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Where founders help founders grow
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The secret sauce is learning how to get paying customers.
Once our members get 1-4k MRR, they can...
- Build a BIG Bootstrapped company (1M+) (Frankie, Siraj, Harsha)
- Build a VC Backed company (Raise 1-4M) (Sarah, Luigi, Orri)
Or approach is helping you hit your first 1-4k in MRR.
Once you hit that, you will be able to continue bootstrapping to 1M, or fundraise 1M.
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Or approach is helping you get paying customers in 1 month.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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Break free from the perfection trap and start gaining real customer traction.
Learn how to go from 2 calls per week to over 15 calls per week! :D
These strategies help me survive the horrors of uncertainty. I hope these would help you too!
