Funding

Grant

Program dates

TBA

Fellowship•Remote

Nailwal Fellowship

Nailwal Fellowship and Symbolic Capital

Application Deadline

Closed · June 30, 2023

Reopens ~Jun 2027

Official Page

The Nailwal Fellowship was founded by Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon and Symbolic Capital, to help individual builders work full time on web3 ideas. Each annual cohort is designed for 10 fellows and runs remotely for six months. Fellows research, test, prototype, and refine web3 products with support from the Symbolic Capital team. The program welcomes applicants of any age and geography while stating a preference for hands-on technical builders.

Benefits & funding

  • A $50,000 grant for each fellow.
  • Six months of hands-on mentorship, recurring calls, ad-hoc office hours, technical resources, and access to founder and investor networks.
  • Optional coworking and networking opportunities in New York, San Francisco, Dubai, and India.
  • No requirement to found a company. If a fellow does found one during the fellowship or within one year afterward, the program requests a $50,000 MFN SAFE plus a token warrant as part of its funding terms.
  • Fellows who found a company within one year may also access further funding opportunities from Symbolic Capital.

Eligibility

  • Open to individual applicants from any geography and at any age.
  • Applicants must commit full time to building in web3 for six months; they cannot continue a job or attend school during the fellowship.
  • Teams cannot apply.
  • Fellows should arrive with concrete goals for researching, testing, and building in web3.
  • The program focuses on people with technical backgrounds who can build tangible products and dapps, but presents this as a focus rather than a formal eligibility gate.

Can you apply?

Open to all applicants

No nationality, residency, education, or experience limits are listed.

We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.

Application process

  1. 1
    Complete the form on the official application page.
  2. 2
    Submit the information requested in the form; the public page does not publish a separate document checklist.
  3. 3
    Shortlisted applicants proceed to interviews, which the program schedules from late July into August in its published annual cycle.
  4. 4
    The team selects up to 10 individual fellows for the cohort.

Program timeline

  1. Last exact application window published on the official site.

    May 15 to June 30, 2023

  2. Published annual application window.

    May into July

  3. Interviews.

    Late July into August

  4. Published annual cohort window; the program separately describes the fellowship as lasting six months.

    September through January

  5. Current status

    The application page still refers to the 2024 cohort and publishes no newer exact opening or deadline.