160 Members
Where founders help founders grow
Member Successes
Raised 8.1m after joining
Subbu Rama
CEO of Balkan ID
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Raised 1.4m after joining
Luigi La Corte
CEO of Provision
Raised 2m after joining
Orri Bogdan
CEO of Vae Labs
Raised 820k after joining
Calum Bird
CEO of Trelent
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Raised 7.5m after joining
Sarah Nagy
CEO of Seek AI
Raised 2M after joining
Mackie
CEO of Woo More Play
Raised 4M after joining
Pat Yiu
COO of Valts
Raised 7m after joining
Alexandre Jais
CEO of HeyWear
Raised 7.8m after joining
Ben Sand
CEO of StrongCompute
Raised 2M after joining
Ananya Jain
CEO of Full Circle
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The Secret Sauce
For our FC -> YC alumni, they mentioned the most valuable part was learning how to get their first pilot customers. Once they got those, they were able to raise their seed fund.
For Example:
Before Vaibhav joined, he had 0 customers. After he joined, he met Ben Sand (x2 YC) who helped him get his first pilot customers and get into YC.
Got in YC W23 after joining
Before Luigi joined, he had 0 customers. After he joined, he practiced sales and pitches with Sarah, Charles, and Chris each week. They helped him get his first pilot customers, raise money, and get into YC.
Got in YC S22 and raised $1.4m after joining
Before Chine joined, she had with a few customers. After she joined, she watched all our sessions, came to our office hours, and got YC help in the forum. She got into YC.
Got in YC S22 and raised $1.4m after joining
Before Ananya joined, she had $500k funding. After she joined, she met new founders each week, including John (100m raised) who helped her close her round.
Raised 2M after joining
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The Founders Cafe Program
Five 2-hour live calls
In our 4-week live cohort, you'll learn how to get 10 paying customers, work on your pitch, and get connected with industry-relevant investors and mentors to support you further
1. Building YC-Level Startups
We'll setup systems our YC members used to hit their goals eg: $200k ARR
- We'll setup "The Goal Grid" to make sure you hit your goals
- We'll setup the "Anti Delusion System" to make sure you confront burning problems, instead letting them breed in the dark. (eg: no one is signing up)
- You'll either hit your goals or know exactly when you're off track
2. Get Paying Customers in 1 hour
We'll practice techniques our funded members use on validating customers and getting them to pay $10 - $100k
- You’ll practice doing live customers interviews
- You’ll practice asking people for money live
- You’ll actually do some marketing outreach live and get paying customers
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3. Build an MVP in 30 min
We'll teach you techniques our members used to get their pilot customers - without writing a single line of code.
- You'll create your 30 min MVP live using proven techniques
- You'll create your PMF engine so you can iterate
- You’ll actually build your 30m MVP live and use it to get paying customers
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4. How to Fundraise from Top Tier VCs / Angels
We will teach you techniques our members used to raise $1m+ from top tier VCs
- You’ll practice pitching to each other live
- You’ll practice pitching to a VC live
- You’ll reach out to investors & get meetings lined up in this call
5. Bonus: How to hire & automate everything
This is what takes you from 1k MRR to 100k MRR
- You'll learn how to automate your marketing/sales/product through hiring
- You’ll learn how to make sure you don't run out of cash and what salary to use
- You'll learn how to attract top tier talent and vet them
- You’ll create your first JD and hiring test in this call
Once you learn this, like Luigi (YC) / Chine (YC) / Vaibhav (YC) did, then that’s your ticket into YC.
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Timeline
Adrian
Bootstrapped to 1M in profit.
1. Apply by March 13
We are looking for quality founders who want to raise from top tier funds
2. First 4 weeks
1. Join FC Live Program - five two-hour live sessions
2. We setup 5 intros with founders who can help
3. We setup 2 office hours with seasoned founders and VCs
4. Join our private community to get support from our team & community
3. After 4 weeks
1. We intro you to more members, alumni, & investors to support you further
2. We setup lifelong access to fireside chats and office hours
2. We setup lifelong access in our private community
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Results
Raised $2m after joining
I love the community I've built at FC. Nils was instrumental in my fundraise. He helped me prepare my pitch deck, meet Pear VC, and close the round.
