Blueprint
Founders, Inc.'s hardware-only cohort program
✽
Blueprint is Founders, Inc.'s hardware-only cohort program, running 38 days at the firm's Fort Mason campus in San Francisco.1 The program selects roughly 50 hardware builders, gives them full access to the on-site Garage lab — 3D printers, CNC mills, laser cutters, soldering stations, and other fabrication equipment — and ends with a public showcase where attendees can touch and test the working prototypes.27 The first cohort ran from October 1 to November 7, 2025, with $1 million earmarked for investment in top teams and individual checks of up to $250,000 plus $400,000 in partner credits.61
Before Blueprint existed as a named program, Founders, Inc. was already running hardware builders out of the Fort Mason lab. In May 2024, the San Francisco Chronicle profiled the campus's AI hardware residency, describing more than a dozen inventors working on smart goggles for the blind, doomsday survival devices, and robotic arms in a second-floor workshop with views of the Golden Gate Bridge.12 Hubert Thieblot, General Partner at f.inc, told the Chronicle that getting a prototype to a "magic moment" where it works once is the easy part; getting it to work every time is much harder.12 Safwaan Khan, then Head of Capital, described the residency as pushing builders to learn from each other to accelerate problem-solving.12
By March 2026, Thieblot reported that half of f.inc's 2025 investments had gone to hardware companies.13 That proportion drove the creation of a dedicated track. Blueprint was announced on September 11, 2025, on Founders, Inc.'s LinkedIn with the tagline: "A new way for hardware founders to get their first check. 38 days. $1M to top teams. Ends in a demo day."6 Applications opened immediately and closed September 24.315 The program started October 1.1
Blueprint is restricted to hardware founders — robots, drones, wearables, machines, and physical-AI products.111 Unlike Canopy, which spans software, hardware, and media tracks and includes an online cohort, Blueprint is entirely in-person and single-discipline.113
Participants work from the Garage, the hardware lab at the Fort Mason campus.5 The lab's published equipment list for Blueprint I included six Bambu Lab X-1 Carbon 3D printers, four Nvidia Jetson Nano developer kits, ten Raspberry Pis, a Hakko FM203-DP soldering station, an XTOOL laser cutter, a Langmuir Systems CNC mill, a JET drill press, an Eakins digital microscope, a California Air Tools compressor, and a V-One PCB printer.1 The campus page also lists CNC machines and soldering irons as standard Garage amenities available year-round.5
The weekly rhythm follows the same pattern as other f.inc programs: builders set goals on Monday, work through the week with access to office hours and peer feedback, and present what they shipped at the Friday Ship-it sessions.75 Blueprint's announcement video on YouTube specifically recruited teams building in aerospace, manufacturing, humanoids, AI hardware, and "software for hardware."11
Like all f.inc programs, Blueprint does not use pitch decks at any stage.4 Investment decisions are based on what teams build during the program, with f.inc historically investing in roughly the top 10% of program participants at $100,000 to $250,000 for 4–7% equity.4
The first Blueprint cohort brought 50 hardware builders to Fort Mason.2 F.inc's teams page describes the cohort as an experiment: "Five weeks ago, we invited 50 hardware builders to come to our campus and bring their blueprints to life. These are the results of that experiment."2
The 46 teams listed on the page spanned robotics, defense, medical devices, consumer hardware, and manufacturing equipment.2 Among them:
Other teams included Herdcycle (smart ear tags for cattle), Nuwa Pen (an ink pen that digitizes handwriting), Arlo Industries (optical mesh radar for counter-drone systems), Caelus Industries (autonomous defense for land, air, and sea), and The Covenant (additive manufacturing for boats and vessels).2
Several Blueprint I participants subsequently appeared in f.inc's portfolio, including InteractionLabs, MakerMods, Polysynth, Trepo, Hayla, and Herdcycle.2
The Blueprint Festival — the program's Demo Day — took place on November 7, 2025, at 5 PM at the Fort Mason campus.8 Founders, Inc. described the event on LinkedIn as "a music festival, but for hardware" with "50 hardware founders. 5 weeks. 3D printers, soldering irons, CNC machines, and too many Pis."7 The Luma event page listed 3,151 attendees.8
The festival was a hands-on showcase, not a stage presentation. Attendees could "test-drive robots, interact with next-gen hardware, hold devices that were just sketches not too long ago."89 Rahul Mathur, who attended the festival, described the technical demos — particularly the robotic arms and vision systems — as the standout experiences.10
The event coincided with the Fort Mason Night Market, adding food trucks, live music, DJs, and local artisans to the campus grounds.89 FunCheap SF listed it as a free event at 2 Marina Blvd, Building B300, with RSVP required for capacity.9 Gary's Guide also picked it up as a featured SF tech event.14
Blueprint occupies the fall slot in Founders, Inc.'s annual program calendar. As of early 2026, Thieblot outlined four cohort programs per year: Artifact in winter, Canopy in spring, Off Season in summer, and Blueprint in fall.13 Outside scheduled cohorts, f.inc runs Wild Card, a rolling sprint residency with founders invited to campus every two weeks.13
Blueprint differs from the other programs in two ways. First, it is exclusively hardware — Canopy accepts software, hardware, and media tracks, while Off Season and Artifact are open to all domains.113 Second, it is entirely in-person with no online track, whereas Canopy Spring 2026 added 400 remote participants alongside its 100 on-campus teams.113
The weekly Ship-it sessions function identically across all programs — live demos, not slides — but Blueprint's Friday presentations tend to involve working physical prototypes rather than software demos.716 One summary of campus culture noted that builders at f.inc construct "autonomous submarines and home robots — not presentation materials."16
The Blueprint page on f.inc's website includes the heading "Blueprint II this fall," confirming a second hardware cohort.1 No specific dates or application deadlines for Blueprint II had been announced as of April 2026.1