We help AI researchers build startups for a safe and aligned future.
Applications are open until Sep 14. Our cohort runs end of Sept - Dec 2025.
Recommend someone to 5050 here.
Learn what it takes to become a great founder
Choose the right idea, team, and market
Start building an aligned AI future
Some of our mentors
Wojciech Zaremba,
co-founder of OpenAI
He’s built and led OpenAI’s robotics, language, coding, and human data teams and helped shape projects like Codex, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and the O‑series reasoning models. His current focus is on AI safety and alignment to maximize the chances that AI unfolds well.
Ross Girshick
co-founder of Vercept
The 18th most cited person in the history of science. Deep learning pioneer (Faster R-CNN, Mask R-CNN, Segment Anything). Previously Research Scientist at Meta AI and AI2, and Postdoc at UC Berkeley.
Emmett Shear,
co-founder of Softmax
Former interim CEO of OpenAI and co-founder of Twitch (acquired by Amazon for $970M). Now co-founder of Softmax, focused on AI safety and alignment research.
Dileep George,
co-founder of Vicarious
Co-founded Vicarious ($250M raised, acquired by Alphabet) to build human-like AI. Co-founder of Numenta & pioneer in neuroscience-inspired AI. PhD from Stanford on hierarchical deep learning.
Ronnie Chatterji,
Chief Economist at OpenAI
Led the $52B CHIPS rollout, served as Biden’s Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, and Chief Economist at the Department of Commerce. He’s a professor of business and public policy at Duke.
At 50Y, we’ve hosted explorations of human x AI futures, most recently the AGI Day '25:
What the world needs:
Safety evaluation, testing, and red-teaming: Tools that benchmark AI systems for alignment, robustness, and safety before and after deployment.
Interpretability platforms: Software that makes AI decision-making transparent and auditable, essential for regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and autonomous systems.
Alignment infrastructure: Developer tools that make it easier to build aligned and predictable AI systems.
Governance & compliance: Systems that help organizations deploy AI responsibly while meeting emerging regulatory requirements across sectors.
Human-AI collaboration: Interfaces and workflows that keep humans meaningfully in the loop for high-stakes decisions while leveraging AI capabilities.
Robustness tools: Solutions that make AI systems more reliable, secure, and resistant to adversarial attacks or distribution shifts.
Biosecurity & dual-use prevention: Platforms that detect and prevent misuse of AI in biological research, drug discovery, and synthetic biology while enabling beneficial applications.
AI-powered cybersecurity: Defense systems that protect against AI-enabled attacks, secure AI model deployment, and prevent adversarial manipulation of AI systems.
And more! If you're working on something within or far outside this list to create an abundant AI future, 5050 will help you turn that wild, audacious idea into a deep tech startup.
Whether you’re validating an idea or ready to build — 5050 is for you.
5050 is a 13-week program. You’ll work closely with the 50Y team to answer the following questions: How do I turn research into a startup? How do I align commercial demand with a flourishing future? How do I recruit a world-class team? Am I the right person to do it?
You’ll explore if entrepreneurship is right for you, what it takes to be a founder, and how to develop the traits great founders have. You’ll learn how to translate your research into a startup, build fast, de-risk early, and avoid costly mistakes.
You’ll join a cohort of scientists and engineers tackling world-scale problems. The program is built for entrepreneurial researchers, with weekly workshops, top AI mentors, one-on-one guidance from 50Y Partners, visits to successful startups, and a 3-day off-the-grid cohort camp. 5050 will get you ready to start a deep tech startup.
5050 is entirely free. No equity, no fees, and no weird clauses.
Our next cohort runs from Sep to Dec ‘25. Sessions are held in SF, Boston, and remotely. We'll fly the entire cohort to SF for the kickoff and camp weekends.
Whether you’re validating an idea or ready to build — 5050 is for you.
5050 is a 13-week program. You’ll work closely with the 50Y team to answer the following questions: How do I turn research into a startup? How do I align commercial demand with a flourishing future? How do I recruit a world-class team? Am I the right person to do it?
