[throwawaygh]

Fellowships usually require an institutional affiliation and many institutions are borderline predatory when it comes to IP/equity stake in spinoffs.

If you take a fellowship to start a company and then spin that company off from a university, you've gotta be careful to choose the right uni and structure the work appropriately. Some universities will take pretty big stakes when they can.

Calling this a fellowship is a bit confusing, but I'm not sure it's anything more nefarious than perhaps simply misleading/confusing. At least they're up front with the fact that they'll take a 10% stake. Many universities that will try to take a pretty similar stake aren't so up-front.