“The youth, Gen Zers have landed on this planet like aliens, and they’re about to take over. They are living in the future in their heads, and I have no doubt that the ones who are technical can actually start building it,” he says. 

In his more than 10 years at venture capital firm General Catalyst, Bonatsos has worked with the greats – like Snap and Discord. Now he’s shifting his focus to startup newbies. By pairing first time Gen Z founders with more seasoned mentors, he’s helping usher in and train a new generation of entrepreneurs. 

On Feb. 7, Bonatsos hosted a webinar for Founders Network where he shared insights from working with Gen Z founders. 

To learn more about changes in startup culture,  see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from February 7.

What Makes Gen Z Founders Different 

The group’s oldest members are about 26, so Gen Z founders grew up on the internet. And, they firmly believe they can have careers making money on the internet, Bonatsos says. 

Their unique values are reflected in what they create, like, for instance, the generation’s increased progressivism and sexual fluidity. For example, when it comes to online dating products, Bonatsos is hearing pitches for apps that provide options for people to reimagine relationships and experiment with sexuality and non- monogamy. 

In order to combat their lack of experience, Bonatsos pairs Gen Z and first time founders with more seasoned entrepreneurs who now have time to give back. 

“We at [General Catalyst] have helped a ton of first time founders and immigrant founders make fewer mistakes than they would otherwise make on their own,” he says. 

The Gen Z Founders Who Succeed

The most successful Gen Z founders who pitch to Bonatsos are building for themselves, meaning they are creating products and services that address their own needs.

As a result, successful Gen Z founders already demonstrate prowess in one of the most critical aspects of the sales pitch – proving there’s an audience for their products. 

For instance, “I’m 23 years old. I’m a nerd developer. I think my productivity really sucks. I’m going to build a dev tool to improve my productivity as a developer,” Bonatsos offers as an example. 

But, in evaluating young entrepreneurs, Bonatsos looks for founders and teams with an age old strength: the ability to adapt to change.

“Time is money, because markets don’t wait for you,” he says. “We’re looking for founders who are learning animals, like they treat every meeting, every user interaction, every conversation with somebody who has experience as a learning opportunity.”

Building a Team at 19 Years Old

Some Gen Z founders make the mistake of going into business with their friends, says Bonatsos. They’ll go into business with roommates without thinking about pairing their vision with complementary skill sets. 

But young entrepreneurs need to be strategic when deciding how to form a startup team. Bonatsos is specifically looking for founders and teams with technical backgrounds.

“I want the whole team to be technical, so that they can make progress really quickly. If the first idea doesn’t work out, which is very often the case, we can jump into another idea. Because, if it’s mostly business people, it’s going to take us a long time to come up with a new perfect idea,” he says. 

Furthermore, Bonatsos recommends that Gen Z founders and first time founders identify a high-quality mentor who is a few years ahead of them in the startup launching process.   

During his webinar, he also discussed: 

• Changes in startup culture
• Getting noticed on Tik Tok
• Crypto obsessions
• Mentoring Gen Z
• What makes a successful Gen Z founder

To learn more about changes in startup culture,  see if you qualify for membership and check out the webinar from February 7.

Despite their marked differences, both incubators and accelerators offer new companies critical networking opportunities and chances to connect with mentors in the early stages of launching a business. Some organizations, like Capital Factory in Austin, operate as both incubator and accelerator, while most programs are standalone. 

The most pressing question in analyzing the benefits of accelerators vs. incubators to determinewhich is better suited for you, is: what kind of support are you looking for? While the two options are easily confused, each provides unique help at critical junctures in your startup journey. 

What is a startup accelerator program?

A startup accelerator program helps young businesses grow quickly by offering mentorship, capital, and networking opportunities. An accelerator for startups is a short, intense opportunity that infuses some capital into your startup while preparing you to raise funds elsewhere. These kinds of programs are best suited for companies ready to scale.

While the cash provided by an accelerator often doesn’t amount to that much (often $20,000 to $80,000), startup accelerators benefit young businesses by helping ensure future funding. In fact, accelerated companies are 50 percent more likely to raise seed funding than their non-accelerated counterparts. VC accelerators boast robust networks of angel investors, venture capitalists and successful founders who could invest in your company. 

Founders Network counts among its members hundreds of accelerator alumni. That means you can use your membership to connect with founders and extend the acceleration energy through peer networks. 

Some examples of startup accelerator programs are MassChallenge, Techstars and Y Combinator. 

What is a startup incubator?

A startup incubator is a more open-ended program that provides entrepreneurs support at the ground level of launching a business. Incubators often gather multiple startups in a single, collaborative workspace and provide basic necessities like a physical office. They help fledgling startups acquire early funding, mentoring, and training. Incubators are better suited for startups looking for assistance building their products and running a team. 

