Humans in the Wild
Humans in the Wild

A unique, 100-day incubation program for founders who are in the early stages of developing their next big idea.

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Program Overview

Launch your business. Keep your equity.

During our 100-day no-equity program, you’ll leverage the resources and support of the Human Ventures community. You’ll transform ideas and concepts into fundable startups, ready for a pre-seed institutional investment round—including the potential for investment from Human Ventures at the end of the program.

  • Founder community
    01

    Founder Community

    Build alongside a curated group of entrepreneurs at the same stage

  • Co-pilot
    02

    Dedicated Co-pilot

    Tailored 1:1 strategic advice each week on launching your startup

  • Unique programming
    03

    Unique Programming

    Guest speakers and office hours with industry experts

  • Connections
    04

    Valuable Connections

    Access to the Human Ventures network of tech entrepreneurs

"The Humans in the Wild program enabled me to validate my high-value consumer, test demand for my digital health product, and build my MVP. To sum it up, the Human Ventures incubator is 100 days of intense collaboration, inspiration, growth and camaraderie all wrapped in an amazing culture."

Portrait of Janine Silvera
Portrait of Janine Silvera

"The Humans in the Wild program enabled me to validate my high-value consumer, test demand for my digital health product, and build my MVP. To sum it up, the Human Ventures incubator is 100 days of intense collaboration, inspiration, growth and camaraderie all wrapped in an amazing culture."

Janine Silvera

Hark

Portrait of Chening Ducker

"The Humans in the Wild program did a great job in selecting formidable entrepreneurs and fostering a culture of collaboration and connection. I became more effective in many areas — marketing, behaviour & self-analysis, press-relations, and customer discovery."

Chening Ducker

Goodpluck

Portrait of Suchit Tuli

"Being part of a cohort really made a difference. I truly felt Human picked gems of people to go through the program with. I think the Humans in the Wild has been exceptional for me — my company received so much direct attention and so many 1-on-1 resources."

Suchit Tuli

Quantime

Portrait of Taylor Majewski

"I found so much value in Human Ventures’ massive, quality network of people. Between my fellow cohort members, the Human team, and an extended group of entrepreneurial-minded folks, building these relationships has been invaluable in moving my business along."

Taylor Majewski

Lemon Lab

"HITW was the ultimate program for supporting me with my new venture. The program enabled me to dive deep into the healthcare space at lightning speed with direct access to top-tier subject matter experts, ranging from entrepreneurs a couple steps ahead of me, to big company executives, to investors focused on health & wellness."

Doreen Bloch

Ellement

Past Cohorts

Our Spring 2021 Humans in the Wild cohort brought together 11 amazing entrepreneurs—and though it was unintentional, we’re proud that our application process brought us an amazing cohort of solely female founders. As the Covid pandemic presented unique mental and physical health challenges throughout society, opportunities for new consumer-focused startups in healthcare exploded. Founders in this cohort are building innovative companies in women’s health, sexual health, mental health and health & wellness technology.

Meet our Spring Cohort

Human Ventures’ Thesis on Healthcare Trends

  • Annie Reardon

    Annie Reardon

  • Renee Russo

    Renee Russo

  • Ashlee Wisdom

    Ashlee Wisdom

  • Cheryl Kemp

    Cheryl Kemp

  • Doreen Bloch

    Doreen Bloch

  • Grace Chiang

    Grace Chiang

  • Jamie Pabst

    Jamie Pabst

  • Marcie Cheung

    Marcie Cheung

  • Natalie Waltz

    Natalie Waltz

  • Stephanie Estey

    Stephanie Estey

  • Daphne Chen

    Daphne Chen

The traditional professional journey will change drastically in the next decade, as individuals search for place and purpose in an increasingly competitive, technologically-altered, and fast-paced labor market that’s been upended by a global pandemic. The Fall 2020 cohort of Humans in the Wild brought together entrepreneurs innovating in the Future of Work, developing innovative approaches to help consumers and businesses adjust to new emerging workplace realities. These founders are building companies in four areas of opportunity, positioned to serve the human side of work: New Work Environments, Lifelong Learning, Redefining the Resume, and Worker Wellbeing.

Meet our Fall Cohort

Human Ventures’ Thesis on the Future of Work

  • Alex Chumbley

    Alex Chumbley

  • Alfonso Carney

    Alfonso Carney

  • Aravindh Dorai

    Aravindh Dorai

  • Emma Harris

    Emma Harris

  • Georges Clement

    Georges Clement

  • James Knupfer

    James Knupfer

  • Lisa Decarlo

    Lisa Decarlo

  • Lisa Shalett

    Lisa Shalett

  • Maddy Nguyen

    Maddy Nguyen

  • Manon Defelice

    Manon Defelice

  • Markell Baldwin

    Markell Baldwin

  • Melissa Tran

    Melissa Tran

  • Richard Hill

    Richard Hill

  • Ryan Sydnor

    Ryan Sydnor

  • Suchit Tuli

    Suchit Tuli

  • Winson Wong

    Winson Wong

Transformational changes in technology, consumer attitudes, and cultural values are driving profound shifts in behaviors around healthy lifestyles, fitness, nutrition, food & beverage, and mental health. The Spring 2020 cohort of Humans in the Wild are passionate about bringing innovation and vision to these broad areas and are building solutions in a wide range of categories including physical health, mental health, women’s health, skin care, nutrition, and sleep.

Read about the success of our first health & wellness cohort.

