What progress have you made since your last update?

Since I received funding, I have travelled in the United States a decent bit, mainly in the Bay Area and have gotten connected to the startup ecosystem and effective altruists here. The most prominent progress I have made is having kicked off The Residency's First and Second Cohorts. Here is a link to the people in The Residency: https://x.com/_theresidency/status/1746014926307525075?s=46

What are your next steps?

I will be going back to school in September. In the next few months, I will be working on making The Residency happen in India soon. I am also continuously working on my side projects and this fund has helped me tremendously on this gap year from university.

Is there anything others could help you with?

Thank you so much for approving this grant Austin and Isaak for regranting it to me. Hope to see you around!

Approving this grant! The Residency looks like an interesting project; this grant falls within our charitable mission of supporting overlooked opportunities, while not having any notable downside risks.

This is a career development and travel regrant to Hardeep Gambhir, an interesting high-energy teenager from Canada. It will enable him to take a gap year from university, travel, and explore various projects he might want to work on.

In the context of being introduced by a common collaborator (Nick), I've had a couple of conversations with Hardeep, and I was impressed by his high energy, past demonstrated agency, and knack for community building. His main goals are (and ought to be) flexible, as of now centering around visiting the US, especially the Bay Area, and exploring different communities and potential projects.

I'd be excited to see Hardeep hone his community-building aptitude, maybe nurturing and connecting promising communities across the Bay. Yet, should he decide to pivot and work on something drastically different, that might also produce interesting results. It seems to me he was a bit overlooked by the current funding systems and could potentially be a diamond in the rough. He has a thrifty mindset and originally was asking for $2000, which I upped to $4000 as that seems like it might give him a lot more flexibility given how constrained he currently is.

In the case of failure, I'd guess that the most likely scenario is that Hardeep's gap year just goes so-so, and it would've been a better alternative for him to stay in university.

Of note, The Residency is collaborating with a house that friends and I run together, and The Residency will host their MVP cohort here. Hardeep will likely come to visit should he come to the Bay, and pending how his plans pan out, he might become a housemate in the future.