Z Fellows
Category: Concepts / Ecosystem Website: zfellows.com Founded by: Cory Levy Summary: The fellowship for exceptional young builders — $10K, one week, no equity Last updated: 2026-04-06
Overview
Z Fellows is a fellowship program for young builders who are already making something. Founded by Cory Levy, it provides $10,000 in no-equity funding and one week working alongside some of the most successful founders and operators in Silicon Valley. There is no age cutoff — Z Fellows has accepted high school dropouts, college students, and people with full-time jobs. Applications are rolling with no deadline.
The program’s founding premise, from Cory Levy’s own writing: “Skip class or work for a week and get paid $10,000.”
The Format
- $10,000 grant — no equity, no strings
- One week — intensive, working alongside mentors and fellow builders
- No age requirement — aimed at young builders but not age-restricted
- Rolling applications — no deadline; multiple cohorts per year; re-applications encouraged
- Solo or team — apply alone or with co-founders
The format is deliberately minimal. No curriculum. No structured lectures. The value is: money, time, and proximity to people who have done it.
Cory Levy
Cory Levy is a Bay Area connector and builder who co-founded Z Fellows. He also hosts events like Internapalooza — informal mixers that bring together the Bay Area intern and young founder cohort. This is consistent with the Z Fellows philosophy: the best thing you can do for exceptional young builders is put them in rooms with other exceptional people and get out of the way.
Jack met Leo Zhang at an Internapalooza event hosted by Cory Levy.
Why Z Fellows Exists
The founding thesis: exceptional young builders don’t need more education, more structure, or more gatekeeping. They need money to keep going, and access to people who are further along. The $10K is enough to extend a runway. The week is enough to change a trajectory.
This sits alongside the Thiel Fellowship (stop going to college, we’ll pay you to build) and a16z Speedrun (early-stage founder acceleration) in a cluster of programs that bet on people before institutions are ready to.
The Prestige Paradox
Z Fellows is itself a prestige signal — being a Fellow is a credential that opens doors. This sits in interesting tension with Leo Zhang’s “prestige is bullshit” thesis, which Jack agreed with at a Cory Levy event.
The resolution: the failure mode isn’t credentials, it’s credential-seeking as the primary goal. Z Fellows selects for people who are already building. The fellowship follows the work. That sequencing is the difference.
Competitiveness
Z Fellows is selective but not opaque about rejection. The Reddit community around Z Fellows applications shows people who apply multiple times and are encouraged to reapply. The program is looking for evidence of building, not prestige credentials — which is both the appeal and the reason it’s hard to game.