Building the most intimate, vetted founder community
Where founders help founders build — from Stanford, YC, & more!
Apply in 1 min
about
For early stage solo(ish) founders who genuinely want to help and learn from other founders
Stanford Founders CafeY Combinator Founders CafeTech Stars Founders Cafe
Apply in 1 min

160 Members

Where founders help founders grow

John Whaley from Stanford raise 100m from a16z and more
John Whaley
CEO of Inception
Raised 100m from a16z+
Ben Sand raised 100m, solo founder from Austrialia
Ben Sand
CEO of Strong Compute
Raised 100m from Sequoia+
Y Combinator Founders Cafe
Christina
CEO of Causal Labs
Raised from Pear VC, & 3 more
Sarah Nagy
CEO of Seek AI
Raised 7.5M

Member Successes

Raised 8.1m after joining
Subbu Rama
CEO of Balkan ID
Raised 1.4m after joining
Luigi La Corte
CEO of Provision
Y Combinator Founders Cafe
Raised 1.8m after joining
Orri Bogdan
COO of Vae Labs
Raised 820k after joining
Calum Bird
CEO of Trelent
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 Founder of Vals.com Raise 4 million Tech Stars Web3
Pat Yiu
COO of Valts
Raised 7m after joining
Alexandre Jais
CEO of HeyWear
Raised 7.8m after joining
Ben Sand raised 100m, solo founder from Austrialia
Ben Sand
CEO of StrongCompute
Y Combinator Founders Cafe
Raised 2M after joining
Ananya Jain
CEO of Full Circle
Apply in 1 min

The Founders Cafe Commuity

About

We are an intimate community of founders from quality backgrounds. Our goal is to help each other grow our startups into a scalable ventures.

The Secret Sauce

We make sure everyone you meet is extremely high quality. Each month, our team will curate select intros and office hours based on your goals. Whenever you ask a question in our forum, we will tag the relevant people to make sure it gets answered. 
For Example:
‍1. Ananya wanted to fundraise, so we intro'ed her to John (100m raised) who helped her close her round.
2. Maddie's sales conversions were 30%. She went to Josh's Office Hours (2m sales closed), who helped her increase it to 50%.
3. Shirley asked for pitch deck feedback on the forum. We tagged Nils (1 exit, ex Pear VC) who helped revise it. With the new deck, she closed her first angel checks.


You will expect to grow faster because of the people you meet and the support you get.

‍
Apply in 1 min

Timeline

Adrian
Bootstrapped to 1M in profit.
1. Apply
We are looking for quality founders who can provide mutual value
2. Onboard
1. Share your goals
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. Grow
1. We check in on your goals each month
2. We setup 5 intros + 2 office hours depending on your needs
2. Get continued support on our private community

‍
Apply in 1 min

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 1.8m without FC
Without Founders Cafe, I would not have met Maddie L. She got me in front of Tim Draper and Alex who led my 1.8m Round.
‍
Orri Bodgan
COO of Vae Labs
1.8m 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

Membership

Believer

$157/mo
billed annually
Exclusive Access to:
- Personalized intros (curated monthly)
- Office hours with founders with exits/millions raised (curated monthly)
- Fireside Chats with VCs + seasoned founders (curated monthly)
- Private online discussion forum + community
- Members Database
- Discounts (eg: no fees on stripe for first $75k)
- Recordings of past events & OH
- Private knowlegebase
- Investors database

‍
Apply in 1 min

Bootstrapper

$200/mo
billed month-to-month
Exclusive Access to:
- Personalized intros (curated monthly)
- Office hours with founders with exits/millions raised (curated monthly)
- Fireside Chats with VCs + seasoned founders (curated monthly)
- Private online discussion forum + community
- Members Database
- Discounts (eg: no fees on stripe for first $75k)
- Recordings of past events & OH
- Private knowlegebase
- Investors database

‍
Apply in 1 min

Guarantee
Grow your startup or your money back.

We guarantee your startup will grow faster because we've seen amazing results. When Sarah first joined, she met Rishi who helped her close her first enterprise deal. Now she's raised 7.5M.

We make sure everyone you meet is extremely high quality. We vet everyone, and each time we setup an 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 and attending 2 office hours your first month, we will issue a full refund.


‍
Apply in 1 min

Member Love

Bobo harvard alum Founder

Bobo

Harvard Alum, Ex-Facebook

‍Founders Cafe is an invaluable resource. We're a giving focused community and the people bring a special blend of knowledge and generosity. I get answers to questions in minutes that used to take hours of googling, and with the benefit of experience behind the answers

Pat Yiu Founder of Vals.com Raise 4 million Tech Stars Web3

Pat

Raised 4m, Tech Stars

Founder's cafe has 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.
‍

Charles Javelona Founders of Buji.Tv

Charles

1 Exit, Raised 8M

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

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.

View all
"By far the most active, supportive community I've been in"
- Orri, 1.8M Raised

Tried Launch House, On Deck, and 4 other founder communities.
Apply in 1 min
Maddie Wang founders of founders cafe solo founder
Maddie Wang
Gay / Stanford / Made $180k through Minecraft & Amazon
‍
I'm building Founders Cafe because being a solo founder can be really isolating. When I left Stanford to work on another startup, I lost 4 co-founders and a best friend. I woke up with anxiety, coded all day alone, and slept alone.

Now I wake up surrounded by friends -- Charles, Selena, Tom, Max, Heidi & more -- who support me every day! :)
‍
If you're interested in joining the Founders Cafe, let's talk and if it's a good fit, down to invite you!
Apply in 1 min
FAQ

When did you start Founders Cafe? Founders Cafe was founded 1.5 years ago, and quickly grew to 180 members. Many of our members are from YC, Stanford, a16z, and more.
‍
Can member around the world join? Yes! We have members across the world in USA, London, India, and more. All events are recorded.
Apply in 1 min

Blog

Angel Investors in Your Startup: Who They Are, And How They'll Lift Your Business
Oct 28, 2022

Angel investors are indeed lifesavers for smaller startups—How to get your first angel checks?

Finding Co-Founders and Solo-Founding Strategies
Oct 26, 2022

Know how to get 40 paying customers in just 2 months!

How to get Product Market Fit in 2 weeks
Oct 21, 2022

Learn how to build something people will pay for in 2 weeks, not 2 years.

Unita Logo Founders Cafe
Apply in 1 min