Santa Barbara · Est. 2026
The UCSB
accelerator.
An 8-week program for UCSB founders. Each startup is matched with a dedicated mentor for weekly office hours, and the program ends with a Demo Day in front of VCs and operators.
Advised by alumni at Meta, NASA, YC, ByteDance, and more.
What we do
Eight weeks to go from idea to Demo Day.
A focused, in-person program in Santa Barbara built around a dedicated mentor for every startup, weekly office hours, and a Demo Day that puts you in the room with the right people.
Dedicated mentor, weekly office hours
Every startup is matched with one mentor for the full program: YC founders, exited operators, and alumni. You meet 1:1 every week.
Mid-program hackathon
A weekend hackathon for the cohort and a handful of outside UCSB builders. Credits for winners and for every participant.
Hackathon details →Build credits and tools
Cursor Pro, AI credits, and infra from our partners so you can spend the time shipping.
Demo Day
The program ends with a Demo Day. Pitch what you built to VCs, operators, and the broader UCSB founder network.
About Demo Day →Cohort 1
What the cohort is building.
Bio ML
AI model for protein mutation prediction.
Kay & Stanton
AI hardware / lumber
Drones for forest mapping.
Arthur
AI B2B SaaS / legal
AI timekeeping for lawyers.
Joaquin & Quinn
AI SMB
Shift manager AI for SMBs.
Nag
Real estate
Voice assistant for realtor CRMs.
Viktor & Yasen
Sales tech
Deep research agents for lead generation.
John Lins
For VCs & operators
First look at UCSB’s best founders.
Demo Day is the culmination of eight weeks of focused work. If you invest in pre-seed and seed, or want to meet the UCSB builders shipping right now, we want you there.
Demo Day access
Curated pitches from a vetted cohort. See the teams and the traction before anyone else.
Mentor a team
Take on a startup for the program. Weekly office hours, early relationships, direct access.
Warm intros
Direct access to founders through the member directory and our network.
Apply
Cohort 2 applications open soon.
If you’re a UCSB founder or builder with something to show, tell us what you’re working on.