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ABG.INSTITUTE

Artistic Builders Guild

Talent is universal.
Opportunity is not.

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01Our Mission

Talent is universal.
Opportunity is not.

We decouple opportunity from location

The problem

  1. 01

    Prestige creates noise.

    At top schools, credentials can overwhelm the signal of actual contribution.

  2. 02

    Geography limits access.

    Remarkable students far from opportunity are systematically undervalued.

  3. 03

    Talent reveals itself over time.

    Peers see resilience, generosity, and follow-through that a short meeting cannot.

2026 Where Are We

Milestones

  • NarrativeYC F25
  • YCS26
  • VyraJackson Square Ventures '26. AI editing platform, 20M views and 40K users in its first six weeks
  • YC Fellow2026
  • TreeHacks2nd place
  • HackMIT1st place

Members are at

AI and Software

Cognition Perplexity Vyra

Robotics, Aerospace, and Industry

Foundation Robotics SpaceX Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Finance and Venture

Lux Capital Foothill Ventures Jackson Square Ventures

Research

Los Alamos National Lab Stanford Labs MIT Labs Brown Labs

Defense and Advanced Systems

Raytheon General Dynamics
02Evidence

Known early. Proven over time.

The network sees the signal first.

The best student founders are usually known by their peers long before they are legible to institutions. These are early records—not an exhaustive scorecard.

20MViews generated by Vyra in its first six weeks
40KEarly users of a member-built editing platform
YC F25Narrative entered Y Combinator
1stHackMIT, alongside a TreeHacks second place
Members are at
CognitionPerplexitySpaceXLos AlamosStanford LabsLux CapitalMercedes-AMG F1
02Our Model

What is ABG?

Many communities. One guild.

The network

ABG connects local builder communities into one network. Members can travel between nodes and immediately have a place to build, stay, and belong.

Each node is a hardware makerspace, coworking space, guest house, and community shaped by the people who use it.

How to join

  1. 01

    Make a first visit.

    Come with a member you know or reach out to a community manager.

  2. 02

    Keep showing up.

    Build in the house, make some friends, and you may be invited to interview.

  3. 03

    Become a member.

    Membership is selective. If the interview confirms a mutual fit, you gain access to ABG resources and can travel between nodes.

Find your local node PVD San Francisco Boston

How membership works

Demonstrate. Return. Belong.

Selection begins with novel work, but membership comes from context. The house learns how someone builds, contributes, and responds over time.

  1. 01 / Visit

    Show us what you build.

    Reach out to the local node or arrive with a member you know.

  2. 02 / Return

    Build alongside us.

    Contribute to the house and let the community gain real context.

  3. 03 / Join

    Enter the network.

    Full members receive access to every ABG node and sibling location.

Visit a node Brown / Providence Stanford / Bay Area MIT / Boston forming
03How to Join

Membership begins in person

Join your local ABG node.

Visit with a member you know or reach out to the community manager. Membership grows from time spent building and contributing together.

  1. 01 / First visit

    Come by.

    Visit with a member or reach out to the local community manager.

  2. 02 / Participate

    Keep showing up.

    Build with the house. When there is enough shared context, you may be invited to interview.

  3. 03 / Conversation

    Meet the house.

    The interview is a conversation about mutual fit. Full members join every ABG node.

Find your local ABG node Providence San Francisco Boston
03Our Projects

Member Work

Vyra intelligent video editing interface

01 / Software

Vyra

Intelligent video editing

AI editing that understands footage and builds useful rough cuts.

Open dossier
Robosurge integrated robotic surgery platform

02 / Robotics

Robosurge

Cursor for surgery

A remotely controlled surgery platform combining robotics, spatial sensing, and AI vision.

Open dossier

Want to help?

Back the ABG

Every dollar goes to rooms, tools, and travel for student founders. Donations are tax deductible.

Artistic Builders Guild / 501(c)(3) 81-2908499 Providence / San Francisco / Boston jason@abg.institute / (401) 301-8663
ABG / Charter 01 Rev. 2026

Founding Thesis

NowhereCan Stop Us

The best student founders are known by student circles long before any investor.

Three observationsField record / 01—03

  1. 01
    At top schools, noise overwhelms signals.

    Prestige distorts perception, causing mediocrity to be confused with greatness. Peers observe activity and contribution, not their credentials.

  2. 02
    At distant schools, talent is universal, but opportunities are not.

    Society misvalues talent based on location. If someone has achieved so much without proximity to opportunity, imagine what they could do with it in reach.

  3. 03
    People change. Resilience converts talent to results.

    A coffee chat can only assess one's skills in a snapshot of time. Measuring resilience requires observation over time, under sustained adversity.

Operating principle

We live and build alongside fellow members, seeing them at parties and at 2am work nights. We select, then supply the infrastructure that puts opportunity within reach and turns talent into exceptional founders. Home for an ABG member is portable. When traveling, a community and tools are already waiting.

02 Our Model

Network of Builder Community Nodes

ABG is one network of many builder community nodes. Each node is shaped and used freely by its members as a home base, coworking space, hardware makerspace, guest house, and place for fun and parties. Members of the ABG can travel to cities with sibling nodes and immediately have a place optimized for building and community to belong to.

03 Our Projects View more ↗
Vyra project preview
01SoftwareTECA Winner

Vyra

Intelligent video editing

AI editing that understands footage, finds useful clips, builds rough cuts, and handles tedious production work so creators can stay focused on the edit.

View project
Robosurge project preview
02MixedProject of the Month

Robosurge

Cursor for surgery

A remotely controlled integrated surgery platform combining robotic arms, depth sensing, VR head tracking, AI vision, and safety-oriented control systems.

View project