Christina Pawlikowski
CEO of Causal
2M Raised
Wouldn't have raised 2m without FC
Wouldn't have raised 2m without FC. Founders Cafe supercharged my network and led to VAE getting into the DSH Accelerator. This culminated in Draper Associates leading our round, as well as meeting industry-best investors and mentors to take us to the next level.
Orri Bodgan
CEO of Vae Labs
2M Raised
Went from 0k to 10k MRR after joining
FC is a pretty big investment for me money wise. However, it changed my trajectory and now it's peanuts compared to my ROI. I met Pat who helped me go from 0 to 100k rev and became my advisor. I'm forever grateful for you curating the community so there's less bullshit, just goodness.
Harsha Abegunasekara
CEO of Metana
10k MRR
Cohort| Starts March 13
How much does this cost?
If you’re treating startups as a hobby, this program probably isn’t for you. But if you’re serious about raising VC capital, then investing money in saving time and increasing your odds of success seems like a no-brainer. Especially given (a) how much your life can change, and (b) how much money you stand to raise if your startup goes well. Most founders have raised anywhere between $100k-1.4M after joining.
Here are the prices:
Grow or your money back
We guarantee your startup will grow faster because of our results. When Sarah first joined, our mentors helped her close her first enterprise deal. Now she's raised 7.5M.
We make sure our whole experience is 10/10. Every time we setup a live call, intro, or office hours for you, we check in with you afterwards. If it wasn't helpful, we'll setup a new one for you. If you're still unsatisfied after meeting 5 founders, coming to all live sessions, and attending 2 office hours your first month, we will issue a full refund.
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Reviews
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Orri
Raised 2M after joining, CEO of VAE Energy Spray
When I had no connections and knew next to nothing about startups, I joined the Founders Cafe community on Discord and met Maddie Wang who introduced me to the Jinx Drinx founders, Colin Michael & Maddie Largey. They eventually led us to the Draper Startup House Accelerator in Austin, Texas, where we received our first investment and became part of Cohort 1.
Sarah
Raised 7.5M after joining, CEO of Seek AI
Before joining Founders Cafe, I was about 2 months into Seek. I remember feeling a little lost. I didn't have a ton of connections outside of the quantitative finance world. I was very much a solo founder in the very early stages. I mean to be honest, I didn't even know what go to market was
I remember I met another member who really helped me understand LOIs. When I was starting out, I did not understand why. Why do I need to sign a contract with a customer before building stuff for them? I remember getting this advice, "That's the wrong way to think about it. You should get people to pay before you build stuff."
So I asked some of the customers I was working with, "Hey, could you sign an LOI?" And they were like, sure.
The advice I got helped me get my first couple of pilot customers.
Once I had these pilot customers, I was able to raise my preseed round. That led to me making my first hires. That led to getting more traction. We were able to raise our seed round after that.
Looking back, I was really finding my way in the beginning. Being part of the community, talking to a lot of people and forming the path to getting to the next step. That was very valuable.
I would say I got a lot of value out of it, and if your goal is to raise some pre-seed funding as a founder, I think it's a really good investment. The 500 investment, or however much it costs, the amount that you would learn could pay off like many multiples of that.
I would add you were just personally really helpful. You introduced me to some people in your network that really helped me. I even made some hires that I met through you. I would say you really care about this community. And you've been doing this for a long time.
Charles
1 Exit, Raised 8M, CEO of Buji
I built a good network in Founders Cafe to take Buji next level. Network from SF to which helps me get introes to investors. Additionally, I learned new things from other founders that I wouldn't have learned by myself.
Heidi
5-20k MRR after joining, CEO of AriseDaily
The value I get from the Founders Cafe community is a group of successful founders who already have revenue. Every time I ask a question, multiple people will respond with customized answers and options. Since everyone is pre-vetted, I know it's information I can trust from people who understand my position. And since its only founders - no investors or mentors - I can ask "dumb" questions freely and get the help I really need.
I love the community of people who genuinely want to help and learn from other founders. Its nice to feel like you are working on a team when you are a solo founder.
For who should join: Anyone in the startup space that is working solo. They have to value being committed and your annual fee helps weed out the people who don't. I think you are on to something.
Pat
Raised 4m after joining, COO of Valts
FC been a great way for me to chat quickly with other founders and share ideas / support them. Meeting other founders, bouncing ideas in the subgroups, learning about topics I'm not familiar with. There's a mix of serial entrepreneurs and new founders and it's really cool to see both sides.
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