  • Michelle Park

    Michelle Park

  • Martin Strutz

    Martin Strutz

  • Janine Silvera

    Janine Silvera

  • Osman Khan

    Osman Khan

  • Rania Nasis

    Rania Nasis

  • Alex Gould

    Alex Gould

  • Dan Miller

    Dan Miller

  • Hilary Lin

    Hilary Lin

  • Michael Blank

    Michael Blank

  • Taylor Majewski

    Taylor Majewski

  • Chening Duker

    Chening Duker

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Human Ventures offers a valuable set of experiences to make your 100-day journey enriching and productive, with the aim of empowering you to exit the program with your startup in a fundable state, ready for a pre-Seed institutional investment round.

    Humans in the Wild will help you get there through 4 key program elements:

    Founder Community: Founders enjoy access to a rich peer community of fellow entrepreneurs who serve as thought and accountability partners, spanning your cohort, previous Humans in the Wild cohorts, and the wider circle of Human Ventures portfolio company founders.

    Strategic Advice:  The core of Humans in the Wild is weekly  1-on-1 “co-pilot” meetings, strategic mentoring sessions from a Human Ventures executive who serves as an advisor and accountability partner.  Facilitated peer review sessions also provide a forum for joint problem-solving and strategic planning.   At a minimum, each week you’ll meet with your peer group, consult with your Human Ventures co-pilot advisor for work planning and strategic guidance, and attend a learning workshop led by Human Ventures staff or outside experts.

    Program participants also benefit from the input of a set of external VC advisors, custom selected for each cohort program based on relevant industry expertise.  Former external VC program advisors have included Binoy Bhansali (Sandbox Industries), Zal Bilimoria (Refactor Capital), Ally Tam (VMG Catalyst), Anna Whiteman (Coefficient Capital), Abby Levy (Primetime Capital), Manish Patel (Highland Capital), Jason Spinell (Slack Fund), Jarrid Tingle (Harlem Capital), and many more.

    Unique Programming: Humans in the Wild programs weekly guest speaker sessions, led by a mix of Human Ventures team members, industry experts, investors, and peers. Topics cover customer discovery, product strategy, go-to-market, fundraising, leadership, and other aspects related to early-stage builds.  Previous speakers have included Carolyn Witte, (co-founder & CEO, Tia Health); Zack Weinberg (co-founder & CEO, Flatiron Health); Akash Shah (co-founder Care/Of), Katie Stanton (Founder and GP, Moxxie Ventures); Shiva Rajaraman (product lead, Spotify, WeWork), Kathyrn Minshew (co-founder and CEO, The Muse), and Isaac Oates (Founder and CEO, Justworks), to name a few.

    Valuable Connections: Founders gain access to Human Ventures’ high-quality industry network to support concept development, mentoring, recruiting, and fundraising. All VCs brag about their networks, but former Humans in the Wild grads will attest to Humans’ particularly unique network-mindset and above-and-beyond efforts to make value introductions for our cohort participants.

  • We are looking for extraordinary individuals with demonstrated entrepreneurial and leadership experience. The ideal profile encompasses second-time start-up founders, emerging leaders who have managed product development or business functions at high-growth startups, executives who have propelled dynamic functions at larger companies as an ‘intrapreneur,’ or leaders who have built non-profit or other types of organizations from scratch.

    We build a dynamic class of 12-15 founders for each Humans in the Wild program, thoughtfully designed to include a rich diversity of professional experiences, personal backgrounds, and skill sets. We welcome both technical and business-oriented founders in the program.

    Human Ventures is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are values we apply not only to our application screening but also within our team, portfolio, and entrepreneur communities.

  • Humans in the Wild is designed for early-stage entrepreneurs who have an MVP or a strong hypothesis on what they want to build.

    Applicants should be able to articulate a core product or service idea that addresses problem spaces that they are eager to solve, assess unmet consumer demand, or identifies legacy services that need to be blown up and redesigned from scratch.

  • At the end of the program, we hope to offer a few participants pre-Seed investment funding of at least $250K to support the next stage of their journey. These entrepreneurs will also be invited to continue working with Human Ventures by engaging in ongoing collaboration with our in-house business design, product design, talent, and finance/administrative team resources. Accepting Human Ventures funding at the end of the program is not required.

  • Human Ventures is a business creation platform comprising a venture fund and startup studio. We go beyond the business model and seek opportunities to build Model Businesses with ambitious founders who are innovating around human needs. By unlocking access to a powerful network of founders, investors and corporate partners, we are creating a blueprint for the future of business to be built on purpose®.

    Human Ventures has been a long-standing supporter of entrepreneurs innovating in the Human Needs Economy. Examples of startups we’ve helped build and fund include Spora Health, Current, Tiny Organics, Paloma Health, Village, Lupii, Weldon, Tia, Electra Health, Hazel and Milo. We are proud of our rich portfolio of businesses creating value in the world.

  • Although most program participants are solo founders, we are open to co-founders jointly participating in the program if they are truly co-leading overall company strategy. If you are a team of two co-founders, please submit one application and include both of your names and profiles in the application.

  • We can help founders the most if they are targeting US-based customers. If you are based outside the US, your company must be targeting US-based customers to be considered for the program.

  • Throughout 2020 and 2021, Humans in the Wild ran almost entirely online, with occasional social drink/dinner meet-ups.  Nonetheless, we were pleased with the very strong sense of community that developed in each program.  Plans moving forward are dependent on pandemic safety conditions, but we hope to offer a hybrid of in-person and online experiences, with most programming occurring virtually but with real-world office space in Manhattan available to cohort members who are seeking workspace.

  • The next Humans in the Wild cohort will run in Spring 2022. Please check our website in early 2022 for information on  theme, program dates, and application deadline. Additionally, feel free to subscribe to the Human Ventures newsletter (via our website) to ensure you are notified of the next cohort's application deadline.

Any other questions? Please reach out to wild@human.vc