Incubators are typically nonprofits, but there are also for-profit incubators, which often look to monetize their equity in your business, and public incubators operated by counties, states or universities. Most incubators don’t require equity in your company; they also don’t offer capital. 

Dollar Shave Club is a great example of a business that successfully launched after experience with a for-profit startup incubator – Science Inc. 

Some other examples of startup incubators include 500 Startups and Amplify.LA.

Startup incubators vs. startup accelerators

While both programs help startups get off the ground, there are some critical differences between incubators and startup accelerator programs:

1. 1. Duration: Incubators can last between one and five years, while accelerators are much shorter in duration – and thus more intense and fast-paced. They last about three to six months.
   2. Application process: Admission into an incubator is less competitive and these programs are less rigid with applications. Meanwhile, accelerators operate on a competitive basis. In fact, some accelerators receive thousands of applications for less than 100 slots. 
   3. What you pay: Some incubators require a fee or a stake in the company, depending on the ownership of the incubator. Or, you might be paying rent. On the other hand, most accelerators provide financial assistance in exchange for company equity. 
   4. Prototype status: While incubators are more geared toward helping entrepreneurs get past the idea stage of launching a business, accelerators are typically looking for companies with a validated prototype or service.  
   5. Mentorship model: Incubators provide mentorship on a more as needed basis, offering advice for specific issues. Conversely, accelerators feature very hands-on mentorship relationships designed to get founders ready to raise capital. 

We recognize the critical role of mentorship in launching a businesses. Your membership to Founders Network provides access to our various mentoring programs, from diversity and inclusion initiatives to sector-based mentoring programs.

According to the report, it boils down to connections. The founders of high performing companies, the study found, had strong personal relationships to other successful founders. In fact, one-third of entrepreneurs who were mentored by other successful founders became top performers, according to the study. 

Dynamic relationships with mentors provide upstart businesses with competitive advantages. Here’s why you should join a startup mentorship program and how to get the most out of your relationships with other entrepreneurs. 

Benefits of startup mentoring

From broadening your network to literal cost savings, you can benefit from startup mentoring in a variety of ways. For example: 

• Startup mentorship can save you money and time. A robust mentorship relationship allows you to learn from successful startups without making the same mistakes. It could also provide a shortcut for learning necessary skills. That saves you time and money.

• Mentors can be a source of inspiration. Engaging with  successful entrepreneurs gives you a chance to workshop ideas with someone who’s familiar with building a business. A good mentor will challenge you and provide honest feedback. 

• Mentors can help you expand your network. Successful founders have undoubtedly built strong and extensive professional networks. These kinds of connections can provide networking opportunities. You might even find a new investor, employee or another mentor from your mentor relationships.

How to get mentorship for a startup

Each entrepreneur mentorship program caters to different founders’ needs, so you can find a program that’s right for you. If you’re trying to figure out how to develop connections with founder peers in your sector or city, check out the mentoring programs for startups available through Founders Network. 

Mentorship programs for startups at Founders Network include:

• Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives: Founders Network features two initiatives that aim to support diverse founders, the Black Founders Initiative and the Women’s Leadership Initiative. Both offer unique events and discussion opportunities to help foster useful dialogue. 

• Sector Mentoring Programs: If you’re looking for mentorship more specific to the topic of your work, check out Founders Network’s Sector Mentoring Programs. Each startup mentorship program is divided by subject, from fintech to real estate. 

• Global Tech Summits: You can learn from successful entrepeneurs via Founders Network’s Global Keynotes, which feature speakers in a virtual format. Check out Founders Network’s calendar for upcoming events. 

• Chapter Mentoring Programs: Connect with founders in your area through Chapter Mentoring Programs. Founders Network hosts intimate networking events with startup founders in cities all over the world. 

• Startup Curriculum: Founders Network provides webinars on various topics like fundraising, recruiting and growth. You can also access previous recordings of past events on Founders Networks’ Mentorship Platform. 

• Peer Advisory Roundtables: Join 10 to 12 fellow founders of tech startups for confidential roundtables where you can have open and honest conversations.   

What mentorship adds the most value to startups?

When you consider professional mentorship, you might have in mind the image of an older all-knowing guru. But these days, building effective mentorship relationships in the startup scene requires creating a new and dynamic mentorship paradigm.

Here are a few tips for developing high quality mentorship relationships:

• The best mentor isn’t a single person. At different points in your career, you’ll need different perspectives. You’ll need a team of mentors who provide different types of support. 

• Identify your weaknesses. Be strategic about selecting mentors. Determine your weaknesses and select people whose strengths complement yours.

• Select high quality mentors. The most helpful mentors will be those who have already achieved success in their fields. So, choose wisely.

• Give advice when you are asked. Part of developing dynamic mentorship relationships is giving back and becoming a mentor yourself. Share your expertise and keep the cycle going. 

