Keel

The residential summer startup incubator for top AI founders in NYC.

[Keel @KeelVentures]

@brentsmith1024 3.0 soon👀

[Keel @KeelVentures]

Run it back

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Applications for Keel Cohort 3.0 are now open!

Keel is the NYC accelerator. We believe that young people consistently build extraordinary companies, are inadequately served by today's accelerator market, and have no home east of San Francisco.

Keel Cohort 3.0 is:
🏙️ Hosted in NYC. Summer 2026. 12 weeks in-person at our NYC office.
🦄 12 teams. Campus + recent-grad AI founders.
🚀 $150K checks. Credits and resources. Founder friendly terms.

We’re building the home for young NYC founders. Read more about what we’re building, and apply to Keel Cohort 3.0 at the link below:

https://t.co/bnlKOBI4ry

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Applications for Keel Cohort 3.0 are now open!

Keel is the NYC accelerator. We believe that young people consistently build extraordinary companies, are inadequately served by today's accelerator market, and have no home east of San Francisco.

Keel Cohort 3.0 is:
🏙️ Hosted in NYC. Summer 2026. 12 weeks in-person at our NYC office.
🦄 12 teams. Campus + recent-grad AI founders.
🚀 $150K checks. Credits and resources. Founder friendly terms.

We’re building the home for young NYC founders. Read more about what we’re building, and apply to Keel Cohort 3.0 at the link below:

https://t.co/bnlKOBI4ry

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Keel 2.0

[Keel @KeelVentures]

See you later 2.0🫶

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

And just like that…Keel 2.0 is over.

Last week, Keel hosted its second ever Demo Day, with 8 teams showcasing their ventures to a catered group of NYC investors, founders, and Keel alum. So far, 7 of those teams have launched seed rounds with millions committed already 🚀

Demo Day marked the end of Keel’s 10-week AI accelerator, where we backed and supported the most cracked founder community in NYC. 24/7 office, daily stand-ups, weekly office hours and speakers, and more. Keel is building the home for the top 0.1% of founders in the Northeast, and we’ve now done so two summers in a row.

NYC is a blossoming tech ecosystem, home to the second-most early-stage startups and capital in the world. But NYC’s startup infrastructure lags WAY behind, resulting in underserved, untapped potential. Keel is building the catalyst to recognize this potential — worldbuilding the next generation of genre-defining AI companies, right here in NYC.

And we’re just getting started. More to come on Keel’s Demo Day, Cohort 2.0, and what’s next 🤝

[Keel @KeelVentures]

@brentsmith1024 👀

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

tomorrow @keelventures

[Keel @KeelVentures]

@IKhaliliya 🚀

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

we have a keel team looking to bring on several founding engineers

competitive base + equity, full time in NYC

ex prod, revenue generating, VC backed

DM resume + 1 liner most impressive accomplishment🤝

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Introducing Keel Cohort 2.0.

4 weeks ago, I graduated from @Harvard. Today, I’m excited to announce Keel Cohort 2.0 — the premier early-stage AI accelerator in NYC.

This summer, we’re backing 12 AI teams — 20 founders from 10 top schools. We’re running a 9-week program in our beautiful @Convene office in midtown, partnering with dozens of NYC AI leaders and throwing the best venture events in NYC — like our welcome week boat party.

We believe the accelerator market is broken. Top founders should not dilute 7-10% at pre-seed in a virtual/hybrid accelerator. And we believe NYC will be home to some of the most important companies in the age of AI — and it’ll need a program like Keel to make that happen.

Thank you to Convene, Citizens Bank, Gunderson, all our amazing LPs, our 20+ NYC-based mentors, @nathanleexyz, and especially our founders for making this happen. Keel and the NYC startup ecosystem are here to stay and win because of you🚀

Keel Cohort 2.0 is happening now. If you’re a founder in NYC, DM me!

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Meet DonorAtlas.

@WSchrepferman & @TheAaronBerger are completely disrupting how organizations raise money.

Just hours after Keel Demo Day, they raised $2.75M from top investors with this pitch.

Here’s why DonorAtlas is one of the fastest growing teams from Keel Cohort 1.0 🧵

[Keel @KeelVentures]

Cohort 2.0 loading…

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Keel Demo Day.

