We’re launching a new program!!
It’s called The Engine Room, a one-week sprint where eight teams will get £5,000 to test ideas —
And make a serious run at the company concepts they’ve been thinking about, but haven’t yet had the time or space to build.
Jeff, Zoe, and I are incubating this program for two reasons:
First, we’re seeing incredible technical talent coming out of Europe - perhaps more than ever - and we want to help turn that momentum into real companies.
Second (and maybe more subtly), we’re excited about building a new kind of community - a tight-knit group of engineers, researchers, and hackers. People who are aspiring founders, or want to join startups early.
Let’s go! Can’t wait to get started 🔥
Program Overview
Before I get into the backstory or “why us,” here’s what you actually need to know:
Dates: November 10th – 14th, 2025
Location: In-person @ Dawn Capital, London (teams are expected to attend at least 80% of the time)
Investment: £5,000 per team (no equity)
Cohort Size: 8 teams
Demo Day: December 1st, 2025
Website: engineroom.run
Apply here: Google Form
Backstory
Ok, now for the backstory.
For the past four years, I’ve been investing alongside Jeff Morris Jr. at Chapter One. We call ourselves a product-first fund - which is obviously a tagline - but what it actually means is that our edge comes from experience building and scaling real products.
Jeff led the revenue team at Tinder from $20M to $1.2B. I’ve shipped software to 300+ million users. Almost every week, we’re in product meetings with founders, where I listen to Jeff and genuinely think: this is world-class feedback. And hopefully, I bring something useful on the technical side too.
But being product-first also means we like to build things ourselves. Learn by shipping and doing.
Over the past year, I’ve been running hackathons under the brand name AI Engine, alongside Zoe Qin at Dawn Capital.
It started as a “why aren’t there more great hackathons in Europe?” project - and it’s grown into 200-person events with incredible energy, real sponsorship, and some of the best builders I’ve seen.
Zoe and I are both technical. Love writing code. And we wanted to build the kind of event we’d actually want to attend.
The Engine Room is the next extension of that - and it ties everything together.
It’s a sprint for engineers who want to create software that scales - backed by people who’ve done it and invested in it.
Why You?
As mentioned above, we think we’ve entered a new era of European tech.
We have ElevenLabs, which has built a team of absolute monster engineers, Granola, shipping the most beautiful product anyone has ever seen, and Lovable hitting all-time highs on growth and revenue.
DeepMind spin-outs, Nvidia pledging $2b in UK and broader European AI startups, Larry Ellison investing $1b in Oxford, Project Europe, BVNK getting acquired for $2 billion, Klana IPO-ing, and of course, the Unicorn Mafia, the WhatsApp group that everyone is trying to get into.
It’s a fun time to be here.
This kind of program already exists in the U.S. (think Z Fellows), but no one’s built one for Europe. It’s time.
We want to work with people who feel that same momentum. The program is for:
PhDs, researchers, and deep tech builders with ideas they want to take commercial.
Undergrads, recent grads, or early-career engineers who are already shipping side projects and thinking about starting something.
Engineers at big tech companies (Google, DeepMind, Palantir, etc.) who want to explore ideas outside their day jobs.
Second-time (or second-attempt) founders looking for a focused sprint to try something new.
Builders who don’t have a fully formed idea yet - but are ready to start.
Engineers and hackers already plugged into the European startup scene who want to meet collaborators, mentors, and early investors.
Mentors, Partners, and Credits
Ok, last section, but very important:
Pulling from our networks at Chapter One, AI Engine, and Dawn Capital, we’ve put together an all-star line-up of mentors, partners, and perks to support all the teams.
You’ll get hands-on advice from founders, operators, and engineers who’ve built at companies like ElevenLabs, AWS, DeepMind, Anthropic, Coinbase, and more.
Plus top European founders such as Tim Chong, Founder of Yonder; Thomas Paul Mann, CEO & Founder of Raycast; Daniel Reid Cahn, CEO & Co-Founder of Slingshot; and Reuben Steenkamp, CEO & Co-Founder of Briefcase.
And each team in The Engine Room will receive credits to get started:
£5,000 in AWS credits
12 months of ElevenLabs Pro
6 months of Linear for free
6 months of Framer (Launch Plan)
+ More from our network of partners, mentors, and backers
The Engine Room - First Cohort
We’re so excited to kick this off.
If you’re interested, apply to join the first cohort. And if you know someone who should be building something right now - please send this their way.
Let’s do this.
Apply today: https://www.engineroom.run/
I’m a General Partner at Chapter One, an early-stage venture fund that invests $500K - $2M checks into pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
If you’re a founder building a company, please feel free to reach out on Twitter (@seidtweets) or Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesin-seidel-5325b147/).
