Pioneer joins a growing number of efforts by foundations, nonprofits and some companies to address the “opportunity gap” in America and worldwide. They all begin with the recognition that skills and talent are far more evenly distributed than opportunity. Talented people suffer — one study called them “lost Einsteins” — but so does the economy from the loss of ideas and wealth they could have produced.

Image “We’re trying to build a kind of search engine for finding great people with talent, ambition and potential,” Mr. Gross said. Credit... Jason Henry for The New York Times

Selecting “pioneers” will begin with a monthlong online tournament. Candidates will submit their project ideas. Each week, the projects will be updated. The candidates will vote on each other’s projects, points will be awarded and there will be leader board. Subject experts will also vote, with their votes counting somewhat more than the candidates’.

The initiative is inspired partly by Mr. Gross’s personal experience.

When he was an 18-year-old student at a military prep school in Israel, Mr. Gross, on a whim, sent in an idea to Y Combinator, the prominent start-up incubator. To his surprise, he was accepted and departed for Silicon Valley. “That changed my life,” Mr. Gross recalled.

In 2013, Apple bought his fledgling company, Cue, a predictive search start-up. Mr. Gross spent four years at Apple, leading several projects and departed last year to join Y Combinator.

Mr. Gross will retain a link to Y Combinator, but his main commitment now is to Pioneer, he said.

Many of the proposals coming into Pioneer will likely be for technology and start-up ideas. But Pioneer is looking for innovators broadly. So far, it has lined up advisers to act as online or in-person mentors in nine categories including the arts and humanities, diversity, economics, music and philosophy. Pioneer is seeking more expert advisers.