Quick Facts
| Grant Type | 100% Non-Dilutive Microgrants |
| Grant Amount | $100-$500 |
| Eligibility | Young builders (typically 14-18 years old) |
| Process | Application + 15m interview |
| Contact | aridutilh@beondeck.com alexa@kayman.ventures (Model Grant Application questions) |
Program Overview
What is Bagel Fund? We’re a friend group working in tech that wants to support young people working on cool ideas.
We give microgrants ($100-500) to ambitious young builders.
What We Love to See
- Budgets that demonstrate research, resourcefulness, and skill
- Real problems that need scrappy solutions
- Projects that can go from 0 to 1 with <$500
What We Don’t Fund
- Budgets with vague requests, ad/subscription money, or fiver/contractor funds
- Non-unique AI wrappers, product dupes, or social clubs
- Projects with existing grants, VC money, or where applicants can make $500 themselves
Working on something cool and need some non-dilutive ideation capital? Fill out this short form. We’ll get back to you via email if it’s a good fit.
Success Stories
To date, we’ve funded:
- Lauren, 20, creating a mind-reading EMG/EEG device for non-verbal communication
- Siddharth, 20, making affordable autonomous micro drone swarms
- Neerav, 17, building small solar-powered planes that fly forever
- Anirudh, 17, developing controllers for soft robots navigating inside humans
- In-Woo, 18, working on a clinical decision-support tool for Canadian pharmacists
- Maxwell, 13, building a radio tracking system for high-altitude balloon experiments
- Saras, 17, creating an on-ear heart attack detection wearable
- Carlos, 19, researching novel chemical processes for mine waste repurposing
- Ashna, 17, developing a novel CRISPR delivery method in plants
- Charles, 14, building high-altitude UAVs
- Mason, 18, making a 2-octave electric piano
- Harish, 15, working on an energy-saving smart home platform
- Santiago, 21, building a 4-wheel independent steering car
- Yash, 19, creating a computer from scratch
- Sunir, 19, building self-driving RC cars
- Aaryan, 16, using computer vision to detect falls in elder care
- Advait, 18, building Teleoperation robots
- Arielle, 20, working on Apple Tree cloning
- Winston, 17, increasing AI literacy for students K-12
Our Team
Bagel Fund was founded by:
- Adarsh Krishna
- Alistair Smith
- Alexa Kayman
- Andrew Nijmeh
- Ari Dutilh
- Brandon Saldan
- Cody Miller
- Conrad Crawford
- Landon Boles
- Miguel Piedrafita
- Robert Westbury
- Tejas Ravishankar
Application Guide
Tell us about a project you led. What was your biggest mistake & what did you learn from it?*
What are you building now & why does it matter?*
Past recipients were building UAVs, gene-editing plants for longevity, energy-saving smart home platforms, and more. Lead with the problem, its significance, and how your solution is the best.
How much money are you requesting?*
We fund up to $500.
Please provide an itemized budget.*
Feel free to highlight needs vs. wants. Paying others to do your work (Fiver contractors, web developers, etc) should never be under “needs”.
What will the $ help you achieve?*
Think about what specific goals or benchmarks the funds should get you to.
What are your plans for future funding?
We love funding builders who are working on projects simply because they want to learn and make an impact while doing so. Oftentimes, Bagel Fund is the first grant our applicants have ever applied for. With anything, googling “best practices for X” can get you really far. But to make things easier, check out our Model Grant Application with snippets from other first-time grant writers who received funding for their projects. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot an email to alexa@kayman.ventures.
Interview Prep Resources
If you’re selected for an interview, here’s what to prepare:
-
Review the Model Grant Application to understand our evaluation criteria
-
Be ready to discuss:
- Your project’s technical details and implementation plan
- How you’ll use the funds specifically
- Your long-term vision beyond this grant
- Previous projects and what you learned from them
-
Bring any prototypes or demos if available
Join Our Community
Join LFG to get advice from people who’ve received the grant such as:
- Yash Karthik, building a computer from scratch using just logic gates
- Sunir Kishan, working on a Self Driving RC Car
- Aaryan Sing Kushwah, creating a monitoring system for senior citizens to prevent injury during sleep
Support Us
Want to help us make young people’s dreams come true? Become a donor.
Resources
- Program FAQ
- Ari’s Quarterly, launch announcement