Mentoring is at the core of what we do at Founders Network. We offer a robust lineup of mentoring programs and in-person events to help accelerate your connections.  See if you qualify for membership to join.

Startup incubators, also referred to as “startup studios”, have popped up all over the globe with the intention of providing founders and their early-stage companies with an ecosystem of support. Incubator benefits range from office space, peer socializing, and business development to mentorship, legal counsel, and funding opportunities. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to launch, manage, or grow your early-stage startup, then you’re probably ready for a startup incubator. 

Before shopping for an incubator program that best serves your needs, here are a few things you should know. 

Do incubators take equity?

While all incubators are designed to help startups succeed, some offer services on a fee-basis and take no equity. Others require an equity stake. An incubator’s model usually depends on who owns it. Many incubators are non-profit organizations underwritten by academic institutions such as universities, or government entities. Their mission is usually to bolster economic development by assisting small businesses. 

Alternatively, for-profit or business incubators are usually run by veteran entrepreneurs and funded by active investors. They equip their junior founders with services and funding in exchange for ownership. Science Inc. (Dollar Shave Club), Monkey Inferno (Bebo), Expa and the pioneer of online incubators, Idealab are popular startup studios known to invest early stage capital in exchange for large equity positions. 

Equity stake is an essential factor in selecting an incubator for your startup. However, there is no set rule book on how much equity an incubator (or accelerator) might take. Before making a decision, founders should consult their capitalization table. This can provide insight on how different business decisions can impact the company’s equity structure.

What is the difference between incubators and accelerators?

When deciding whether to align yourself with an incubator or accelerator, it’s important to understand the difference between the two. Both aim to support startups in their early days and share similar resources vital to a company’s success. Mainly, incubators focus on providing business support at the ground level. Startup accelerators center on rapid growth for companies generally 6-12 months into fruition that have a minimum viable product or MVP.

Incubator programs build out new concepts from outside founders, or sometimes assemble founding teams to develop their own business ideas. Accelerator programs tend to be more intensive with compressed timelines to raise funds and hit growth targets to scale an already established business. 

Some firms, like Capital Factory in Austin, Texas function as both. Capital Factory is a venture capital enterprise that defines itself as the “center of gravity for entrepreneurs.” They offer classes, meetups, various business resources, and funding sources for companies at any stage. Another option is FoundersBoost, a program designed to help pre-seed/seed stage startup companies achieve acceleration, investment and/or revenue. Techstars, Y Combinator, and 500 Startups are a few more well-known accelerators. 

How do I find investors for my startup?

With the number of tech startups in the millions and growing by the day, standing out and securing capital as an early-stage startup  is a challenge for most founders. 

Investment capital can seem elusive at the start of any business (and also at the end of any business). Asking friends and family for angel or seed funding is a customary path available for some, but not everyone. Founders with a business idea, but without a business model that validates the mission financially and convinces investors of its viability, are doomed from the start. But if you’ve laid the necessary groundwork, a worthy incubator will provide your startup with the necessary tools to raise capital. 

Additionally, increasing exposure to investors and expanding one’s network by attending conferences and events can serve any entrepreneur looking to find capital partners. “Demo day” is a common event organized by various corporations to allow entrepreneurs  to pitch their startups to an audience of accredited investors scouting new deals. In addition to in-person events, a variety of online platforms and forums exist to connect entrepreneurs with investors. 

Another significant resource for investment capital is solidifying a strong advisory board. This board should not only supply access to funds, but proffer a full scale of services and guidance.

What is the role of an advisor in a startup? 

Startup incubators are a great way to connect with startup advisors. When it comes to the role of an advisor, there is no underestimating the importance of selecting the right candidate. First and foremost, advisors must believe in you as a founder and CEO, and be committed to your success. Advisors often invest their own capital and/or introduce you to capital. Advisors should have an extensive network. They should be willing to connect you with strategic partners who serve various purposes, such as investment, credibility, marketing, and scalability.

For founders who may not excel at acquiring their own mentors and advisory counsel, an incubator can help. Additionally, mentorship programs can be found in every major market from Miami to DC to Paris, and beyond.

Incubators, accelerators, and mentorship programs have proven benefits. But above all, they allow founders to recognize shortcomings in order to fill voids.  They are also essential to building a support structure, which is the key to executing a vision successfully and sustainably. No entrepreneur can do it alone.

It’s often assumed that great leaders are born, not made. But according to scientific research and the lived experience of many successful leaders, that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Effective leadership comes with a key underlying trait: emotional intelligence. And that can be cultivated over time through practices and techniques that draw out a leader’s ability to collaborate effectively, negotiate change, and help others do their best work. 

