EWOR, a founder fellowship accepting only 0.1% of applicants, has unveiled a San Francisco-based leadership team following a dramatic year-on-year surge in US applications. The programme, which maintains an acceptance bar higher than Y Combinator, recruited three prominent figures to lead its American expansion: Oscar-winning documentarian Charles Ferguson, Katie Madding (former Chief Product Officer at Adjust and CEO of Emhance), and Gigi Brett, a serial founder with three companies to her name.

The appointments mark EWOR's response to unprecedented demand from the United States, where applications climbed 237% over twelve months. This surge signals that founders already operating in America's most densely packed startup ecosystem are seeking something the domestic market struggles to provide.

What EWOR offers its fellows

EWOR operates on the principle that exceptional talent exists worldwide, yet access to opportunity remains geographically concentrated. The fellowship provides selected founders with up to $600,000 in capital and weekly one-on-one mentorship from founders who have built companies valued between $100 million and $12 billion. Critically, fellows receive this support remotely, without the requirement to relocate. The programme connects participants with mentors from companies including Adjust, ProGlove, and SumUp, while also facilitating introductions through EWOR's talent and customer networks.

Recent cohorts have demonstrated substantial outcomes. Founders who joined EWOR this year averaged $10 million in funding raises, with one quarter of recent participants securing nine-figure valuations within the past six months.

Why American founders are joining

The influx of US applications represents a notable shift for EWOR. Historically, the fellowship drew international talent seeking to access Silicon Valley's networks from abroad. Now, founders already embedded in America's startup ecosystem are applying, suggesting EWOR delivers advantages unavailable domestically. These include access to mentorship from proven unicorn builders and funding outcomes that exceed typical American rounds.

Talent is spread evenly across the world. Opportunity is not. Our job is to close that gap for the world's best founders wherever they are. For a growing number of them, that now means San Francisco, so that's where we are.

Daniel Dippold, EWOR founder and CEO

The new leadership team

Charles Ferguson: From FrontPage to AI investing

Ferguson sold FrontPage to Microsoft in 1996 and holds a PhD in political science from MIT, having authored five books. He gained international recognition after winning an Academy Award for his documentary Inside Job, which examined the 2008 financial crisis. Today, he ranks among the most sought-after early-stage investors in artificial intelligence, having backed Etched, Perplexity, CopilotKit, and Paradigm. His career spans both continents, encompassing a fellowship at Brookings, a board position at the French-American Foundation, and life membership in the Council on Foreign Relations.

Great founders need the same things: support from best-in-class mentors, access to the San Francisco startup ecosystem, and a superb global network. EWOR is already the world's most selective founder fellowship, now expanding with US applications up 237% this year, and with EWOR Fellows raising an average of $10M after Demo Day. So I'm honored to help lead EWOR's US growth and its integration within San Francisco's world-leading ecosystem.

Charles Ferguson

Katie Madding: From product leadership to founder support

Madding served as Chief Product Officer and the third American employee at Adjust before AppLovin acquired the company for $1 billion in 2021. Subsequently, she led Emhance as Chief Executive, serving as Google's official partner for game playtesting. Under her leadership, Emhance grew from concept to sustainable revenue, attracting customers such as Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard King.

What led me to EWOR were my lonely nights as a pre-seed CEO, when I sat alone with decisions, turning to AI for answers when what I really needed was a founder who'd been where I was. That's what we're building: the world's best product for founders, so they can pour their energy into the work only they can do, basically the support I had dreamt of when I was CEO.

Katie Madding

Gigi Brett: From health tech to founder investing

Brett joins EWOR as Chief Investment Officer, relocating from Cape Town to San Francisco. A three-time founder focused on health and education, she built Batelle alongside a unicorn founder and a 60-person team. She subsequently founded Upstream, the first preconception product targeting men, which conducted a pilot programme with US Navy SEALs. Her most recent venture, PreSeed Fertility, operates a database of high-quality sperm donors representing approximately 10% of all registered donors nationwide.

My whole career has been about beginnings, from conception to early childhood health, and the lesson never changes: the further upstream you go, the higher the impact. Joining EWOR, I get to work at the most upstream point there is, supporting founders from as early as the idea stage, when the right help changes everything that follows.

Gigi Brett

Recent fellows in the programme

  • Martin Varsavsky, a five-time unicorn founder currently developing Certuma, an AI doctor pursuing FDA approval
  • Lars Hinrichs, founder of Xing, now building Simsalasim, described as the first truly global, AI-native mobile carrier offering unlimited data across 100 countries via eSIM
  • Maya Polackal, a Harvard Medical School and Boston University researcher launching EOMIND, a frontier AI laboratory
  • Carter Laren, a serial founder with $300 million in previous exits and angel investor now building Sprite, an AI agent platform controlled by thought rather than human direction
  • Thiri Shwesin Aung, a Harvard-trained environmental scientist founding Nyxium, an AI platform for energy and industrial infrastructure deployment decisions

Notable alumni achievements

  • Ricky Knox, former unicorn founder with two nine-figure exits through Azimo and Tandem Bank
  • Alfons Huber, a physicist who raised $23.6 million at a $322 million post-money valuation for REPS GmbH, which converts roads into power generation infrastructure
  • Jörgen Tveit, founder of energy storage company Thaleron, which secured Europe's largest pre-seed round at the time ($15 million) as a first-time founder
  • Leonard T. Dorlöchter, who achieved a $3.5 billion valuation for peaq within two years of joining EWOR

About EWOR

EWOR identifies itself as a fellowship for exceptional founders developing transformative technology. The organisation operates from the conviction that while entrepreneurs shape the future, only a select few generate generational impact. It supports the top 0.1% of applicants with up to $600,000 in funding alongside weekly one-on-one mentorship from unicorn founders employed full-time by EWOR, drawn from companies like Adjust, ProGlove, and SumUp. Rather than applying standardised curricula or rigid programming structures, EWOR customises its virtual-first model to accommodate each founder's distinct trajectory.

The fellowship's track record includes record-breaking outcomes. One fellow raised a $15 million pre-seed round as a first-time founder, while another achieved a $3.5 billion valuation within two years of programme entry.

Source: The Next Web