Connect
A community of phenomenal founders
Founders, engineers, designers, operators. Working sessions and sparring partners that turn a raw idea into something worth building.
What it is
A community for the work before the work.
Startup inception begins with a critical question: What should the future look like? Insights on the future are rarely developed in isolation. Connect is the residency for builders who understand the value of communal exploration. Connect is builders of all types—founders, engineers, designers, operators—all working through the same critical questions, together.
Who it's for
Builders with conviction in themselves.
Connect is for builders with taste, range, ambition, and the confidence to spend time on hard questions before pretending to have answers. Some join with a thesis they're testing. Others are looking for the right team or idea to build with. Others are circling something they can't quite name. We bring them together. They sharpen each other.
What you get
Talent density on tap.
An energizing workspace
A space designed for creative collisions, with weekly programming that brings the community together: peer accountability groups, learning forums, and workshops with the Philo team. Work alongside other builders pushing each other's thinking on what comes next, and the Philo team, in the work every day. The momentum is contagious.
Working sessions
Sessions with Philo's operators, designers, and investors. Bring an idea and we'll pressure-test it. Bring a question and we'll think it through with you. Bring an obsession and we'll help you find the company in it.
A network of builders
Members are here for the same reason; working alongside like-minded folks to find the right next application of their ambition to change the world by building. Talent density is the value.
How it works
A community, not an accelerator.
Connect runs as a six-month residency built around the community in the room. Working sessions, learning forums, and programming that brings builders together. No curriculum to follow, no demo day to perform for. The value is in the work, the conversations, and the parallel pursuits that compound. We've spent years in the work before the work, and Connect is the community we wished existed. Once you're in, the network is yours.
In their words
“You can also get together and just share ideas and kind of work off of each other and come up with new things, build really great relationships with other people, and then also get connected into their networks.”
Nicholas Lewis
Join Connect
Pull up a chair.
Tell us who you are, what you've been thinking about, and what kind of future you want to build. We read every application.