Pricing
Founding cohort pricing for builders who want reviewed work, not free access.
The founding price keeps the cohort accessible while preserving a serious weekly commitment. What you are paying for is hands-on review, challenge sequencing, and a smaller member group.
Founding price
$25 /month
Seat cap
10
Invites begin
August 2026
What you get
What the founding membership actually buys.
- Curated access to every track released during the founding cohort window.
- Manual exploit or reproducer review on each submitted artifact.
- Feedback on primitives, dead ends, and reliability mistakes.
- Private builder community and cohort debriefs.
- Founding pricing locked for the first 10 accepted members.
How admission works
How admission works.
- 1 Submit a free application through secure Polar checkout.
- 2 Applications are reviewed against your background, current track, and mentor capacity.
- 3 Accepted applicants receive a separate invite to join at $25/month. First invites go out in August 2026, immediately after DEF CON 34, with founding pricing reserved for the first 10 accepted members.
After the first 10 seats, pricing moves to the standard rate and review turnaround shifts to the standard queue.
Why the cohort is paid
Pricing exists to protect review quality.
Reason
Reviews are the product
The cohort is paid because feedback, progression, and challenge sequencing are manual work.
Reason
Scarcity is operational, not cosmetic
Seat caps exist so review quality does not collapse under too many simultaneous submissions.
Reason
Access is staged on purpose
Small invite batches keep the cohort useful while new tracks and review workflows open carefully.
Common questions
The logistical objections, answered plainly.
Do I need special hardware?
Not for the early tracks. A normal laptop is enough for Foundations and most binary exploitation work. Kernel tracks include setup guidance so you can build a usable lab incrementally.
What changes after the founding cohort?
The first 10 seats lock in founding pricing and the fastest review lane. Later cohorts move to the standard rate and a broader membership offering as the platform opens up.
Apply
If the model makes sense, start with the application.
Seat caps, a smaller cohort, and paid membership are there to preserve review quality. If that matches what you want, start with the free application.