Sequoia emphasises that the number of GitHub stars is not necessarily the primary measure of a project’s importance. Instead, applicants should be able to demonstrate that their work is being used meaningfully by developers, organisations, companies, researchers, or other users.
Potential fellows may therefore include developers and maintainers who are:
- Building or maintaining widely used open source software.
- Making substantial improvements to an existing open source project.
- Expanding the adoption or capabilities of an open source tool.
- Creating software infrastructure used by real-world users.
- Developing projects that provide significant value to the broader technology community.
Applicants do not need to operate through a company or have a conventional startup structure.
No Requirement to Start a Company
One of the distinguishing features of the Sequoia Open Source Fellowship is that participants do not have to establish a company.
Sequoia states that fellows can continue working on an existing project or begin a new project. There is also no requirement to create an entity in order to receive fellowship support.
Participants retain the freedom to determine what they work on and how their projects develop. Sequoia does not expect to control or influence the fellow’s project roadmap.
This structure allows developers to concentrate on software development, maintenance, research, and community impact without being required to pursue a venture-backed business model.
Fellows Retain Ownership
The fellowship does not require participants to surrender ownership of their work.
According to Sequoia, fellows retain ownership of what they create. The organisation does not expect equity or other ownership interests in exchange for sponsorship.
This applies to code developed before or after participation in the programme. Fellows remain responsible for deciding how they use, distribute, develop, or license their work.
Fellowship Funding
The programme is designed to provide financial support that helps fellows dedicate meaningful time to their open source work.
Sequoia states that its goal is to cover reasonable living expenses for a period of six to 12 months.
The fellowship is not structured as an investment in a future company, and Sequoia does not take equity from participants.
The financial support is therefore intended to give selected developers greater flexibility to focus on their open source projects without the immediate pressure of generating commercial revenue.
Location and Travel
The Sequoia Open Source Fellowship is entirely location independent.
Fellows can live and work from anywhere, making the programme potentially accessible to open source developers regardless of their geographic location.
There is also no required travel. Fellows may, however, have the opportunity to participate in Sequoia founder events if they wish to do so.
The remote structure is particularly relevant to developers who already collaborate with international open source communities and maintain distributed projects.
Fellowship Selection
Sequoia indicates that it will likely select two to three fellows each year.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, meaning applicants do not necessarily need to wait for a single annual deadline.
Because the fellowship is intended for projects with meaningful real-world adoption, applicants should clearly demonstrate the relevance, use, impact, and development potential of their open source work.
Evidence of adoption may be more significant than simply having a large number of GitHub stars.
Previous Fellows and Open Source Community
The fellowship has previously supported notable open source contributors and projects.
Among the highlighted fellows are contributors associated with vLLM and the Chatbot Arena team. Sequoia has also highlighted Sebastián Ramírez, creator of FastAPI, as its first OSS Fellow.
The programme’s broader open source network includes projects and creators associated with technologies such as MongoDB, Deno, Temporal, Replicate, Pydantic, Streamlit, and Hugging Face.
These examples demonstrate the range of open source technologies and communities that can contribute to the wider software ecosystem.
METHOD OF APPLICATION
Interested open source developers and maintainers can apply directly through the Sequoia Open Source Fellowship application process.
There is no requirement to create a company, surrender equity, relocate, or travel. Applicants can continue developing an existing project or propose a new open source initiative.
The programme is particularly suited to creators who have demonstrated meaningful adoption and believe additional financial support would enable them to make significant improvements, expand their projects, or increase their contribution to the open source ecosystem.
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