You’ll explore if entrepreneurship is right for you, what it takes to be a founder, and how to develop the traits great founders have. You’ll learn how to translate your research into a startup, build fast, de-risk early, and avoid costly mistakes.
You’ll join a cohort of scientists and engineers tackling world-scale problems. The program is built for entrepreneurial researchers, with weekly workshops, top AI mentors, one-on-one guidance from 50Y Partners, visits to successful startups, and a 3-day off-the-grid cohort camp. 5050 will get you ready to start a deep tech startup.
5050 is entirely free. No equity, no fees, and no weird clauses.
Our next cohort runs from Oct to Dec ‘25. Sessions are held in London and remotely. We'll host the entire cohort in London for the kickoff and camp weekends.
Build among audacious scientists and engineers:
340
scientists and engineers have gone through 5050.
78
companies got started by our alumni. Many wouldn’t exist without 5050.
95%
seed raise success rate.
Mark Budde co-founded Plasmidsaurus: ultra-fast DNA sequencing as a service.
Josie Kishi co-founded Digital Biology: revolutionizing functional sequencing.
Niccolo Cymbalist co-founded Clippership: autonomous sailboats to decarbonize maritime shipping.
Michelle Lee founded Medra: automating repetitive wetlab tasks using robotics and computer vision.
Dan Moore founded Type III: rebuilding the American tech tree.
Michael Chavez co-founded Enoda: transforming cells into cures for cancer, autoimmunity, aging, and beyond.
Binbin Chen co-founded Vcreate: high-throughput screening and ML to design immunotherapies.
Brandon Wilson co-founded Range Bio: translational proteomics to enable molecular health monitoring.
Floris Engelhardt co-founded Kano Therapeutics: safe, effective genetic payloads to enable genetic cures.
Nikita Khlystov founded Huminly: using enzymes to make clothing infinitely recyclable.
Eric McShane and Evan Gardner co-founded Electroflow: sustainable, cost-effective lithium chemical production.
Caitlyn Miller co-founded TwoStep Therapeutics: expanding the reach of targeted cancer therapies.
and many more!
5050 alumni are creating massive positive impact:
5050 is run by 50Y. We’re experts in deep tech entrepreneurship.
At Fifty Years, we’ve built deep tech companies ourselves. We’ve backed over 100 deep tech companies from the earliest stages and helped them raise over $4.6 billion. We've helped our founders achieve many “firsts”
the first carbon-negative molecule factory
the first cultivated meat approved in the U.S.
the first microgeo satellite for internet connectivity
the first in-orbit space factory that manufactured pharmaceutical drugs
the first de novo synthesis of a 1000+ base DNA molecule
and many more
We supported these founders when they barely had a working prototype. We backed Sean Hunt and Gaurab Chakrabarti when they had just built a janky prototype reactor with wood, PVC pipes, and zip ties from Home Depot. Solugen has now built a 63-foot-tall carbon-negative molecule factory that offsets over 30,000 tons of CO2 a year and is on the path to decarbonizing 90% of the chemicals humanity needs.
We backed John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko when Astranis was an idea on a whiteboard. They've now launched satellites, closed more than 1 billion dollars in contracted revenue, and are on the path to connecting 3 billion people to the internet.
Our 5050 alumni:
5050 was the fundamental catalyst for founding Huminly! Huminly would have had a very different start, if at all!
Office hours helped me focus on a select number of objectives I needed to hit to spin out of Stanford and fundraise. I remember Alex told me early on to focus on the polyester monomer and to meet the technical specs at a viable cost. That advice is something we’re now chasing at full speed!
Nikita Khlystov, co-founder of Huminly. Prev. Cochran lab at Stanford
Our team completed 5050, and we started Externa. We built our first pitch deck and negotiated our first client deal during 5050! The 50Y team gave us key advice when spinning out our startup. After 5050, the cohort has become a fantastic network to lean on.
