Announcing: The Zee Prime Residency at Edge Esmeralda 2026

Apply here: APPLICATION LINK | Deadline: Apr 19, 2026

TLDR

• 10+ deep tech founders living and building together in a dedicated Founders House at Edge Esmeralda (May 30 to June 27, Healdsburg, CA)
• 1,000+ builders, researchers, and mentors in the village to stress-test your work
• Coworking, workshops, talks, demo day, and direct access to Zee Prime Capital's investment team for the full month
• Application deadline: April 19th. Rolling reviews.

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Founding companies often have a deployment problem. You can build in isolation for months, but eventually the thing needs to meet real people in a real environment. Most founders don't get that until they're way too far down the road. The Zee Prime Residency is designed to fix that.

From May 30 to June 27, we're bringing a cohort of 10+ deep tech founders to Edge Esmeralda in Healdsburg, Northern California, to live and build for a full month inside a community of 1,000+ builders, researchers, and mentors. Zee Prime Capital is partnering with Edge City to make it happen.

The setup

The cohort lives together in a dedicated Founders House on a hillside property with river views, with full access to everything Edge Esmeralda offers: coworking, community meals, wellness programming, talks, workshops, and a final demo day. The basics are covered so you can focus on the work.

The real value is the people around you. Edge Esmeralda draws 1,000+ builders and researchers across AI, biotech, crypto, hard tech, and beyond. These are the kind of technical peers who will use what you're making, break it, tell you what's wrong, and help you fix it.

Zee Prime's team will be there for the full month with office hours, working sessions, and direct access to their investment team.

Why Zee Prime

Zee Prime Capital is a flexible capital firm backing founders building the infrastructure the world will run on in ten years. Their portfolio includes Polymarket, Solana, Epic Aerospace, Tiberius Aerospace, Terra Fusion, and many more.

That thesis maps naturally onto Edge Esmeralda: if you're building ambitious ideas, you need a dense network of technical peers to test with, and a month-long village of 1,000+ builders is hard to beat.

Who should apply

You're building something with real technical depth in deep tech, hard tech or crypto, the kind of project where you need to give people a few minutes of context before they understand what you're working on. You're past the idea stage and have something you can put in front of people. You want honest, technical feedback from people who are capable of giving it.

You also want to be useful to the people around you. The best cohorts are full of people who help each other, not just people who show up to get help.

If that sounds like you: Zee Prime Residency @ Edge Esmeralda 2026

We review applications on a rolling basis. Questions? Reach out to us: telamon@edgecity.live

About Zee Prime Capital

Zee Prime Capital is a venture fund with no rules. They invest in the frontier moving overton window to the world’s brightest new ideas. Their portfolio includes Polymarket, Solana, Epic Aerospace, Terra Fusion, and many more. The team is led by partners Matti (@mattigags), Cam (@luffistotle), and Rapolas (@long_solitude). Learn more at zeeprime.capital.

About Edge City

Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in pop-up villages across the globe. We are building a society incubator: an IRL lab of experimentation for new ideas, technology, culture, and institutions, all aimed at accelerating human flourishing. Our popup villages last one month and gather leaders from fields like AI, biotech, crypto, hard tech, governance, philosophy, and beyond. We've had over 12,000 people participate across eight gatherings.

About Edge Esmeralda

Edge Esmeralda is a month-long popup village designed to be the healthiest, most productive, and most inspiring month of your year. It takes place each summer in Northern California and brings together innovators from across tech, science, culture, and society. Edge Esmeralda 2026 will be the third edition of the village and serves as a prototype for Esmeralda, a permanent new town being built just 15 minutes away.

Apply here to attend: https://edgeesmeralda.com/

FAQ

What is “deep tech”? Does my project need to be hard tech?

The residency is also open to soft tech projects. We define deep tech as projects with technical substance that solve real-world problems while requiring specialized expertise to build. What we’re not looking for is surface-level software or trend-chasing apps.

What stage should my project be?

We’re looking for founders who are beyond the idea stage. You should have something tangible to demo or  test during the residency - this can be a working prototype, technical proof-of-concept, or meaningful research progress. Bonus points if you express a specific goal you want to achieve by the end of the month.

You don’t need to be polished or fully funded. In fact, some of the best candidates are mid-build, with a specific hypothesis they need to validate in front of real people.

Is investment guaranteed for accepted founders?

Accepted founders will have direct access to the Zee Prime team throughout the month, including office hours, feedback sessions, and demos. There is no guaranteed investment, but Zee Prime is actively looking to back founders, and the residency is explicitly designed for both sides to build trust and determine if there’s a fit.

What does the day-to-day look like?

The residency is self-directed by design, and your primary job is to build. Days are structured loosely around deep work blocks with dedicated residency programming woven throughout the month.

Beyond residency-specific programming, you'll have full access to the Edge Esmeralda village: expect spontaneous collaboration at meals, late-night technical conversations, cross-disciplinary hacks, and the kind of serendipitous introductions that are hard to engineer anywhere else. You're not required to attend everything; the goal is to use the environment as fuel for your own work.

Past attendees have closed fundraising rounds, met co-founders, and made pivotal technical breakthroughs - often not during scheduled sessions, but because of the density of the environment.

Is visa sponsorship provided?

Edge City and Zee Prime cannot provide visa sponsorships. Accepted applicants for the residency must have a valid US visa. We strongly encourage international applicants to confirm their visa status before applying. If you have questions about eligibility, reach out before the deadline.

What’s covered? What costs am I responsible for?

Covered cost: housing, most meals, and ticket to Edge Esmerelda (valued at ~$3,000).

Not covered: visa costs and **travel costs.

Travel costs are the responsibility of accepted residents. That said, we don't want cost to be the reason the right founders don't apply. If travel is a genuine barrier, mention it in the "additional notes" section of your application. We'll do our best to find a solution on a case-by-case basis.

I have a co-founder, can we both participate in the Zee Prime Residency?

We only have the capacity to accept one founder per company for the Zee Prime Residency.

Co-founders can still attend Edge Esmerelda, but they must arrange their own housing, food, and Edge Esmerelda ticket.

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