By Marcelo Homrich

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For the past decade, Halcyon has been focused on a (not-so) simple idea: when you give early-stage, impact-driven founders the right mix of resources, support, and community at the right moment, they can improve millions of lives while transforming industries and the planet.

Over the years, we’ve seen founders build ventures that expand access to healthcare, help communities adapt to climate change, and close gaps in wealth, education, and opportunity. We’ve also seen how quickly the world around those founders is shifting, from capital markets, to technology and policy environments, to the realities of running a growing business.

That’s why, after years of on-the-ground learning from our entrepreneurs and ecosystem partners, we’re introducing a refreshed program model for 2026. This next chapter builds on what we know works, focuses our support where it matters most, and makes our fellowships more compatible with the lived experiences of our early-stage founders.

Why We Switched

Halcyon’s original residential model gave founders something rare: uninterrupted time living in community focused on ideating and creating ventures, often for months at a time. That model helped launch hundreds of companies. But over time, we started seeing consistent patterns in who was applying and what they needed.

Many of our strongest applicants were no longer at the “idea on a napkin” stage. They had live products, early revenue, field pilots, and even small teams. They were juggling raising capital in an increasingly challenging funding environment, improving their products, and navigating complex regulatory and policy contexts.

What these founders told us was clear:

• They needed deep, practical support on product-market fit, capital strategy, and leadership applied to their ventures.
• They needed more flexible formats that let them keep running their businesses without having to be away for extended residential stays.
• They wanted a program that felt like a launchpad from early validation to real traction.

We learned from entrepreneurs like Golden Nhunhama, who works full-time with underserved farmers in Africa—some days completely off-the-grid in the field—and knew he couldn’t step away from the people he served for months at a time. Golden was looking for hybrid programming to match his tangible business goals at a critical moment when government funding was slashed. Through advising, residencies in new cities, and other critical resources, we opened new doors to expansion across the continent.

We learned from entrepreneurs like Nita Akoh, who relied on deep, targeted support from Halcyon to successfully launch her mental health care product in-market, define and initiate her fundraising strategy, and secure three major clinical partnerships, all during her hybrid fellowship program last year.

We chose to emphasize our redesign on the positive trends we were seeing: founders with traction, clear sector focuses, and the need for sophisticated, outcomes-driven support that fit the rhythms of their businesses. This new model is our cumulative response, keeping the best of what made Halcyon special, while modernizing how, when, and where we deliver that support.

What Our New Model Looks Like

At the heart of our new model is a consistent hybrid structure and a clear set of program pillars and goals.

Each 2026 fellowship will follow the same hybrid calendar:

• A Virtual Kickoff meeting day to align expectations and begin building trust.
• An in-person kickoff Residency Week #1 focused on setting foundations and baselines.
• Monthly Virtual Meetings that create accountability, deliver targeted advising, and maintain momentum while founders are back in their markets.
• An in-person closing Residency Week #2, where founders integrate what they’ve learned, finalize key deliverables, and connect with investors and ecosystem partners.
• Post-program alumni engagement that keeps ongoing access and support going long after the formal program ends.

Across all cohorts, we’re centering three core learning pillars, plus a cross-cutting fourth concept:

1. Product-Market Fit: Helping founders move from early validation to real traction.
2. Capital Strategy: Supporting founders in designing revenue-driven funding plans with a clear understanding of the right capital pathways for them, not just chasing the hottest financing trend.
3. Leadership Development: Growing founders as purpose-driven leaders and communicators.
4. Community & Peer Learning: Ensuring founders don’t just learn from us, but from each other and from our alumni community. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely journey, but not if you are a Halcyon founder.

Looking Ahead in 2026

Our 2026 cohorts will be the first to experience this new iteration in full: a consistent hybrid structure, a sharper focus on our Climate, Health, and EquityTech verticals, and programming designed to move ventures to sustained traction with clear, tangible outputs.

This model projects us to support 70+ companies across our fellowships and will take us to more cities than ever before, with additional global engagement through conferences, ecosystem events, and alumni activations in key locations across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the US, and beyond.

Here’s a peek at our year of programming:

• Mexico City, Mexico: We’ll return for a fourth consecutive year to CDMX, where we’ve established an incredible ecosystem of local partners passionate about advancing sustainable innovation in the country and beyond. This time, we’re implementing Halcyon’s first program entirely in Spanish, bridging new resources and connections for Mexican climate entrepreneurs.
• Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia: After a first year of discovery in Colombia, we’re heading back to the country’s largest cities for our LAC Climate program, eager to continue our work in the region.
• Nairobi, Kenya and Accra, Ghana: Our Africa-based programs have been some of Halcyon’s strongest, and we’re thrilled to be returning to two of the continent’s most vibrant hubs of innovation in support of our 2026 Climate Resilience & Food Security in Africa Fellowship.
• Kingston, Jamaica and Bridgetown, Barbados: We chose Kingston and Bridgetown for a new program that will immerse founders in the Caribbean’s front lines of climate resilience, pairing implementation and adaptation networks on the ground with regional climate finance and policy hubs that can unlock partnerships and scale.
• Chicago, Illinois: We’ll be traveling to Chicago for its unmatched health ecosystem, world-class hospital systems and public health infrastructure, and deep network of operators and investors that our 2026 US Health founders can tap into during their residency week in the city.
• Los Angeles, California: We’re excited about LA’s density of climate and sustainability innovation and access to major corporate partners, investors, and policy-adjacent networks for our 2026 Global Climate program.
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh is a leading US hub in education innovation and the Future of Work, where universities, workforce organizations, and tech employers create real opportunities for pilots, partnerships, and talent pathways, making it an ideal fit for our 2026 EquityTech program.
• Washington, DC: DC is a special part of Halcyon’s story, and the city’s unique ecosystem remains a key part of our plans. We’ll be bringing each US-based fellowship here for an in-person residency week, among other convenings at our new HQ and throughout the Capital.

In all, this transition reflects Halcyon’s reality: we’ve grown beyond a single physical space into a global, mission-aligned community impacting millions. It’s the next step in living our mission: accelerating the impact-driven future of business by meeting founders where they are and helping them build companies that are not only investable, but transformative.

Want to join us in 2026?

✏️ Founders: apply to Halcyon using our new rolling eligibility form

💡 Ecosystem experts: sign-up to work directly with Halcyon’s impact-driven entrepreneurs in support of our programs

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