Helena De Puig, co-founder of Externa. Prev. Collins lab at Harvard
The caliber of scientists that Fifty Years brought together was incredible. You gain insider knowledge you’d only gain if you talk to and share with peers who are also trying to figure out the entrepreneurial journey themselves.
Floris Engelhardt, co-founder of Kano. Prev. Bathe lab at MIT
Before 5050, the chances of us starting a company were ~10%. They’ll tell you if it’s a bad idea and help you land on something worth pursuing. Within weeks, we quit our jobs at Tesla, and we’re now building the startup full-time.
Niccolo Cymbalist, co-founder of Clippership. Prev. Tesla and PhD from Caltech.
We joined right as we were spinning out, and it's been a game changer. There were numerous times I heard a tip from a 5050 event and used the advice the next day at our company. It's run by former founders who really get it and have been there, done that.
Eric McShane, co-founder of Electroflow Tech. Prev. Cargnello lab at Stanford
As a mechanical engineer, bouncing ideas off a cohort with a deeply technical background in chemistry and biology expanded my sense of what’s possible. From working on a problem in manufacturing with no market opportunity, I pivoted to something I am deeply passionate about in the energy space.
Daniel Rahn, founder of MetalAF. Prev. SpaceX
Surrounding myself with incredibly kind and supportive scientists, founders, and 50Y team gave me the confidence to pursue entrepreneurial ideas that I otherwise would not have even considered exploring.
Erin Huiting, Bondy-Denomy lab at UCSF
Market forces reward shipping models faster over long-term human flourishing. Safety isn’t keeping up.
Make alignment the default path.
The 5050 experience
1. Identify civilization-scale problems that are good business opportunities.
5050 will help you answer: How do I turn research into a startup? How do I align commercial demand with a flourishing future? How do I recruit a world-class team? Am I the right person to do it?
We'll help you diagnose and mitigate risks, pivot quickly if necessary, identify the problem you can uniquely solve, and make a solid plan to commercialize your tech.
Does the idea chunk nicely into milestones? Is it too risky, or not risky enough? Is there a market for it? Do the technoeconomics make sense? Is your invention 10x cheaper, better, or faster than how things are done today?
2. Learn everything you need to start a deep tech startup.
We’ll host weekly entrepreneurship workshops. You’ll learn the best deep tech approaches to hiring, fundraising, selecting your co-founder, recruiting, engaging customers, achieving product-market fit, executing fast, and storytelling.
50Y Partners will meet with you weekly to give mentorship, resolve challenges, and set the pace for execution. Recognizing that every delayed solution can cost real lives and entire ecosystems, 5050 will help you quickly de-risk your technology, hit milestones, raise your first round, and avoid costly mistakes.
3. Grow into a great founder.
We’ll help you figure out if entrepreneurship is for you (it’s not for everyone!) and coach you through the early days of your startup. You’ll meet successful deep tech founders and learn what the early days of building a startup look like.
Personal growth workshops will push past your edge and help you develop traits all great founders share: thinking against the grain, studying the greats, high expectations, speed, optimism, audacity, risk-taking, relentlessness, work is life, and resourcefulness.
4. Join a community of future deep tech founders.
You’ll join a cohort of ambitious scientists, engineers, and builders tackling the world’s most pressing problems. Building alongside entrepreneurial peers will challenge you to level up and provide a community to lean on for support. Since you’re navigating the entrepreneurial journey together, it’s almost guaranteed someone in your cohort has just solved the challenge you’re facing right now.
5050 alumni, many of whom are now deep tech founders, are eager to share their experiences with you.
5. What? When? Where?
Our next cohort runs from September to December.
We’ll fly the entire cohort to SF for the kickoff weekend (early Sept) and a 3-day off-the-grid experience (Oct 24 - 26). After the kickoff, every week you’ll join office hours with 50Y Partners and afternoon workshops focused on essential entrepreneurship skills. Workshops are held in-person in SF and Boston, and remotely for participants across the rest of the US.
To be notified of future cohorts, sign up here.
