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+ Alliance | Crypto & Fintech Accelerator Accelerator Application Companies Essays Podcast Apply Apply Apply We help crypto & fintech startups reach product-market fit. Alliance is the world's most selective accelerator & founder community. $400k Funding Interview invites sent within 1 week of application. Immediate funding upon admission. Apply to by November 18 Apply “The community is amazing. We love it. We created so many meaningful relationships with the smartest builders in the space. Alliance also helped us – both highly technical engineers – turn Zerion into a much better product". Evgeny Yurtaev, Zerion “Instrumental for our success, has increased our progress by over tenfold. Mentors are extremely generous with their time and are able to introduce us to almost anyone we need. Working with them was the best decision we've ever made as a startup". Morris Hsieh, Primodium “An incredibly well-run program. Alliance has been a massive value-add to us across all business functions, including go-to-market, strategy and recruiting. Highly recommend to all founders”. Matthew Katz, Caldera Our Startups Join our Community Graduate from the accelerator to join our select community of 700+ crypto & fintech founders. Balaji Srinivasan Angel Investor Kain Warwick Founder of Synthetix Kevin Lin Co-Founder of Twitch Lenny Rachisky Angel Investor Prasanna Sankar Founder of Rippling Siqi Chen CEO at Runway Charles Naut Co-Founder of Rain Our Program 2-week in-person onboarding followed by an 8-week fully remote program for global participants. WEEK 1 - 2 New York City, United States Meet the Cohort Start developing the relationships with peers and mentors that you'll leverage during acceleration and beyond. Community Platform Gain access to founder-only forums, perks and more. Get support from fellow Alliance founders. WEEK 3 - 9 Remote Mentorship & Lectures Learn how to build and grow your product. Start attending weekly check-ins and live lectures. Demo Day Prep Refine your narrative and story. While challenging, this process will help you hone your product's pitch and vision. WEEK 10 New York City, United States Demo Day Present your product to leading VCs, angels & experts. Receive exclusive media coverage. Graduation Demo Day presenters become Alliance DAO members – joining the most exclusive crypto & fintech founder community. Fundraising The median Alliance startup raises $3.5M at $25M post after the program. Investors often include leading VCs, such as Paradigm, Multicoin, and Dragonfly. Fortune Seismic raises $10M led by a16z crypto to bring confidential computing to fintech TechCrunch Tensor raises $3M for Solana-focused NFT trading platform Fortune Exclusive: DeFi platform Azura launches after raising $6.9M from Initialized The Block Rain raises $6M led by Lightspeed to launch stablecoin-powered corporate cards The Block Ex-Revolut duo raise $6 million seed round to expand onchain finance app Bleap How to Apply Frequently Asked Questions Who should apply? If you're a technical founder building something ambitious, you should apply. Don't overthink it. We've backed teams across every stage and vertical – crypto, AI, fintech, stablecoins, and more. Pre-product, pre-revenue, mid-pivot, anything goes. Some of our biggest successes applied before they had anything built. Others had already raised funding before Alliance. There's no perfect formula. The only thing we care about: you want to build something big and your team can ship. The application takes about 20 minutes. You'll get a response faster than any other accelerator. If you're debating whether to apply, that's your answer. Just apply. Who should NOT apply to Alliance? Historically, four types of founders have struggled at Alliance: Founders optimizing for a short-term outcome or quick flip. Our founders are building for the long term – generational companies that will be remembered decades from now. If the idea of selling your startup tomorrow for $20 million sounds enticing, you're not operating on the same timeframe as Alliance. Founders building a lifestyle business. Nothing wrong with that path, but Alliance is built for venture-scale outcomes and our pace reflects it. Founders looking for funding alone. While we provide initial capital, we are NOT investors. Our value comes through mentorship and community. If you're just looking for a check, there are much better options out there. Founders who crack under pressure. Alliance means check-ins every single week, hard feedback from mentors, building in public, and an extreme degree of accountability. The program is intense by design. You may need to fire your entire team, move countries, restart from scratch and pivot multiple times – not everyone has the stomach for it. We're upfront about these failure modes so applicants can self-select out and avoid wasting their time. If, however, reading this list made you even more excited, you're exactly the type of founder who should apply. Should I apply if I haven't built a product yet? What if I don't have any traction? Yes. Some of our most successful startups applied before they had anything built – no MVP, no traction, no revenue. We care far more about the founder than the product. Should non-crypto-native or Web2.5 startups apply? Yes. We've always backed startups with varying degrees of crypto involvement – including fintechs, payment APIs, SaaS for crypto startups, AI products and more. We view startups as existing along a spectrum within crypto. Some are deeply crypto-native, while others are less so. We don’t mind where you fall on that spectrum. Our mission is to partner with the most exceptional founders in the world – regardless of the specific product you're building today. When should I apply? We run 3 cohorts a year. For each cohort, there's both an “Early Admission” and a “Regular” deadline. We strongly encourage teams to submit applications as early as possible, as it maximizes your chances of selection. Since most teams apply close to the deadline, applying early gives us much more time to review your application. When does the program start? ALL19, our next cohort, starts on January 11, 2027. The next cohort start date is too far away. We make interview decisions within 1 week of receiving an application, all year round. Once you’re accepted, we start working with you right away. The official cohort start dates are mainly for logistical purposes and have minimal impact on your actual acceleration experience. How much does the program cost? Nothing, the program is entirely free. We only require a $400k investment in your company (at unparalleled, founder-friendly