08.09.24.

[Keel @KeelVentures]

Keel is over. But we’re just getting started 🚀

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Keel is over. 

Last week, we wrapped up @KeelVentures with our FIRST-EVER Demo Day, with 12 teams pitching their ventures to a room full of NYC investors.

How’d they do? In just 8 weeks, Keel Cohort 1.0…

Shipped 11 products 🛠️

Signed 90+ paying customers 📈

Added $1.1M+ ARR 💰 

Raised $2.8M+ 🚀 

We even had a team raise their seed just HOURS after Demo Day. 

Overall? Keel Cohort 1.0 killed it. And we’re just getting started����

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

This past weekend, we hosted the FIRST-EVER @KeelVentures Hackathon.

Our teams were prompted to make the most progress possible on their ventures, and set a “realistic” goal, “stretch” goal, and “super-stretch” goal for the weekend. Hitting Super-Stretch Goals = 💰

And the winners….

In just 48 hours, Skye & @Vienna_Sparks of @MabLabTests sourced and signed a community-based distribution partner for their 5-in-1 test strips for laced drugs.

@Aidan__pratt and @JJaison13 went 0-1 on an MVP for their invoice management optimization product.

One our stealth teams sourced and closed 2 new paying customers.

@Ben__Okeefe sourced and secured calls with industry leaders in the entertainment space for his RCS outreach tool.

@AdamIAchebe added LinkedIn support for @PluggerBot.

…and @JoshSiegel71696 did something insanely impressive but can’t tell anyone about it.

But most importantly: 100% of Keel companies hit their realistic goals🚀

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

We are officially half-way through @KeelVentures in NYC!

In just 4 weeks, Keel Cohort 1.0 has:

- Shipped 8 Products
- Signed 50 Paying Customers
- Added $400K+ ARR
- Raised $450K Uncapped
- Built autonomous drones, deployed APIs for APIs, sold 5-in-1 test strips for laced drugs, and so much more.

4 weeks down, 4 weeks to go. Stay tuned for even more progress from Cohort 1.0🚀

[Keel @KeelVentures]

@brentsmith1024 🚀

[Keel @KeelVentures]

@brentsmith1024 🚀

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Today, @KeelVentures hosted @Shervin for a chat at our NYC office!

Shervin Pishevar is the founder of Telly and Hyperloop, and an early investor @ Uber, Airbnb, Snap, and more. He chatted with our teams on how to maximize collective talent in early hires, how to detect killer founders, and more on his founder and investor journey.

Thanks for stopping by @Shervin! See you on August 10th for Keel Demo Day🤝

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

To kickoff Week 3 of @KeelVentures, we hosted a product workshop this morning with the amazing @BabakKia.

As our teams begin to ship their products and GTM, walking through MVP, UVP, product Dos and Dont’s, and other helpful product tips could not be more important.

Team spotlights coming soon…

[Brent J. Smith @brentsmith1024]

Introducing Keel.

Over the past few months, @JohnnyNi13 (Recruiting), Babak Kia (Programming), James Ryan (Strategy), and I worked together to build @KeelVentures — the residential summer startup accelerator for Ivy+ founders in NYC.

We’re hosting 19 early-stage teams — 29 founders from 9 top schools — in NYC for the summer, providing 24/7 office space, housing stipends, advising and mentoring, startup programming, meals, and more.

We welcomed Keel Cohort 1.0 this weekend with a dinner, office tour, pitches, and a boat outing on the Hudson. We were blown away by the conviction our founders have for their ventures, and we can’t wait to see their 0-1s these next 8 weeks.

We believe more top talent should be building companies. That’s why we’re building the incentive structures to help founders say no to their summer offers, specifically in the NYC ecosystem in which programs like ours are few and far between.

Thank you again to our partners Babak Kia, James Ryan, Afshin Safavi, Bummock AI, ForgeVentures, & Link Ventures for helping make this happen and for putting their support behind Keel, our founders, and the NYC startup ecosystem.

Keel Cohort 1.0 is happening now. If you’d like to join us as a founder, advisor, sponsor, or investor, feel free to email me at [email protected].