“Our definition of leadership is moving people in the direction you’re going,” says Raman Chadha, Founder and Managing Partner of the Junto Institute. “We talk about the physical moving, which is the work that people do in sales, customer service, et cetera.  But then there’s also the emotional moving, which is inspiring people, building strong relationships and helping them grow.” 

At The Junto Institute, Chadha helps founders grow into next-stage leaders through structured and designed leadership development programs. 

Register to Raman’s full webinar and find out if you qualify for full Founders Network membership and learn ways to: 

• Build self-awareness
• Practice self-management
• Cultivate social awareness
• Manage Relationships
• Navigate Change

“The relevance of emotional intelligence to leadership is backed up by plenty of scientific research and there’s a framework for building it,” Raman says.

“Emotional intelligence is a learned set of skills, and research has proven that we have an unlimited capacity to develop emotional intelligence over time.” - @RamanChadha
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“Emotional intelligence is a learned set of skills, and research has proven that we have an unlimited capacity to develop emotional intelligence over time,” Raman explains. “In fact, even people who don’t work on it become more emotionally intelligent as they age.”

The first building block of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. This can often take years to develop, but there are techniques that emerging leaders can take up to nurture self-awareness, and it can begin with journaling, yoga, mediation or “simply checking in with themselves,” Chadha says. 

Self-awareness includes self-confidence, but the latter isn’t about bravado or an inflated image of your abilities. Rather, it’s having clear expectations of yourself, what you can and can’t do, and how you may relate to others. 

“Self-confidence is having an accurate sense of our strengths and our limits, as well as having clarity of values and purpose.” - @RamanChadha
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“Self-confidence is having an accurate sense of our strengths and our limits, as well as having clarity of values and purpose,” Chadha says. “For instance, one of the ways we can do that is to ask others how we are perceived, rather than asking people what our strengths are. That takes away the pressure that others might feel, and provides some qualitative information from which we can draw conclusions.” 

Yet self-awareness only takes you so far. Amid the stresses of building a startup, founders often find themselves seeking ways to better regulate how they relate to others. And that can be achieved through emotionally intelligent behaviors — as well as practical, technological solutions that founders and team members can integrate into their communication channels.  

“In the workplace, we sometimes have hard, difficult relationships with people,” Chadha adds. “There are people who trigger us, but when we start to understand what our triggers are and what our reactions are to those triggers, we gain the awareness to start thinking about how to create a space between the trigger and the reaction. That way we no longer react, but instead actually have room to respond.”

Self-awareness and self-management are just part of the necessary foundation of effective leadership. 

Over time, founders can also hone their social awareness — how well they pick up on others’ emotional cues, what their needs are, and how they can draw out teammates’ best work — as well as how to manage those critical relationships in the workplace. 

“Emotional intelligence has been scientifically linked to be the single biggest predictor of effective leadership.” - @RamanChadha
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“The way that we are able to emotionally move people is through our emotional intelligence competencies: How do we adapt it to change and ambiguity? How do we demonstrate integrity? How do we collaborate with people? How do we read relationships, and how do we demonstrate empathy?” Chadha adds. “Emotional intelligence has been scientifically linked in being the single biggest predictor of effective leadership.”

There may be no magic formula for launching the next Google, Facebook or Apple. But according to Adam Cheyer, there are a few steps founders can take to size up ideas and help to drive them towards success.  

Cheyer has a track record to back it up: As co-founder of Siri, he helped to transform the iPhone experience after Siri was acquired by Apple in 2010. He was also on the founding team at Change.org, the largest petition site in the world, and later created Viv Labs, a personal assistant software acquired by Samsung. 

Lesson #1: Playing The Long Game

Commercial success doesn’t necessarily arise from a lightbulb moment. It often takes time to cultivate, in some cases years. 

“Siri seemed to many like such an overnight success,” Cheyer says. “But the reality behind that was that it took two years of commercial hard work to get there. Before that, there was a five year research phase, during which I led technology development for the largest AI project in U.S. history researching intelligent assistants. And before that, I worked on the problem for over a decade, in both research and commercial settings.  Basically, it was something like 17 years of work from the lightbulb moment to get to the point where Steve Jobs called.” 

Lesson #2: Timing It Right

“Not every successful startup idea will take 17 years to develop — but it might take longer than founders think,” Cheyer says. One question often asked is: How do you know when is the right time to try an idea as a startup?  

It’s an important question, because if you launch too early, the world might not be ready to fully appreciate your idea — but if you launch too late, you will miss the opportunity and not catch the rising tide at the right moment.  

Cheyer uses two tools to answer this question: trends and triggers. First, he studies technology topics that are emerging at the time, and develops views about where the world is going, and what has substance versus what’s just a fad.  Once he feels he has a perspective, Cheyer waits for a “trigger” moment that confirms his prediction and gives him unique insight into what is going to happen over the next few years.  

