Venture Firm Offers $100K Startup Funding For Laid-Off Talents In Tech Industry

Venture capital firm Day One Ventures has launched a new program that seeks to support talents laid off in the tech industry by offering $100,000 checks each for 20 startup teams before the year ends. A slew of tech worker reductions over the past few months resulted in thousands of employees being laid off, including about half of Twitter's total workforce.

"Being laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me," Day One Ventures founder and general partner Masha Bucher said in a statement announcing the launch of Funded Not Fired.

"With Funded, not Fired, you'll get your first institutional angel check. Over the next month, we're selecting 20 founders to invest in and support. Whether you have an idea already or not, let's get to work," the venture firm said.

Six months after the 20 startups have been selected, Day One Ventures will select top companies from the pool and lead the seed round with a $1 million check.

Day One Ventures, which was founded in 2018, promises to work with the selected teams or entrepreneurs to build up their companies through introductions with top venture capitals for future funding.

The venture firm is looking for laid-off employees from Twitter, Stripe, Lyft, Affirm, CloudKitchens, OpenDoor, Zendesk, Meta and other tech companies to apply to the program.

Among the things Day One Ventures wants to know about startup applicants is why the entrepreneur or team wants to work on a certain project and why the venture firm should support the idea.

Day One Ventures has a $52.5 million fund to support founders and startups, and it is allocating at least $5 million for the Funded Not Fired program.

Bucher clarified that while the program seeks to help laid-off talent, it is "not charity," adding that employees who recently departed from major tech companies such as Twitter, Meta or and Stripe will not get preferential treatment when they pitch their ideas to the firm, TechCrunch reported.

The basic requirement for applying to be part of the program as a startup team is that at least one of the co-founders was recently laid off and should dedicate their attention to the startup full-time. Solo applicants are also accepted, based on information provided in the application form.

Aspiring startup founders have until Nov. 25 to apply and Day One Ventures will hold initial interviews from Nov. 28 through Dec. 6. The final decisions will be announced on Dec. 20.

Several tech companies have laid off a significant number of people over the last few months including Twitter, where about 3,700 workers lost their jobs, Stripe, Rivian, Lyft and more.