The 5050 experience
1. Identify civilization-scale problems that are good business opportunities.
5050 will help you answer: How do I turn research into a startup? How do I align commercial demand with a flourishing future? How do I recruit a world-class team? Am I the right person to do it?
We'll help you diagnose and mitigate risks, pivot quickly if necessary, identify the problem you can uniquely solve, and make a solid plan to commercialize your tech.
Does the idea chunk nicely into milestones? Is it too risky, or not risky enough? Is there a market for it? Do the technoeconomics make sense? Is your invention 10x cheaper, better, or faster than how things are done today?
2. Learn everything you need to start a deep tech startup.
We’ll host weekly entrepreneurship workshops. You’ll learn the best deep tech approaches to hiring, fundraising, selecting your co-founder, recruiting, engaging customers, achieving product-market fit, executing fast, and storytelling.
50Y Partners will meet with you weekly to give mentorship, resolve challenges, and set the pace for execution. Recognizing that every delayed solution can cost real lives and entire ecosystems, 5050 will help you quickly de-risk your technology, hit milestones, raise your first round, and avoid costly mistakes.
3. Grow into a great founder.
We’ll help you figure out if entrepreneurship is for you (it’s not for everyone!) and coach you through the early days of your startup. You’ll meet successful deep tech founders and learn what the early days of building a startup look like.
Personal growth workshops will push past your edge and help you develop traits all great founders share: thinking against the grain, studying the greats, high expectations, speed, optimism, audacity, risk-taking, relentlessness, work is life, and resourcefulness.
4. Join a community of future deep tech founders.
You’ll join a cohort of ambitious scientists, engineers, and builders tackling the world’s most pressing problems. Building alongside entrepreneurial peers will challenge you to level up and provide a community to lean on for support. Since you’re navigating the entrepreneurial journey together, it’s almost guaranteed someone in your cohort has just solved the challenge you’re facing right now.
5050 alumni, many of whom are now deep tech founders, are eager to share their experiences with you.
5. What? When? Where?
Our next cohort runs from October to December.
We’ll fly the entire cohort to SF for the kickoff weekend (first week of Oct) and a 3-day off-the-grid experience (mid-November). After the kickoff, every week you’ll join office hours with 50Y Partners and afternoon workshops focused on essential entrepreneurship skills. Workshops are held in-person in London and remotely for participants across the UK.
To be notified of future cohorts, sign up here.
FAQ
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Scientists, engineers, and builders interested in entrepreneurship. Whether you're in the early stages of building a company or actively pursuing a PhD and deciding whether entrepreneurship is right for you, we can help you accelerate the journey to build a company to solve humanity’s biggest problems.
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Deep tech companies require deep technical expertise to drive breakthroughs in areas like energy, climate tech, materials, bioengineering, transportation, hardware, computation, communication, health, aerospace, and AI. If you're building something that could be a civilizationally important tech, we'd probably call it deep tech!
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Not at all. Many cohort members are simply talented, curious, and ambitious builders. If you do have an idea, you’ll make the idea even stronger during the cohort.
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3–4 hours per week for sessions and office hours with the 50Y team. We expect you to spend the rest of your time pushing your research or startup idea forward.
The cohort runs for 16 weeks. Core commitments include:
A kickoff weekend (in person)
Weekly sessions, usually weekday evenings, and some on Saturdays (sessions will be held online and in-person).
Weekly 1-hour group office hours with 50Y Partners (on Zoom)
Access to 1:1 check-ins with 50Y team as needed
A Friday–Sunday off-the-grid cohort experience
You can join 5050 while doing your PhD, postdoc, or full-time job. Many past participants made the most of nights and weekends until they were ready to go full-time. What matters is showing up, attending sessions, and pursuing your ideas with the intensity of a founder.
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Nope! The program is free.
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The goal of 5050 is to help more indispensable companies get started! Scientists and engineers are the best people to solve some of the world’s biggest problems; we want to increase their chances of success regardless of whether 50Y backs the founders who go through the program!
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Shoot us an email at ale@50y.com.