An example? In 2004, Cheyer predicted that an interface paradigm would emerge to enable access to all the world’s content and services in a new way. When the iPhone came to market, despite many pundits predicting failure, Cheyer felt this was exactly what he had been waiting for. Looking forward two years, he posited that every handset manufacturer and telecom would be desperate for a new technology to compete with the iPhone, and he felt that Siri could be just what they needed. So he and two co-founders started a company to build it.

Lesson #3: Doing Something Big

Step three is to evaluate the size of the opportunity before deciding to invest years in developing, pitching and scaling your startup idea. A good number to keep in mind: 250. 

“It’s going to take the same amount of time to do something small as something large. So make sure you’re aiming for a market size of at least 250 million users — big companies like eBay, YouTube and Instagram are user-based. You can aim for $250 million in revenue, or you can have a differentiated technology with an application and a business model,” he adds. Why target the 250 threshold? There’s a better risk-reward profile once you get to that point, Cheyer says, with more promising prospects if your startup were to eventually get acquired. 

Lesson #4: Following the Data 

Keep your eye on the data.

“If you're not instrumenting everything you do, you're not doing it right. And if you have an advisory board, if they're not demanding to see metrics at every single board meeting, they're not doing their job.” - @acheyer
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“If you’re not instrumenting everything you do, you’re not doing it right. And if you have an advisory board, if they’re not demanding to see metrics at every single board meeting, they’re not doing their job,” he says.  

That was evident in the growth of Change.org, which wasn’t originally conceived as the world’s largest hub for petitions. As they tried many new functions on the site, the founding team followed the data of their users’ behavior to evolve what eventually became an influential platform with hundreds of millions of users. 

After Change.org launched, the site’s user counts increased initially at a relatively modest rate. That changed once the team observed high engagement with the petition feature, which was then a minor feature. Change.org was reorganized to make petitions more central, at which point the site’s users accelerated dramatically. 

“Letting the data lead you where you want to go is really important,” Cheyer says.

“Letting the data lead you where you want to go is really important.” - @acheyer
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Lesson #5: Visualizing Success

Finally, a more personal tip for entrepreneurs: Always remember to concretely visualize what success looks like — embrace it, and the ultimate outcome may wind up surprising you. 

“When we were just starting out at Siri, I walked into an Apple store and summoned up every bit of gumption I had, and thought: Someday Siri is going to be right up there on an Apple Store wall, alongside the Google, Skype and Pandora icons they were displaying,” he recalls.  It seemed outrageously ambitious to posit that his little team would create something as important as these giants of technology.

Fast forward, and on the day Siri launched, he returned to an Apple store and — to his surprise — Siri was not merely displayed as one icon among many. Next to the front door of the Apple Store, there was a sign saying “Introducing Siri”, and there was a plasma display showing Siri use cases running on a loop. This juxtaposition of the earlier image of success that Cheyer had visualized years earlier, against the even better reality presented this day, created a striking moment.

“Life often finds a way to surpass your biggest dream with a reality you couldn’t even imagine. That moment makes all the hard work completely worthwhile and satisfying.” - @acheyer
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“I just got chills,” he says. “Don’t just dream abstractly, but concretely visualize what success would look like. When you do this, life often finds a way to surpass your biggest dream with a reality you couldn’t even imagine.  And that moment makes all the hard work completely worthwhile and satisfying.” 

Register at Founders Network for Adam’s full insights on: 

• Playing the Long Game
• Timing It Right 
• Doing Something Big
• Following the Data
• Visualizing Success

Home to tech giants including Microsoft and Amazon as well as droves of other locally based tech startups, Seattle’s pipeline of locally based tech startups has been strong for years but recently climbed to be the nation’s fastest growing tech hub. Many factors cooperate and feed off of each other to position Seattle for success: Global companies that attract the world’s best tech talent, local venture capitalists that continue to invest in emerging and mature local startups, University of Washington’s world-class computer science program and the sought-after graduates it produces, and a wide network of startup incubators and accelerators.

The launch of the Founders Network Seattle chapter means that the local Seattle ecosystem of startup founders have now gained a different kind of resource to tap into – invaluable peer mentorship from a community of founders helping founders. Founded in 2011, Founders Network has offered lifelong peer mentorship to over 600 tech startup founders globally. Our Founders Network platform, programs and high-touch service facilitate authentic experience sharing, warm introductions and long-term professional relationships.

Founders know firsthand how valuable their network is. Their personal network can mean someone taking a chance on their idea, their first round of funding, meaningful introductions, their founding team, their first customers. Founders being able to get advice and feedback from others who are doing what they’re doing – that’s where Founders Network comes in.

“It’s the type of community you haven’t  heard of until another trusted founder, after listening to you talk about your current startup challenges, mentions:  “Have you heard of Founders Network?”. – Will Bunker, Founder of match.com.

