The MLH Commit Fellowship
Because you've been sitting on this long enough.
Three weeks to figure out what to do about it.
Applications for our founding cohort close May 31st.
They take about 20 minutes. If you've been thinking about this for a while, that's probably long enough.
Cohort starts June 15th. Open to community members in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Email fellowship@mlh.io with questions.
What exactly is theCommit Fellowship?
Most people who want to start something keep waiting for the right moment. The Commit Fellowship is designed for people who are done waiting. Major League Hacking (MLH) is partnering with Transcend Network to bring their groundbreaking zero-to-founder curriculum to the MLH community.
This is not what you think it is.
The Commit Fellowship is not a networking program. You won't be collecting LinkedIn connections or sitting through panels. You'll be doing work — real, uncomfortable, sometimes frustrating work — with one other person who is in the same position you are.
It's also not a credential. If you're here to add a line to your resume, you will not have a good time, and you'll make the experience worse for the person you're paired with. We'd rather you not apply.
What it is: three weeks of structured pressure, designed to turn a problem you keep thinking about into something you can actually act on.
There are three ways to finish this program. All three count.
At the end of three weeks, you'll land in one of these places:
- You go. You've validated enough to commit. You know what you're building and why, and you're ready to move.
- You shift. You're still a founder. The problem just looks different now than it did at the start. That's not failure — that's three weeks of real information.
- You know. Founding isn't the right next move for you right now. You figured that out in three weeks instead of three years. That's not a consolation prize. That's the program working exactly as intended.
From Lonely Cliff to Shared Hill
You won't be doing this alone.
One of the things that keeps people from starting something is that the early stage is genuinely lonely. You have an idea, or half an idea, and there's no one to pressure-test it with who has the same amount of skin in the game you do.
The Commit Fellowship pairs every fellow with one other person who is in exactly the same position: curious about a problem, not sure what to do about it, and willing to find out. You'll do the work together — not by splitting tasks, but by thinking out loud, pushing back on each other, and building the kind of honest working relationship that most early-stage founders spend years trying to find.
This will probably be new to you. It's new to almost everyone who comes in. That's expected. The program is designed around it.
Three weeks. Each one has a deadline.
You're not watching videos or reading frameworks — you're attempting something real, reporting back on what happened, and adjusting based on what you learned.
Week one, you find someone who has the problem you care about and talk to them. Week two, you try to do something about it. Week three, you find out if anyone else cares.
Sessions happen live, with your partner and a small group of other fellows. There's no recording to catch up on later. You either showed up and did the work, or you didn't.
Who Belongs HereShould I apply?
You might be a good fit if any of these are true.
- You've explained a problem to someone at dinner and couldn't stop talking about it.
- You've started a side project and let it die, and you still think about it.
- You've watched someone else build something and thought "I could have done that."
- You don't know if you're a founder, but the question won't go away.
You don't need an idea. You don't need a team. You need three weeks and a problem worth caring about.
A few practical things: the first cohort of the Commit Fellowship is open to anyone in the US, Mexico, or Canada. You cannot have previously founded a company. Cohort 1 runs June 15 through July 3rd.