My Experience With Antler Residency (menap) - Worth It, If You Are Ready For It (i Will Not Promote)

Sharing my experience with 10-week Antler Residency in Riyadh that just ended. Might be useful if you are thinking about doing it or in the middle of a similar program in the next cohort.

TL;DR Worth it if you're ready. Don't expect hand-holding, get what you want yourself. Came in solo, left solo, found my idea (AI agents tooling space), working on it now.

About the programme

• 10 weeks, full-time, have to be present in the location (in my case it was Riyadh)
• ~80 ppl (or so) take part in the programme, with a mix of tech (engineers/builders), business (product, finance, et al) and domain experts (ppl who worked in a function for 10+ years or so)
• end goal: form a team, work on an idea, pitch for a chance to get $180k at 11% (terms are public)
• Antler positions itself as Day 0 investor, i.e. investing at a super early stage (pre-seed, or essentially idea stage)
• in the course of the programme from W1 till the end you have the typical lectures about the core of building a startup (what Antler invests in, how to find a co-founder, and so on and so forth)
• you are also doing weekly check-ins with the team + coaches, if "tracked out" with a cofounder and formed a team

Key takeaways

• I can't be certain this is representative of all the cohorts, but in our case out of all the teams that were greenlit for IC (investment committee) all but one had came into the program with a product, and / or users and / or early revenue.
  • My take: Even if Antler positions itself as Day 0 investor, it's extremely hard to sell "just the idea" and you shouldn't expect to be able to do that unless you are Steve Jobs
• Again this might be peculiar aspect of our cohort, but we had a very large proportion of teams come in to the cohort, which somewhat skewed the experience. Antler pushes and prioritizes teams above solos (they share it early on) so if you are not in the team you might miss out on what the program offers
  • My take: Even if you are solo, take every opportunity (literally) to share what you are working with the team each week. Book slots with multiple Antler team members even if you are solo. Otherwise you simply will have 1/10th of exposure that teams get
• Venture Partners - kind of a late unlock for me. Antler has about a dozen ppl working with them who are called Venture Partners. These are typically super experienced / ex-startup founders / VC-adjacent type of folks. Some of them take part in the IC at the end of the program. Again, once you are ready take every opportunity to meet with them, get some of their time and precious feedback on what you are working on. They are kind of glanced over during the programe IMO - but founders are supposed to get in touch with them on your own
  • My take: once you know what you are working on or you have a solid team - reach out to a few Venture Partners and just ask for a bit of their time to share what you are working on. I've reached out to 3 which I found the most relevant and none of them rejected or ignored me. In my case I settled on the idea pretty late in the program so I had only so much time to do that. Highly recommended as this is an asset that you have as a founder
• If you didn't find a cofounder on the programme it's not the end of the road: you can absolutely bring external people or you can stay solo (but it's highly advised not to do so). We had a few teams in the cohort that formed really late (week 6-ish) with external people. And as long as these people are actually onboard you have a good chance.
• End of the programme is arbitrary - even if you don't get into IC at the end, approx the same amount of teams that got the IC invite, also got the delayed IC invite - so continue working on your product and stay in touch with the team. That's my plan as well.
• Antler's investment terms - do your own research on typical / average pre-seed terms in your region. Take into account your VC network and opportunities to raise from other sources and take your own decision if it's worth it for you.
• it's worth your time if:
  • you're working solo and want exposure to other founders so you're not stuck in your own head all the time
  • you have at least a rough idea of what space you want to work in. Without that, you'll be under pressure to find both an idea AND a co-founder on a deadline -that's a tall order.
  • you are certain that you will find an idea fast, if you find the right person - i.e. you iterate fast and are open-minded. A few teams that matched late in the program, negated the late start by iterating on ideas super rapidly and gained enough confidence with the Antler team that they can deliver
  • you have a product with early traction and want VC exposure to scale faster
• it's not worth your time if:
  • you want guaranteed cofounder match -> I came in solo, and finished solo but I have no regrets since I didn't want to compromise on who I work with and I didn't find the right fit during the program. I've met some awesome founders nevertheless and we plan to stay in touch supporting each other
  • you expect sacred expertise and knowledge from the Antler team. Hint: there is none. The most successful founders and teams on the programme actually did the reverse - they came in with something they could share (a product with users and / or revenue, an insight why it must exist etc). This is where I believe most founder's expectations are not aligned with what this programme really is - it's an opportunity for you to pitch to a room full of VCs what are you working on. They don't know the market better then you do. They don't know the problem better then you do. It's your job to position yourself such that they have confidence you "know your shit" so to speak. If you ever get feedback from the team that means that they know more then you do - means you have to work a bit more.

Overall the experience was worth for me, although I came as a solo and left as a solo, I spent the programme searching for the right idea in the problem space I am interested in (AI agents), I have found it late, but I am working on it now. Riyadh was a pleasant discovery as well - such a great city and soooo different from Dubai (I was based there for the last 2 years). I'd say it's a much better location for the programme since there are very few distractions, the people are great and friendly, you get to experience the local authentic culture and saudis coffee culture is next level - probably the best v60s I've tried were in Riyadh :)

GL & HF