The Founders Network Vision

“My vision was never to build the largest network of startup founders, it was not to become a LinkedIn or Quora for founders. Being the biggest has its place, but when it comes to advice and support, big can be noisy and impersonal. So initially, I sought to build a small, close-knit peer network of founders where offline relationships could form and advice could be more trusted” says Founder Kevin Holmes when asked why he started Founders Network.

Staying true to Kevin’s original ethos of quality connections over quantity, every single member of the invite-only Founders Network community is screened and onboarded along with their small cohort of tech founders. Each month a new cohort is added to the thoughtfully growing community made up of founders in the technology space who are working on their startup full-time.

Founders Network Seattle Pitch Competition

On April 24, 2019, Founders Network kicked off its Seattle Chapter with a pitch competition featuring a panel of Seattle-based movers and shakers in partnership with Create33, Microsoft for Startups, and Stackpath. Join us in thanking our panelists for sharing their expertise with the Founders Network community!

Meet the Panelists

Chase Jarvis
CEO + Founder
CreativeLive
$58.3M Raised

CreativeLive is the world’s leading e-learning platform for creative entrepreneurs. Classes span topics including Photo, Music, Design, Craft, and Business. More than 10 million students have consumed more than 3 billion minutes of video via CL’s online education.

Alok Nandan
General Partner
Emergent Ventures

Emergent Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm investing in Silicon Valley and India that invests in Seed to Series A stage IT and IT enabled businesses.

Gillian Muessig
General Partner
Outline Venture Group

Outlines Venture Group is chartered to source and fund diverse founding teams who are building better ways to live and work together. Their mission is to increase opportunities for all people of all genders and ethnicities, regardless of age, location, or accessibility requirements, to build profitable, scalable companies.

Dave Lambert
Managing Director
Right Side Capital Management

Right Side Capital Management, or RSCM for short, invests in pre-seed technology startups. They make 75-100 investment per year and often work with incubators including Accelerprise, Alhemist, and TechStars.

Colleen O’Brien
Senior Marketing and Communications Manager
M12 Ventures

M12 is Microsoft’s Venture Fund with the goal of empowering entrepreneurs through investments, insight, and unparalleled access to Microsoft.

T.A. McCann
Managing Director
Pioneer Square Labs

Pioneer Square Labs is a Seattle-based studio that creates and launches technology startups. They are funded by 14 VCs and 50 angel investors from Seattle, Silicon Valley, Colorado and other parts of the country.

Meet the Founders who Pitched their Startups

Congratulations to Melissa Strawn, the winner of the Founders Network Seattle Pitch Competition!

Melissa Strawn
Founder & CEO
My People Now

My People Now is a peer-to-peer network for social productivity. What does that mean? You can offer services for the things you enjoy doing on the platform, earn money, and connect with others. You can find dog-walkers, video editors, foreign language instructors, artists, bakers, professional organizers and more right on the platform.

Howard Behr
President & Co-Founder
Lapa Lopa

Lapa Lopa provides services and tools to help people who live in apartment (multifamily) communities consolidate neighbor buying power, starting with cleaning service Lapa Lola Clean. The population density of neighbors in these communities allow Lapa Lopa to optimize the scheduling of services, so vendors walk from unit to unit rather than drive from house to house across town.

Sarah Haggard
Founder & CEO
Tribute

Tribute is a modern mentorship app for the enterprise that connects users for mentorship on-demand through shared life experiences and stories. Tribute’s mission is to redefine mentorship by providing a mobile-first platform for employees to discover and connect with mentors.

Barret Newberry
Founder & CEO
Leasera

Leasera is a unified listing, leasing, & loyalty-management platform. The Leasera platform effortlessly merges a long term rental marketplace with the travel ecosystem. Leasera replaces the previously fractured services, marginalized consumer and accessibility issues formerly caused by duration-of-stay limitations.

Amy Boes
CEO & Co-Founder
Globespinning

Globespinning is a travel app that creates a picturesque and informative itinerary of your past trips by using photos on your phone. It can then be shared with friends to help them plan their next trip to that location. Globespinning is easy to use, fun, and free.

Meet our Launch Partners

Over the next two years, Microsoft has pledged 500 million dollars to support startups with access to technology, community spaces, and sales opportunities.

Fenwick & West provides a broad range of services to emerging companies in technology and life sciences. We currently represent more than 600 VC-backed companies, and are ranked by Dow Jones and Chambers USA as one of the top VC practices in the U.S.

Launching a successful startup requires more than hard work and a big idea. You need tangible resources, strong insights, and expert advice. We created StackPath Propel to provide qualifying early-stage companies thrust to get off the ground and accelerate towards success.

