Founder-in-Residence Program

Entrench with the Gitwit team as you work on taking your idea from zero to one. 

Following the launch of our in house venture studio, 19days, and building 4 ventures of our own over the last 18 months, we’re creating a new founder-in-residence to invite founders to office out of Gitwit and alongside our team as you (and we) build. 

While this program is new, the practice isn’t for Gitwit — over our 15 year history, we’ve serendipitously hosted entrepreneurs and non-profit founders from time-to-time. Now, we’re making the offer available to those outside of our network. 

Founders know that working on the early stages of a new venture can be somewhat isolating. While there is typically a flurry of activity (market research, customer interviews, meetings with mentors, meetings to source materials, investor pitches, interviews for first employees, etc), the founder often shoulders the bulk of day-to-day responsibilities and stresses. 

This is why we often find founders in co-working spaces —  looking for camaraderie from other people working on or for similar-stage companies —  or pursuing options at incubators or accelerators — seeking resources and guidance in hopes of making great decisions and gaining momentum. 

Part co-working, part incubator, the Founder-in-Residence program offers a founder the chance to office out of Gitwit and get access to our team. 

The founder will get their own office space in Gitwit’s downtown HQ, located in the heart of Tulsa’s venture ecosystem (Atento, 36 Degrees North, inTulsa, Holberton, and others), and be invited to Gitwit’s all-team weekly meetings, forum sessions (learning events on Gitwit methodologies), and art talks (by-invite-only events with creative industry professionals). 

Founders will have access to Gitwit’s meeting spaces and team, have standing weekly office hours with Gitwit SMEs, and be able to schedule mentorship sessions and brainstorms with Gitwit’s team leads, and expert practitioners. There is also the opportunity, if the founder would like, to plug in with the team and work on some of Gitwit’s existing zero-to-one projects. 

While the position is unpaid and Gitwit is not offering pro-bono services, the idea is that when founders immerse themselves in a creative, entrepreneurial engine, they will get the invaluable creative collisions that you might miss out on when working alone.  

‘Creative collisions’ can completely change the trajectory of a venture. 

“So often it is the debrief meeting after a concept pitch or customer interview that pushes us forward, or the time when we pull someone from the product or design team into a strategy meeting where we find an insight that changes the product vision. It’s these conversations and moments that we want to enable for founders,” said Gitwit co-founder Jacob Johnson.