The Pioneer Offer

You are free to do whatever you like with the money. Buy books, coffee or a laptop.

If you create a company from your project and raise money from investors, Pioneer will have the right to invest up to $100,000 alongside them. Our right will expire once we've invested $100,000 in the company, and it is capped at 20% of the round size (if others are investing $50,000, we’ll invest at most $10,000). We want to continue supporting you as you grow, not steal the show. And if you become successful, you'll help us fund promising Pioneers in perpetuity.

If both Pioneer and your company are interested, we may invest more than the above in specific situations.

We will encourage founders to incorporate US companies and prefer to invest in companies incorporated in the US. We will help you to work out the best process for creating a US company (or US parent company) in which we can invest. If you already have an incorporated company, these terms will apply for your next funding round.

Many of our best Pioneers will be researchers, painters or musicians. Extremely successful people in many lines of work make the world better. But extremely successful entrepreneurs have a comparative advantage at making a lot of money while doing it. We hope that a small stake in their companies can fund future generations of Pioneers.

We don’t charge any other fees for the program. You are not obligated to accept this offer if you’re a Pioneer Tournament winner.

As a Pioneer, you’ll receive:
  • $1,000 to spend however you’d like. You can buy a computer, books, coffee or whatever your heart desires. We trust that you’ll use the money to advance yourself somehow.
  • $6,000 in Stellar lumens.
  • $100,000 in Google Cloud credits.
  • A free round-trip plane ticket (and help with associated logistics) to Silicon Valley for a week-long summit with other Pioneers from around the world.
  • Mentorship from some of the world’s most successful individuals.
  • Access to the private online Pioneer community.
  • A 1-year subscription to The Economist.
  • Participation in Pioneer’s Presentation Day.