Founders Network is thrilled to now be a part of the fabric that makes up the Seattle tech startup ecosystem, and we’re looking forward to continuing to build our community of Seattle-based founders and provide value through peer mentorship.

So Sandhill Road reigns supreme yet again, right? Let’s keep following the money. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the top 3 most expensive U.S. regions to live in are San Francisco-Oakland-Haywward CA; Santa Cruz-Watsonville CA, and San Jose-Sunnyvalle-Santa Clara, CA. Now imagine hiring tech talent there as an early stage startup, where the average salary is $126,937. We’ve followed the money too far it seems….

This issue permeates the tech startup ecosystem— the funds are in The Valley, but with the cost of living combined with the cost of talent, along with no government aid, the recipe for success seems to be missing a few ingredients. Enter Toronto, ranked #8 on Inc Magazines 50 Most Innovative Cities in the World in 2018, where upwards of 2,100 startup founders have chosen to put down roots.

When building his second startup, Toronto-based Uberflip Founder Yoav Schwartz didn’t follow the money. “We wanted healthy growth, not crazy growth. We wanted a meaningful outcome for all parties involved”, he said when asked why he chose to raise his $36M Series A after only taking $1M in a SAFE to that point. Schwartz serves as an example of the thoughtful, frugal, bootstrap mentality that has come to define the startup community in Toronto. In a time when founders are inundated with headlines about massive rounds raised and hockey-stick growth, Schwartz’s realistic approach to scale is a refreshing take on the founder journey in one of the world’s leading tech hubs outside of Silicon Valley.

Q: What prompted your decision to raise after bootstrapping for 6 years?

Schwartz: Before our A round, we had only raised about $1M before that in a SAFE during a late stage angel round. Up to that point, we had bootstrapped the business. The whole thing forced us to build a very sound company because we didn’t have any extra dollars to spend. We were frugal, and hacky, and smart, and then we reached a point last year where we were ready to fundraise. We weren’t looking to grow at 300% y/y, or to raise VC money at the start— we only wanted to raise once, and not get on a treadmill where we needed to do it every year. So growth equity was how we wanted to go. We wanted healthy growth, not crazy growth. We wanted a meaningful outcome for all parties involved.

Q: Why did you choose a U.S based fund? 

Schwartz: I think there’s 2 types of funds: the ones in The Valley, and the ones who refuse to be in The Valley. The latter treat the rest of the market as their market, and that was Updata Partners approach when they reached out to us 2 years ago, before we were ready to raise. We eventually came to a point where we wanted to own the process ourselves, and they were one of 20 firms we were interested in. Before the process even started they made us an offer. We explored it cautiously and it ended up working out.

Q: This is your third startup, 2nd in tech. What challenges did you face with the previous 2 that you learned from when building Uberflip?

Schwartz: The first one had nothing to do with tech, so what I learned there was I wanted to be in tech. The second one did not have a solid business plan, because the ability to monetize it would come so much further down the road. With Uberflip, we were looking to get into SaaS B2B— that was very much a decision.

One of the really big learnings early on was if you are going to sell something that’s relatively new to a market (meaning you’re unique and not competing with a 100 other companies) you cannot sell to SMB’s, you have to go enterprise, because they have the dollars to spend on the problem you’re trying to solve. And now we’re at 6 figures a year and we learned from that inital mistake of focusing on SMB’s.

In the last 5 years, Toronto has emerged as a contender in the tech hub space. Collision is moving to Toronto from New Orleans. What do you think are the advantages of building a startup in Toronto?

1. Amazing talent pool, probably one of the best outside of The Valley. Especially with this being the motherland of artificial intelligence.

2. Cost of labor. When I tell my friends in the valley how much we are spending on developers, they can’t believe it.

3. The government programming. There is no way we would have gotten where we are without their aid. 

4. Real estates is significantly less expensive in Toronto compared to the Valley, so office space, etc will be cheaper.

What do you think are the added challenges of building a startup in Toronto?

Schwartz: First, Marketing and Sales talent is a little tough to find here. 

Second, and obviously— you’re outside of The Valley. Which is where the majority of your customers and funds are going to be. If you have a competitor in the valley, you’re in trouble. But ultimately you weigh the pros and cons, and make the decision from there.

We ask all our interviewees this: Why is peer mentorship important to you?

Schwartz: For us, especially when you’re starting out a business for the first time, there’s an endless supply of things you don’t know. Mentors provide guidance, shortcuts, a different lens. Some of our best early advisors were VC’s who turned us down, who became advisors and eventually investors. And we are indebted to them because they knew the problems we were going to face at different stages and how to overcome them, and that was paramount to our success. So I enjoy giving back, it’s how the cycle continues.

Learn more about Yoav Schwartz’s Founder Journey at his keynote on April 17th hosted at Project Spaces, Toronto. Full-time tech founders only please.