terms). We've learned that our best performing teams actually do want us to have skin-in-the-game. And our investment further aligns us with your success. Besides this, founders' only obligation is to ensure they have the time and energy to attend sessions and work with mentors. We expect full commitment during the program's 3 months. My startup has no plans to launch a token. Should I still apply? Yes. Most Alliance startups never launch a token. The 1:1 token side letter is standard for all investments and simply means that if you ever do launch one, Alliance as your investor would have a claim to it. It doesn't create any constraints on your business. Does Alliance support founders who require visas or immigration assistance? Yes – we’ve supported many founders in navigating immigration and visa-related challenges as part of our program. Admission to Alliance is recognized as strong evidence of “extraordinary ability,” which can be an important factor in visa applications such as the O-1. We also work with experienced immigration attorneys and advisors, and can connect you to trusted legal resources. While final decisions rest with the relevant authorities, most Alliance founders who required visas have successfully secured them with support from our network. Does the program provide funding? Yes, we offer $400k in funding to all admitted startups. Alliance invests at a $4M post-money valuation via SAFE with a 1:1 token side letter. I have received better funding offers. Why join Alliance? Most founders we admit had offers at better terms and chose Alliance anyway. That's because Alliance isn't funding. We're not investors. Capital is the least useful thing you get. The real value is mentorship from partners and our founder community. I need funding now, I can't wait for next cohort. What should I do? If you'd like to take advantage of Alliance's funding but your fundraise timeline doesn't match the next cohort, don't worry. We've often supported startups by funding them before they're accelerated. Just submit your application as you normally would. We review applications all year long and will invite you to an early interview if your startup meets Alliance's criteria. Does Alliance offer perks and discounts? Yes, Alliance has in place over 90 deals for our founders. These include credits at Anthropic, AWS, Google Cloud, Gemini, Notion, Mercury, OpenAI, Privy and many other key services. You can expect these credits to save your startup hundreds of thousands of dollars for costs you'd incur regardless. If accepted, when will I receive funding? Once you’re accepted into the program, we immediately start the investment and KYC process. For most teams, this takes less than a week. After paperwork is signed, KYC is completed, and payment details are verified, we wire funds. This typically takes 1 to 2 weeks and happens before the program starts. How is the program structured? The program relies on 4 core activities: lectures, 1:1 mentorship, weekly check-ins and Demo Day. Lectures: We run weekly sessions where successful founders from our community share their stories and learnings as crypto operators, followed by a Q&A. 1:1 Mentorship:  Startups receive 1:1 mentorship from Alliance mentors. Discussions often revolve around product, go-to-market and fundraising. At times, mentors may also intro founders to experts within our network depending on the problem at hand. Weekly Check-ins: Founders share accomplishments and challenges with mentors every week to maintain accountability, momentum and gain insight on how to overcome potential blockers. Demo Day: 6 weeks into the program companies start working on their narrative and pitch. Then, on week 10, startups meet select angels and VCs at Demo Day – both in-person, at the Alliance HQ in NYC, and online – and graduate from the program. Each startup in our latest cohort received an average of over 50 intro requests after Demo Day from crypto's most value-add angels or funds, such as Paradigm, Multicoin and Dragonfly. Most startups also receive significant interest from clients or potential partners. How is Alliance different from other accelerators? The best people to answer this are founders who've done other programs before Alliance. Here's what they consistently tell us: Cohorts are deliberately small (15-30 teams), which means mentors are truly hands-on. We get into the details of your product, your GTM, and your fundraise with you, everyday. The peer support is something most founders say they didn't expect, but it ends up being one of the most valuable parts of Alliance. And because we've been in the space since 2020, we're often one intro away from the exact customer, partner, or investor you need. What are the next steps after I submit my application? After you apply to the program, mentors will review your application within 1 week. Our team will then invite ad hoc the most promising teams for an interview over Zoom. This will consist of a 10 minute fast-paced conversation with Alliance mentors (with guidelines shared before the interview). Final decisions are then communicated over email within 24 to 48 hours. Note that due to the sheer number of applications and interviews, mentors are unfortunately not able to give personalized feedback to teams that are not selected. Founder Resources Benefits of Crypto Founders Building in Public with Joey Krug Basics of Early Stage Marketing with Mike Solana Good Game Podcast No-BS insights for founders, co-hosted by Imran Khan and Qiao Wang, and produced by Alliance. New episodes every week. Essays Before It Was Obvious You're sitting in front of your computer and you want to build a startup. You've seen Cursor sell to Elon for $60B . Maybe the previous generation was Mark Zuckerberg or Evan Spiegel. You look at these founders and compare yourself to them. They don't seem that much smarter than you. Their resumes aren't better than yours. Imran Khan · Jun 18 Yamanaka Factors: How Four Proteins Could Rewind Aging For most of the last century, biologists treated aging the way a mechanic treats an old car. Parts wear out, damage piles up, and the slow rusting eventually stops the engine. Under this view, aging runs in one direction. Biology has no reverse gear. Qiao Wang · Jun 2 Finding Unlikely Allies When Founders build on top of someone else's platform, they can activate a network of allies they could never have afforded to recruit. Will Robinson · Apr 28 Apply Founder Stories meow @ weremeow · Follow . @alliancedao is the most in-tune, founder friendly and degen accelerator in the industry who helped some of the very best projects in the ecosystem including tensor, kamino, pump.