our story

We noticed that during the pandemic many founders moved to SF. VC's left, however, because of the pandemic. The networking events stopped. There was no one to talk to anymore. Like me, thousands of people moved to SF to pursue the silicon valley dream. Sadly, the dream evaporated. 

My roommate and I started hosting a BBQ night in our backyard. We called it founders night and it grew from there 

• First: 90 people
• Second: 131 people
• Third: 240 people
• Fourth: 370 people
• 5th: 443 people
• 6th:  527 people
• 7th: 747 People

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The people would go back and invite another 20 more founders to the next event. It became THE event for founders in only 10 weeks. Founders, engineers, and investors started pouring in from all over. To be able to meet more founders in SF, people began traveling from the east coast, Europe, and Asia. Ones who couldn’t join us in person startup signing up for membership and it grew to 8000+ people in only 15 weeks.

In order to get in front of other startups, some startups began sponsoring the event. It remained profitable throughout. 

Founders would pitch in front of the crowd and present their Venmo code - and others would send them money to support their journey. Particularly international and unrepresented founders gained a lot of exposure. Several founders who launched their startups during pandemic pitched at Founders Village for the first time and raised a few hundred dollars on the spot. Jeson met investors through us and has since raised $600K .The partnership with Wefunder formalized this process. Now, when people pitch, their campaigns are already live on Wefunder and raise real funding.

We then formed partnerships with Stripe, Stripe Atlas, LegalPad & Zendesk to help startups register a US company and obtain a work visa. 

We also discussed the possibility of introducing investors and founders. The deal flow started when my co-founders and I used our personal networks to make introductions. We launched an investor page on our website as a result. People could click on the website and say - hey, could you introduce me to Tim Draper? We would say, sure! 

Founders Night is now THE go to event in San Francisco. We host it every two weeks. As our backyard can no longer house 500 people, we have found a commercial venue, which includes Open Bar, Chef food, a whole range of dessert menu, incredible music, and the works.