Pioneer

Pioneer is a startup accelerator for ambitious outsiders. We've funded 150+ companies with 300+ founders in 50+ countries. We're no longer making new investments.

Our companies are worth over $1B in aggregate, and have gone on to raise $200M+ from Sequoia, a16z, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and many more.

Some of our companies include:

Pioneer was founded by Rishi Narang and Daniel Gross in 2018, and is backed by Stripe and Marc Andreessen.

Our founders have been mentored by an incredible network of advisors & speakers including:

“Pioneer is the biggest ramp in terms of changing my life's trajectory. There's no doubt I would be completely somewhere else were it not for Pioneer.”
- Jake Cooper, Railway

“I literally started by myself in my living room in April and the only reason we are here is because of Pioneer. Jason saw the pitch and he invited us to the LAUNCH accelerator because of it, so thank you.”
- Karen Serfaty, Atlas

“Being part of Pioneer was legitimately one of the most impactful things in my life. Kickstarted my entry into this world and is directly or indirectly the way I met most of the people who have influenced me.”
- Justin Zheng, Matrix

“Doing Pioneer was one of the best decisions we made. They took a bet on us before anyone else did, and gave us a community of friends and builders we still rely on today.”
- Will Dahlstrom, Counsel

“Pioneer made two unlikely bets on me. First, in hiring a wild-eyed bartender from Denver who’d never worked in front of a computer. Second, investing in my idea after letting me loose on the community for two years. I love these people and what they stand for, and am so grateful for all involved.”
- Jackson Prince, Frame 240

“Pioneer has been a fantastic experience. The Pioneer team as well as the other founders in the cohort are some of the smartest and kindest people I know.”
- Niels Andriesse, Luminal

“Pioneer has changed the trajectory of my startup and my life.”
- Alex Gunnarson, Deft

“Pioneer were the first ones to take a bet on us. We feel very lucky to be a part of the incredible Pioneer community and hugely value having Rishi and team on our cap table!”
- Ross Murphy, OneContext

“Pioneer is one of the most high-leverage things I’ve done in my life. And my favorite community.”
- Julia Wu, Spark

“Pioneer is excellent. You’ll find the real builders there. The accelerator was my chance as a relative outsider to break in and build the highest leverage relationships I have ever had in my career.”
- Erik Dunteman, Banana

“Our month with Pioneer was a game-changer. Nothing but immense gratitude to the Pioneer team who have been the most supportive investors we could have asked for on our cap table.”
- Dillon Harindiran, Counsel

“I can’t emphasize enough how crucial Pioneer was in our early days, even before we were a startup. We’d have probably died early on without Pioneer’s support and the amazing founder community.”
- David Nandwa, HoneyCoin

“Pioneer was a catalyst that kicked off a series of chain reactions, changing my life completely and the trajectory of CropSafe. I can't thank you guys enough for that. We raised a seed from investors that saw us on Pioneer, we hired our CTO from Pioneer, our current roommates in San Francisco are Pioneers.”
- Micheál McLaughlin, CropSafe

“It's basically my favorite thing on the internet.”
- Everett Berry, Perceive

“Pioneer was the first to believe in us and the highest-quality accelerator I’ve done in terms of community and mentorship. I’ll be staying in touch with our cohort for years to come.”
- Ashwin Mathews, Dopplio

“Pioneer is definitely in the top 3 things to ever happen to my life.”
- Arsalan Bashir, LiveDocs

“Growing up in a small town, I would not have made it this far without communities like Pioneer. They easily have the highest density of talented, bright, and driven builders I've ever seen or had the pleasure of working with. Pioneer was one of the first entries on our cap table, and it continues to be one of the strongest.”
- Zach Hudson, Deft

“Pioneer had a huge, positive, impact not only on the success of our company, but on both mine and my co-founder's trajectory in life.”
- Dan Cleary, PromptHub

“It all started with Pioneer. They were the first ones who believed in Peek. It opened up so many doors with future users, investors & partners and what's more - I've made life long friends with incredible people.”
- Deborah Igunma, Peek

“The Summit was a great way to get quickly networked in SF while having a cohort of founders and friends to meet with regularly. I met a lot of like-minded and incredibly talented founders.”
- Rahul Tarak, Scalar

“Pioneer was a fantastic experience, and the whole team is smart, driven, and fun!”
- Greg Funtusov, Atelier

“As a solo founder sometimes you just need someone to brainstorm with and having Rishi with the experience he has is 10x better.”
- Alvaro Molina, EnhanceDocs

“Rishi, Daniel and Shri were the first ones to believe in our vision. Without a college degree and coming from outside the US, we felt like outcasts. That's exactly what Pioneer were looking for. Pioneer helped us go from zero to one in a very short amount of time, and later on proceed to a top accelerator. We will forever be grateful.”
- Ariel Weinberger, Pezzo

“Pioneer has changed my life, I can't even put it into words how much I'm grateful for them and all the work they've done!”
- Nushaine Ferdinand, Unify

“Without Pioneer, I would not have been able to start my company. Big kudos to the team.”
- Brian Byun, Hubble

“I've been dying for a community like this forever.”
- Sacha Schermerhorn, Aud.io

“Pioneer has given us the best peer group we've ever had.”
- Esteban Vargas, Watermelon

“Pioneer was one of the first supporters of what I was doing early on. Pioneer helped me go from a hacker to a company.”
- Luke Barwikowski, Pixels

“I did Pioneer with Clearcall and it was the best decision I made in 2019.”
- Justin Glibert, Clearcall

“If you are plagued with the disease of needing to start a company, there is no better hospital than Pioneer. The community of mature builders is top notch and the most intentionally diverse collective you can find today.”
- Leonard Bogdonoff, Milk Video

“Pioneer helped me to learn a lot about startups and myself and their community gave me the boost I needed.”
- Alex Smirnov, AskGuru

“Pioneer opened up what was happening behind closed doors in Silicon Valley. It gave us what YouTube videos and essays wouldn't provide.”
- Mo Rajabi, Noor

“Pioneer is an amazing thing. It indeed takes the idea of an accelerator online, and makes it available for people all around the world. I love the regular feedback, love to see what other fellow Pioneers do, and learn from them.”
- Andriy Bas, Plai

“I probably would have never been active in the startup space without pioneer. Great community of people who love building.”
- Aravind Natchiappan, SupplyDrop

“Surrounded by smart people, we felt energised and driven to build things! Pioneer helped us stay focused and grow. Karma is 5x bigger now, and we are much more experienced.”
- Stas Kulesh, Karma

“Being part of Pioneer is like being handed the keys to a treasure trove of knowledge, connections and opportunities.”
- Jura Fitzgerald, Dialogue

“Joining Pioneer was the best thing we've done as a company.”
- Matt Johnson, Taskable

“God bless Pioneer :) (and I’m an atheist)”
- Leander Maerkisch, Stardust

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