Enabling a community for the next generation of consumer founders in New York City.
consumer · live together · build full time · inception capital
prepared for FirstMark · Rick Heitzmann
*not for everybody Gardner Heitzmann · New YorkThree gaps compound against young founders before they ever start.
AI is making it easier for one person to start a company, so more founders are building alone. But young founders arriving in New York often lack the dense peer network that accelerates feedback, creativity, recruiting, and distribution.
For young founders with limited capital, New York creates an additional barrier at exactly the wrong time. More money goes toward simply living and finding somewhere to work, instead of the company.
New York is already the world’s second-largest startup ecosystem and the most sought-after U.S. city among graduating seniors (double #2) yet venture dollars remain disproportionately concentrated in CA.
Up to sixteen founders live and build together for six months. Asterisk then expands that network through operator workshops, VC firm visits, and practical sessions on fundraising, go-to-market, and distribution.
Six months of New York housing, workspace, and utilities covered in full. No rent, no program fee, no second job. Founders can put their limited capital and attention into the company.
Customers, operators, distribution partners and investors are a subway ride away.
First time New York has led in thirteen years.
Six months of New York housing, covered in full. In exchange, Asterisk takes an 8% post-money SAFE in every company. Same terms for everyone, signed on entry.
The infrastructure layer is built. Powerful models and tooling now exist off the shelf, collapsing the cost and time to ship. Younger founders can now build ambitious consumer products with far fewer resources.
Building is no longer reserved for deeply technical teams. Founders with social intuition, distribution instincts, domain access, and a sharp read on behavior can now ship and iterate themselves.
Consumer products win on feedback, culture, distribution, and network effects. Put consumer founders under one roof, and those advantages compound across products, customers, creators, channels, and ideas.
of venture capital at the 100 most active firms went to consumer in 2024
The model is proven. The combination is not.
| PROGRAM | CITY · FOUNDED | FOCUS | RESIDENCY | CAPITAL | PROOF / OUTCOME |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HF0↗ | San Francisco · 2021 | Repeat founders · AI-heavy | 12-week live-in | Up to $1M · ~5% | ~$82M avg post-demo valuation (S25) |
| AGI House↗ | San Francisco · 2022 | AI + deep tech | Residential, ongoing | AGI House Ventures invests | 12 of 70 roommates became unicorn founders |
| AI Startup House | New York · 2026 | AI | Founder residency | No equity · no stated check | NYC cohort launched Aug. 2026 |
| Y Combinator↗ | San Francisco · 2005 | Generalist · B2B-heavy | 3-month in-person batch, not residential | $500K · 7% + MFN SAFE | Airbnb↗ · Stripe↗ · DoorDash↗ · Dropbox↗ |
| Techstars↗ | Boulder · 2006 | Generalist | 3-month mentorship program, not residential | $220K · 5% common + MFN SAFE | DigitalOcean↗ · ClassPass↗ · SendGrid↗ |
| Asterisk | New York · 2026 | Consumer | Every founder lives in the house | First money in · 8% SAFE | Pre-launch |
*program-reported figures where noted · public program pages and reporting, checked Aug–Sep 2026
Gardner Heitzmann↗. Georgetown senior — finance major, entrepreneurship minor, Division I student-athlete.
He helped start Athletes Invest↗, a student-athlete investment organization. 63 members managed, events across a 1,000+ person alumni and investor network, and $300K+ raised so far.
He comes from a venture capital family and has grew up around and worked closely with successful consumer founders including Zachariah Reitano↗, CEO of Ro Health↗, and Avante Price↗, CEO of Posh↗.
Learned the LP side working 3 years in Georgetown's endowment office↗, covering VC funds. Saw the growth side while evaluating investments at Silver Lake Waterman↗ in SF.
He lives with the founders, opens the right doors across New York, and helps build whatever they need to move faster. He also continues to build, grow, and operate Asterisk from inside the house.
The raise is sized from the live-work cost out. Housing creates the equity positions; the remaining capital protects the pilot with operating and contingency reserve.
2 houses · 6–8 founders each · target 16 founders at once
× ~$1,700 per founder per month
× 12 months of occupancy, two 6-month cohorts
= ~$326K annual housing at the 16-founder target case
+ legal ~$15K · admin ~$12K · insurance ~$10K · ops & reserve ~$137K
= ~$500K pilot vehicle
0% management fee.
20% carry, paid only on profits.
(all budgeted, appendix F)
The relationship that matters is formed before anyone is running a process.
*no one remembers a reasonable decision · Gardner Heitzmann · New York CITY
*SHOWN ON REQUEST
Founders arrive with a product in market and early users. Asterisk compresses the path from initial traction to measurable product-market pull through constant feedback, distribution, talent and capital.
Constant peer feedback — build, gather, iterate fast
Time in front of operators, to learn how to scale
Time in front of VCs, to learn how to raise
Starting conversations about how to officially raise, and meeting the right people
*illustrative milestones · product-specific targets vary; the standard is stronger product-market pull
FirstMark has seen this curve up close: Beli went from 2.5M restaurant ratings in 2022 to 58M by mid-2025.
Asterisk is not relying on hundreds of bets. It starts with meaningful ownership in a concentrated portfolio, where one or two breakout companies can drive fund-level returns.
A single $25M exit at 4% ownership returns roughly twice the entire $500K Fund I in gross proceeds.
Everything above that row on the table is upside.
ENTRY32 companies, 8% initial ownership each.
