On Deck
On Deck is a founder community and program company launched in June 2019 by David Booth and Erik TorenbergErik TorenbergErik Torenberg is a tech entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host who is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he invests and is responsible for marketing and the ecosystem network. He was the first employee of Product Hunt and founded or co-founded On Deck, Village Global, and Turpentine, long combining founder communities, expert content, and early-stage investing.Open the full entry, connecting founders with peers, capital and advice; its first program was the Founders Fellowship (ODF). It raised a $20 million Series A led by Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry in March 2021 and cut staff twice in 2022 as it narrowed its business.
Contents5 sections
Key facts
June 2019Launching the Founders Fellowship
On Deck was co-founded by David Booth and Erik Torenberg and launched in June 2019 to connect founders with one another, with capital and with advice, and to support emerging fund managers; its first program was the Founders Fellowship. It is not affiliated with the small business lender OnDeck.[1]
2021Series A and Community Expansion
In March 2021 On Deck raised a $20 million Series A led by Founders Fund. It added career communities in design, engineering, data science, marketing, sales and no-code, serving more than 10,000 founders and professionals, and launched the ODX accelerator in 2021. In an On Deck interview, Luba YudasinaLuba YudasinaLuba Yudasina is a Belarusian-born tech entrepreneur, content creator and interview host. A graduate of the University of Waterloo in Canada, she worked at Yelp and Airbnb, runs Life of Luba and has founded ventures including Loka, Zarta and Paloma; Zarta’s funding was led by a16z. She hosts The Luba Show and sings opera.Open the full entry described its founder community as a catalyst for her leaving AirbnbAirbnbAirbnb is a travel platform for booking stays, experiences, and services, co-founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk and headquartered in San Francisco, United States; its Class A common stock trades on Nasdaq under the symbol ABNB. The business began with hosting guests in the founders’ home in 2007, then joined YC’s Winter 2009 batch, and gradually expanded into local experiences, services, and boutique hotels.Open the full entry to start a company.[1][2]
2022Two Rounds of Layoffs
In May 2022 On Deck cut about a quarter of its staff, relaunched ODF and introduced On Deck Scale for high-growth founders; in August it laid off staff again, confirming that 73 full-time employees were affected. It closed several communities and a ten-week climate tech fellowship, spun its career business into a separate company led by former community director Mindaugas Petrutis, and folded ODX into ODF, changing its terms from $125,000 for 7% to $25,000 for 1% to 2.5%.[1]