Next Gen Fund support to attend the Silicon Valley Fellowship.

I am Oriol Pont, and this page is a short overview of why I am asking the Next Gen Fund to fully cover the minimum viable cost of attending the Silicon Valley Fellowship. It should take no more than a couple of minutes to read.

The core point is simple: I want to attend the fellowship, but in my economic context this five-day experience costs about the same as my Erasmus semester out of pocket or roughly a full four-year Catalan public degree[4][5].

The fund itself separates the decision into two parts: financial need and evidence of exceptional achievement[1]. This page follows that structure and is meant to function as a salient overview of the full case.

URIPONT TO SV

NEXT GEN FUND CASE

CASE FOR NEXT GEN FUND

SUMMER 2026 TARGET COHORT

ITEMAMT

Program fee

fixed by the fellowship

$2,500

Cheap flights

Barcelona or Milan to San Francisco and back

EUR 600-800

Cheap Airbnb room

shared, minimal

EUR 400

Minimal local spending headroom

likely conservative for San Francisco

EUR 300

TOTALEUR 4,000

THIS RELATIVELY SMALL AMOUNT

WOULD ENABLE ME TO COME

Economic Affordability

The case for funding is straightforward: the fellowship is attractive, but self-funding it does not make sense in my situation.

Minimum viable cost

Program fee

fixed by the fellowship

$2,500

Cheap flights

Barcelona or Milan to San Francisco and back

EUR 600-800

Cheap Airbnb room

shared, minimal

EUR 400

Minimal local spending headroom

likely conservative for San Francisco

EUR 300

This is already a bare-minimum estimate. It is not a comfort budget, and it assumes the cheapest realistic path across program fee, flights, room, and local spending.

What EUR 4,000 means in my context

Fellowship ask

EUR 4,000

My Erasmus semester out of pocket

€4,000.00

40 ECTS in Milan, after about 2,500 EUR of Erasmus+ support.

Barcelona versus San Francisco

The same expense lands very differently depending on the economic baseline. The key comparison is the last one: in the trip view, 1x means one modeled San Francisco software-developer take-home month after rent, using the official wage benchmark, the official asking-rent benchmark, and a conservative 66% take-home assumption[7][8][9].

Spanish median earner living in Barcelona

This is the closest clean economic baseline for the world I actually come from.[2][3]

0.14x

4.38 full months entirely devoted to this expense, after housing.

Barcelona web-development benchmark

Even a technical Barcelona benchmark keeps the fellowship near a full month and a half entirely devoted to this expense.[6][3]

0.44x

1.41 full months entirely devoted to this expense, after housing.

San Francisco software-developer benchmark

This becomes the reference unit for the trip comparison: one modeled take-home month after rent.[7][8]

1.00x

Modeled take-home after rent: $6,452 per month. The trip is 0.73 months of this reference unit.

In this framing, the important contrast is clear: for a San Francisco technical baseline the fellowship is below one post-rent month; for a person like me, it becomes multiple full months entirely dedicated to the expense.

Merit And Exceptional Fit

The financial side is the obstacle. The candidate side is already strong.

Academic trajectory

Two simultaneous four-year degrees at UPF: Computer Science and Mathematical Engineering in Data Science.

Erasmus studies at Politecnico di Milano across advanced deep learning, computer architectures, GPUs, accelerators, infrastructures, robotics, and high-tech entrepreneurship.

I also sustain a 1h30 commute each way while pursuing this path, which matters because it shows what my normal operating constraints already look like.

Public work

Public GitHub work spans AI, health, collaborative tools, civic product concepts, and full-stack demos[11].

My public profile already frames a coherent builder identity rather than isolated school assignments[11].

There is visible continuity from early games to side projects to the current portfolio of demos and experiments[12][13].

Results

Nationwide recognition for the most socially impactful project with Mety AI.

Academic-excellence distinctions, including highest entrance grade into Computer Science at UPF and the Generalitat distinction in university-access exams.

Debate achievements, including Best Orator, which matter because founder-quality execution is not only technical.

Why this matters for the fund

The fund does not ask only for need. It also asks for evidence of exceptional curricular or extracurricular achievement and results[1]. That is why this page is split the way it is: first the affordability constraint, then the evidence that the profile is worth backing.

Final Ask

This is where the three lines become one decision.

EUR 4,000 of full coverage to make attendance possible.

This is the whole takeaway: the fit is strong, the barrier is financial, and the minimum viable amount is precise. If funded, I attend the fellowship. If not, I do not have a rational self-funding path.

Covers program fee, flights, room, and minimum local spend.

  1. [1]Silicon Valley Fellowship financial-aid copy and application flow

    The fund states that applications are evaluated on need and exceptional achievements, and that support may cover the program, flights, and accommodation. This wording comes from the current financial-aid page and form copy used in the application flow.

  2. [2]INE salary benchmark

    Published November 14, 2025. Spanish median gross monthly salary in 2024: 2,001.4 EUR.

  3. [3]Barcelona 2025 city report

    Average Barcelona rent in 2025: 1,087.23 EUR per month.

  4. [4]Catalan public-university prices

    2025-2026 first-time undergraduate price: 17.69 EUR per credit.

  5. [5]UPF degree prices

    Many standard 2025-2026 first-year degree benchmarks at UPF: 1,202.32 EUR.

  6. [6]Mobile World Capital 2025 digital-talent report

    Barcelona digital average salary 48,600 EUR; web-development benchmark 47,000 EUR.

  7. [7]BLS software-developer wages

    San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward software developers: annual mean wage 181,220 USD.

  8. [8]Bay Area asking rents

    San Francisco County typical asking rent in 2025: 3,515 USD per month.

  9. [9]ECB exchange-rate reference

    EUR/USD reference used here: 1 EUR = 1.1711 USD on April 10, 2026.

  10. [10]Levels.fyi entry-level context

    Additional market benchmark: entry-level SWE median total comp in San Francisco reported at 195,000 USD.

  11. [11]GitHub profile

    Public profile, README positioning, and open demo repositories.

  12. [12]Early games guide

    Public continuity of earlier builder work.

  13. [13]Early side projects guide

    Public continuity of side projects and experimentation.