Fellows are the people who’ve done it. And the people who still do it for the next ones.
You’ve built companies before. You know what 2am decisions feel like. You may be on your second venture, your third exit, or running a family office that does this every day. Your experience matters here.
Moving from Founder to Fellow is its own learning curve, though. The instincts that worked when you were operating can hurt you when you’re mentoring. We don’t expect you to figure that out alone. Pete didn’t. The Fellows who came before you didn’t. We support the transition the same way we support the founders we back: with other people who’ve already done it.
In 1977, Mike Markkula was an angel. He’d been a marketing manager at Intel and understood semiconductors. When he met two young men named Steve building computers in a garage, he saw what most investors couldn’t see. He invested his own money, helped write the original business plan, and stayed with them. Apple was the result.
Every Supported Company has a Markkula: its Fellow.
From the moment you’ve picked a company and written the first cheque, the society moves with you. Other Fellows give you second opinions and follow you in with co-investment. Specialists plug in with the domain expertise the founder needs. The cohort gives the founder peers moving through similar terrain. Angels and Investors come into the round after you’ve led.
The society supports your work as a Fellow the same way it supports the founders. We run monthly Fellow-only sessions to compare notes on what’s working with the founders we back, what isn’t, and what to try next. Pete attends most of these. He made the move from Founder to Fellow in 2019 and is still learning.
We ask judgement, capital, and time. You pick the companies and write the first cheque from your own capital. You lead the round and the relationship with the founder. The Fellows who came before you show up for you the same way you’ll show up for the Fellows who come next. We expect fair engagement with founders, and we hold each other to that standard.
The Fellowship leads cohort selection and runs PACE responses when a Fellow declares a critical event. Founders often invite the Fellow who backed them onto their board, though that decision belongs to the founder.
More than 40 Fellows operate across four countries today. We don’t cap the number per region; the Fellowship grows with the founders it backs.
How to join the Fellowship
No entrepreneur builds alone here.
18 Jun 2026 · UK
Pennine Five Campus
