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Applications are now live! Please express your interest via this form. Applications close March 25th.
The idea is to give builders the confidence to trust their “crazy idea” by acting as an early believer. We want to catch spikey personalities before they take the safe path (big tech/academia) and help them transition to doing their own, riskier thing. We want to do this by providing them with enough activation energy to get something done, and reward those that have a bias to fast experimentation and iteration.
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Edge Esmeralda is Edge City's flagship popup village in Healdsburg, CA - a month-long gathering for people who are optimistic about the future and actively working toward a society rooted in human flourishing. It brings together 1,000+ people from the frontiers of tech, science, culture, and policy to prototype what a better society could look like, and begin building it. The village is grounded in four core principles: multidisciplinary, multigenerational, co-created, and healthy by default.
Previous editions have drawn people working across technology, consciousness, longevity science, web3, AI, robotics, neuroscience, art, new urbanism, civic tech, education, and beyond - creating cross-disciplinary breakthroughs that continue long after the village ends.
It's co-organized with Esmeralda Institute, which is building a permanent new village 90 minutes north of SF. The popup village serves as a living prototype for that vision - testing new ways of living, working, and thriving together. Edge Esmeralda 2026 runs May 30 – June 27 in Healdsburg, CA.
Special thanks to Long Journey, who is sponsoring both programs in 2026. They’re a fund dedicated to being the second believers of the magically weird, and are based in San Francisco.
Edge City is looking for someone to own and evolve our fellowship and grant programs - the core mechanisms through which we identify, support, and develop the next generation of frontier builders.
This is a role for someone who genuinely loves people, knows how to spot potential before it's obvious, and cares deeply about what it means to help someone step into their own. You'll be working directly with fellows and grantees - not just managing a program, but helping shape the culture and systems around how exceptional young people find their footing in frontier fields.
Inflection Fellowship Program The fellowship offers full scholarships for six individuals under 25 to attend each Edge City, where they work on a project in community with some of the most interesting people in the world.
You'll work closely with the co-founders and our Head of Ecosystem to manage the full lifecycle. This includes everything from identifying and recruiting candidates, through the application and selection process, to supporting fellows on the ground and helping them understand how their work connects to something bigger.
Inflection Grant Program Every six months, we identify ten individuals for $2K micro-grants designed to change trajectories, finding top talent on the edge of "normal" and fuelling their ideas before it makes sense to fund them as a startup.
You'll co-develop the systems, relationships, and judgment to find those people, and you'll build the culture around the program that makes it something people talk about for years.
Alumni Network and Continuity A fellow or grantee's relationship with Edge City shouldn't end when they leave. You'll think about how we stay in touch, create pathways for alumni to contribute back, and build the kind of network that compounds over time.
Both programs run in partnership with Long Journey. You'll help steward that relationship and help us articulate the vision for what this partnership can become.
This program has real potential to become world-renowned - and it will, with the right person behind it. We've built the baseline for both the Grants and Fellowship (see below for testimonials!). You'd be building the systems, the relationships, and the culture that make it a defining institution for young people working at the frontier.
The best version of this role is someone who can help a 22-year-old fellow see how their project fits into a broader movement, or help a grantee understand that the weird thing they're building is actually exactly what the world needs right now.