DILUTIONOwnership dilutes as companies raise Seed, Series A, Series B+.
AT EXIT~3–5% ownership, varying by company and financing history.
OUTCOMEOne or two breakouts drive the whole fund.
| COMPANY EXIT | VALUE TO ASTERISK |
|---|---|
| $25M | $1M |
| $50M | $2M |
| $100M | $4M |
| $250M | $10M |
| $500M | $20M |
| $1B | $40M |
*illustrative only · assumes 4% ownership at exit after dilution; actual results will vary
| COMPANY | FIRSTMARK ENTRY | EXIT |
|---|---|---|
| First institutional check | NYSE IPO 2019 · ~$10B | |
| Shopify | Series A · 2010 | NYSE IPO 2015 |
| DraftKings | Seed · 2012 | Public via SPAC · 2020 |
*entry stage per FirstMark's own portfolio pages and public round reporting · exits are public market debuts
Fund ownership, program operations, and housing liability each sit in their own entity — so investment assets are never exposed to operating or lease risk.
Controls the fund, receives the 20% carry.
Receives LP capital, owns the portfolio SAFEs.
Issue SAFEs in exchange for investment.
Runs the program: founder experience, vendors, operations.
Six months of programming delivered to founders.
Signs housing agreements, pays housing providers.
Third parties, outside the Asterisk structure.
*research and preparation, not legal advice · final structure must be confirmed by fund, tax, and New York real-estate counsel
FirstMark has backed New York consumer since 2005 and manages $3.5B around this ecosystem. Asterisk is the next chapter of a bet FirstMark has been making for twenty years.
Pinterest, Riot Games, DraftKings, Airbnb, StubHub, Discord, Ro, Shopify. The portfolio Asterisk is designed to feed.
Rick wrote the first institutional check into Pinterest after meeting Ben Silbermann at an NYU demo day. FirstMark co-led Pickle’s seed and backed Beli’s, both young NYC consumer teams. Asterisk manufactures that moment on purpose.
FirstMark built its edge on networks. Asterisk is that thesis made physical: New York’s young consumer founders building together under one roof. Backing it is inevitable.
5–10 personal LP commitments into Fund I.
Early exposure to up to 32 New York consumer companies per year, quarterly fund reporting, and invitations to each cohort’s Demo Day.
“Rick believed in and invested in us before we even had a product.” — Ben Silbermann, Pinterest
Back Fund I today. Meet the graduates before their seed rounds. · From one Georgetown founder to another.
College dropout / leave of absence, or anyone one to three years into college.
Has been close to an exceptional company, team, or product — and can explain what made it great and what they did in it.
Top one percent at something: sport, code, craft, or another demanding field.
Built a live consumer product that real people use.
Understands how people behave and builds for them.
Sees something others do not, or can reach users others cannot.
Full ride to NYU; dropped out to build Posh.
Founded his first marketplace at fifteen.
DJ since age five.
Founded ChoreBug before Posh. POSH is live - a peer-to-peer events marketplace with real users.
Had a desire to build. Built consumer in the past.
Grew up inside the music and events world he now builds for.
*signals 01–03 are what we screen for first · the rest is judgment
Six months. 12–16 founders per cohort. One founder, one company. Asterisk is designed to be the first institutional capital, invested when each founder enters the program.
$1,628–1,950 per founder per month, all-in, across named options. Final June 2027 inventory and the contracting structure remain open. Nothing is signed until enough capital is soft-circled.
5–10 LP commitments of $50–100K from New York consumer investors and operators. Conversations are underway.
*nothing is announced or signed yet · housing moves forward once enough capital is soft-circled
January 2027 launch: Launch Video, X, and LinkedIn
10 scouts sourcing across founder, campus, and operator networks
Proof-based application: product, usage, insight, and pace
30-minute working session, references, and an in-person final
Attract broadly. Source precisely. Select for proof, velocity, and the people others want to build beside.
*funnel targets for cohort one · scout network in formation
The internet and AI cycles both follow the same pattern: capital funds the underlying layer first, then the biggest consumer companies get built on top.
Source: OECD 2026, NVCA 2026 · most AI funding flowed into infrastructure and model layers while the application layer stayed underfunded
Live-in San Francisco accelerator. Housing and meals included. Approximately $1M for approximately 5%. Post-demo outcomes are program-reported.
Ongoing San Francisco residential AI community with an affiliated investment vehicle. Alumni outcomes are program-reported.
Investor-backed founder housing plus a 40,000 sq ft studio in Cambridge. The clearest example of housing treated as founder infrastructure.
Peer-run San Francisco founder house operating since 2013. No program check. Resident-estimated outcomes are not used in the Asterisk case.
*program sites and public reporting, reviewed August–September 2026 · self-reported figures are labeled
| Live-work housing, all-in — 16 × ~$1,700 × 12 months | $326,400 |
| Deposits and move-in, one-time | ~$27,000 |
| Common-area and workspace setup | ~$24,000 |
| Cleaning, household supplies, and cohort meals | ~$12,000 |
| Software and work supplies | ~$12,000 |
| Repairs and maintenance | ~$6,000 |
| Insurance | ~$10,000 |
| Legal, pending counsel quote | ~$15,000 |
| Fund administration, tax, and accounting | ~$12,000 |
| Base case subtotal | ~$444,400 |
| Contingency and emergency reserve | ~$55,600 |
| TOTAL | ~$500,000 |
*budget estimates pending final housing, vendor, administrator, and counsel quotes · housing range verified September 2026
