about sourcing: talent is spread evenly around the world while opportunity is clustered in cities, and living with founders for months gives the highest-fidelity signal about who will perform. D'Ambrosio says it "will eventually eat early-stage VC" because residency staff see founders on sales calls and in weekly check-ins, which is due diligence no pitch meeting can match. It is building software that listens to weekly check-ins and tracks each founder's progress and needs. Since April 2026 it has restructured into a "community" format and a more intense "monastery" format, and it is leaning toward deep tech. Equity is the open question: for its first three years residents paid a program fee (roughly $1,500 to $2,500 a month by residents' accounts) and the program took no stake. In a July 2026 interview D'Ambrosio said it is considering equity so it can cover costs for founders who cannot pay. The company has not said whether the new model includes equity, so the alumni list below should not be read as confirmed equity holdings.
Stage and check size
Pre-seed and idea stage founders, often students or young builders, with some repeat founders. No investment check is documented. Acceptance is very selective: about 3% of 5,000+ applications from 40+ countries per its February 2026 release, and about 0.5% for the current cohort per D'Ambrosio. Its online program, Delta, sends winners to an SF cohort. Bangalore runs a "Founders Track", described as a fully funded residency for founders ready to raise.
Lead tendency and decision process
Unknown. Selection is run by an internal search and selection team (Roland Graser leads it) rather than an investment committee, and it is not a lead investor in rounds as far as public sources show.
Recent activity
- Prime Intellect, a company tied to a Berlin builder house (Aurea, co-founded by resident Johannes Hagemann), raised a $130M Series A at a $1B valuation on 8 July 2026. Linck called it the network's first unicorn.
- The Residency claims residents raised close to $400M in two years.
- It has also reported investor attendance at demo days, including a16z and 1517 Fund, and a Sam Altman advisory relationship.
- PitchBook lists Betaworks, Flex Capital, LightPost Capital and Redbud VC as investors in The Residency itself; Founders Fund backs Prime Intellect and Bain Capital Ventures and Felicis back Solcoa Industries.
Portfolio highlights
The startup directory lists 34 resident companies across batches from fall 2023 to spring 2026. Notable names are Prime Intellect, Solcoa Industries (rare-earth magnet recycling), Parahelp (AI support agent), Kortix, Tau Robotics, Thermopylae Aerospace, Architect Labs, droneforge and Digicust. By houses the directory shows SF2 (9), SF Inventors (8), Berkeley Arcadia (6), SF Parc (4), Vienna (3), plus Berlin, Bangalore, Dubai and London houses.
Team
Nick Linck (founder), Peter D'Ambrosio (co-founder), Emma Cappiello (philanthropic advisor, ex-Schmidt Futures), Neftali Velez (coach), Sunday Ajak (storyteller), Roland Graser (head of search and selection), Jessica Burdett, Pedro Carreno and Koren Hu (coaches), Tejas Patil (designer), and Nick Donahue (startup advisor, CEO of Atmos). Advisors and guests named on the site include Sam Altman, Kevin Hartz and Danielle Strachman.
Founder preferences
Inventors, researchers and builders working on hard problems, with a bias toward deep tech, AI, robotics, hardware and bio. Strong preference for visible progress over polished storytelling ("delta": where you started and where you are now), bold ideas that "wouldn't exist without you", and people who are good housemates. Residents are expected to be in person and full time.
Geographic focus
San Francisco (five houses), Berkeley, New York, Vancouver, Berlin, Vienna, Bangalore, Hyderabad, London and Dubai. Operated hubs are SF, New York and London.
Relevance to F4
Useful as a sourcing network and a place for founder introductions, not as a source of lead checks. Investors attend demo days, so it is a warm path to early-stage deal flow.