Ravi Gupta should be traveling the world right now. Last year, he planned to take a break from his role as CEO of a chain of charter schools in Nashville and spend six months exploring India. But President Trump's election derailed the former Obama campaign staffer's plans.

"It's too important a time to not be working on this stuff," says Gupta.

By "this stuff," Gupta means rebuilding the progressive movement and honing some of the same grassroots energy that propelled President Obama into office in 2009. Today, that energy abounds. It filled the streets of Washington, DC during the Women's March a week after Inauguration Day. It clogged airports across the country, when protests formed overnight in response to President Trump's immigrant and refugee ban. And it's overtaken local town halls, where protesting progressives have loudly educated their representatives on the importance of Obamacare, among other issues. There are hundreds of well-meaning organizations leading these local battles, but for Democrats looking to make a difference, it can be tough to know which of these groups have the wherewithal to win the war.

So Gupta is teaming up with his friend Swati Mylavarapu, a former Kleiner Perkins partner and technology executive, to launch an accelerator of sorts that's trying to do for progressive organizations and leaders what Y Combinator has done for companies like Airbnb and Stripe. As part of the program, the so-called Arena Fellows will receive grant funding and exposure at quarterly events called the Arena Summit.

The first Arena Summit, which Gupta and Mylavarapu planned together, gathered some 400 liberal activists and donors in Nashville just weeks after the election to discuss the future of the party. It ended with some 150 people committing to run for office, and dozens more creating their own activist organizations. With the fellowship program, Gupta and Mylavarapu hope to offer these ideas and campaigns the support system they need.

"I wish I could have bottled the vibe in the room," says Mylavarapu of the first summit. "But the broader question is what do you do with that? How do you channel that into something lasting and impactful?"

Mylavarapu, who is married to Nest founder Matt Rogers, covers the startup costs for the Arena, while also leading the effort to recruit new donors. The fellowship will focus on organizations that are working to build Democratic state legislatures, bridge the ideological gap between parties, advance certain progressive policies, and protect voting rights.

Meanwhile, Gupta and Mylavarapu have already picked their first fellow: Flippable, a non-profit that works to turn vulnerable Republican state legislatures into Democratic ones. Flippable, which was founded by a group of Hillary Clinton campaign staffers, urges Democrats across the country to support local district races, and highlights which districts are the most, well, flippable. Already, the organization is seeing results: During the state senate race in Delaware, Flippable directed more than $100,000 in donations to help get Democrat Stephanie Hansen elected.

"That's the perfect example of the kind of organization we want to help," Gupta says. "We've got someone who is burning through her savings, has a really good idea, a team of engineers, is deploying resources in effective ways right now, and needs a lot of help getting to the point of viability."

It's this mass activism that Gupta sees as the left's main advantage—and the left is running out of advantages. Republicans own the House, the Senate, the White House, and have dozens of billionaires associated with the Koch Network funding state and local races across the country. Democrats, by contrast, have lost representation nationwide, and the Democratic National Committee itself is facing an identity crisis after hacked emails exposed favoritism within the party.

By offering the slightly splintered movements that currently propel the left a little extra support, Gupta and Mylavarapu hope to continue its momentum to 2020 and beyond.