This is part 2 of my series on “How to Grow Your Team’s Emotional Intelligence (EQ).” Read part 1 on “How Failure to Communicate Almost Killed My Startup” here.

EQ

Every startup founder and team leader should begin investing in their emotional intelligence (EQ) today. Why? If the goal of your company is to grow—in size and impact–then the biggest challenge you will face is managing an increasing large and complicated team <link to part 1>.

Your ability, to make fast decisions, hire and fire the right managers, and put the right employees on the right teams will determine how fast your business grows. Simply put, your startup is rate limited by your development as a leader.

EQ—defined as one’s ability to understand and manage their own emotions as well as recognize and influence the emotions of others—is the set of skills never taught in school, but which are instrumental to running a startup at scale.

With this in mind, here are a number of tactics that the top founders use to improve their EQ:

“Your ability, to make fast decisions, hire and fire the right managers, and put the right employees on the right teams will determine how fast your business grows” – Nathan Parcells

1. Have difficult conversations more often.

One of the best ways to improve your EQ is to reduce the timeline from when you think you need to have a conversation (with a co-founder, investor, or employee) to when you do it. Whether this is about clarifying someone’s role, admitting a mistake, negotiating investor terms or something else—having hard conversations more often will accelerate your communication skills.

2. Find a coach.

When my co-founder and I raised our Series A, one of our investors had a request—he wanted us to work with his preferred executive coach. He was an investor in many early stage companies and he knew the road ahead of us, so he was protecting his investment by having us expand our EQ with a trained professional.

3. Find mentors.

Is there one person in your life who everyone talks to when they are having an issue? How does this person react to problems when they come up? How do they give advice? Connect with this person and ask them what strategies they use or what their mental frame of mind is when they are having hard conversations.

4. Meditate

You can’t make smart decisions when you are emotionally charged—whether by stress, frustration or even, over-excitement. Meditation has become a common practice amongst founders and CEOs for good reason–a proper meditation practice (one with a focus and goal) can help you make decisions with the right headspace.

5. Solicit feedback.

Ask trusted friends and advisors about what they perceive as your strengths and weaknesses (in particular around your communication style and how you manage your emotions). People who have worked with you in a variety of situations will have ample thoughts on you and your emotional resilience. Bringing light to these issues will make you a more complete leader.

Just like working out at the gym, it takes time and effort to develop EQ. But, in the end, it’s worth it. Your teammates, investors, and company all depend on it.

“Just like working out at the gym, it takes time and effort to develop EQ. But, in the end, it’s worth it.” – Nathan Parcells

www.goproperrebel.com

We love the concepts of growth marketing: listen to users, test and learn, be discoverable, get viral reach, leverage partners and platforms, and empower your influencers.   And we believe that your marketing programs will be much more successful if they have an insight-driven, rock-solid foundation from which to launch marketing activities.  By this we mean a clear understanding of the buyer journey and customer’s pains and gains, which inform the messaging platform and your go to market model.  

My business partner, Joan Bodensteiner, and I have launched hundreds of products at large companies like Adobe and VMWare, fast growth small businesses and start-ups.  We have led strategy exercises at major corporations and have also experienced the “shoot from the hip” style of start-ups.  We thought: ”How can we leverage the best practices of both?”.

Proper Rebel is our new venture that is dedicated to helping companies create a lean, but powerful foundation for strategy and marketing by blending the best of the corporate and start-up ways of working to improve business outcomes. It is fast, it is  insight-driven, and it will save you from making mistakes later down the road by taking the time to build a solid, yet flexible foundation.

We have a list of the Five Deadly Start-Up Marketing Mistakes on our blog. As an example, one of them is “Not knowing the details of a customer’s journey through purchase and active use”.  The point is that if you don’t know how your customers make buying decisions and who is involved, it is unlikely you will create a marketing and sales experience that easily motivates them to purchase.  

Our Founders Network workshop is a hands-on experience in which you will create a solid marketing foundation for your business with our help.  We’ll share our process and templates, and we’ll give you some fun exercises and games that will get you thinking and creating.  We’ll  cover:

• The Buyer’s Journey Map:  Detailing the customer experience in purchasing a product like yours  to help you align your messaging, content and actions with THEIR way of buying.
• The Circles of Influence:  Setting up an actionable plan to leverage influencers and resources that motivate a prospect and seal a deal.
• The Messaging Platform:  Based on customer insights you will create a messaging strategy that hits on the emotional pains and gains to connect and motivate people to take action.
• We will also cover selling models, competitive research, and how to set and test pricing.

Our participants tend to walk away with an actionable plan and the knowledge and tools to help them with the next product or marketing challenge. These foundational elements will help you build your initial marketing strategy, and will help you troubleshoot and improve existing marketing programs.