Sharing Nicely

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the Shuttleworth fellowship is gold-dust for people interested in starting a venture at the cross-section of technology, learning, and “open”. Word seems to have gotten around and I frequently get asked for advice on how to apply, what “they” are looking for, and any other tips. I am a fan of the model, and I am happy to help others apply.

Here are some general tips that I personally think are useful (but I can’t guarantee they work for everyone, and you should definitely check in with the Foundation early on – see tip 1):

Speak to the Foundation early on. Most proposal or application processes work like a black box. You submit a proposal that is some mix of what you want to do and what you think will get funding and then you wait. I recommend the opposite approach for the fellowship application. Spend some (but not too much) time to review the guidelines on the website and check out other fellows’ projects to make sure your idea broadly fits. Then ask one of the existing fellows for an introduction to the foundation or email fellowship@shuttleworthfoundation.org to set up an initial conversation. If possible I would do that on the phone because it gives you more flexibility to try out a couple of ideas, ask questions.

Treat the foundation like a partner, not like a funder. The trick is to get the foundation interested in “building this together” not in “giving you money”. All the fellows understand that they are facing big challenges and they operate with a high level of uncertainty. Sharing some of your big questions is a great way to get the foundation involved in answering them. If you don’t have any questions, and you have it all figured out already, you probably don’t need the fellowship.

Build something. There are lots of interesting research questions. There are lots of interesting experiments. There are better places to do research and experiments. What the fellowship is fantastic at is helping you “build/start” something. You’ve got a big idea, you’ve played around with it enough to know that it has legs, but you need time and some seed-funding to prove it out and lay the foundation for scaling: apply!

Let your passion show. When you record your application video, don’t forget to bring your passion. When we explain our work we often focus on the problems we are solving, the strategies we implement, the progress we hope to make. Those are all super important, but in my opinion, what swings it, is often the person behind the idea. And there is nothing as convincing as excitement and passion.

Commit! In eggs with bacon, the chicken is invested, the pig is committed. The fellowship is great for people who cannot not work on their idea. It is not the best model to create the first spark, but an awesome mix of fire-starter and lighter-fuel.

How the money works. Almost nobody seems to understand how the funding actually works. It’s unique and brilliant, like VC funding for social projects. You get an amount X (let’s say 50,000 USD) that is designed to roughly cover your life expenses so you don’t get distracted by another job. From that money, you can choose to reinvest some funds into your project. Your investment is multiplied by the foundation at a factor of 10, 15 (if you invest above a certain amount) or 20 (for collaborations with other fellows). So, if you put 5,000 USD back, your income goes down to 45,000 USD but you get 50,000 in project funds (5,000 * 10) to hire someone, organize a workshop or use in other ways to build your project.

Hope this is useful. Feel free to drop me a note anytime. Always happy to help bring more awesome people into this fellowship (better fellows make me and the other alumni look smarter). Also, feel free to leave questions below and I’ll try to answer them here for everyone.