Oakland Startup Founder 101

AI is changing what a lot of experienced professionals do all day. Some roles are shrinking, others are being redesigned, and many people are waiting to see where they will land. This session looks at another option: using the years you spent in your industry to start a company. Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder and CIO of the Founder Institute, shows which problems AI makes solvable for the first time, how people with no startup background turned that knowledge into a first product, and what to test before you change anything. Register now and bring the problem you know best.

❯ What You'll Learn:

• Which problems in your industry AI makes solvable today that were too expensive to fix two years ago;
• How to turn the issues you see at work every week into a startup idea worth testing;
• What professionals without a startup background did in their first months as founders;
• How to test demand for an idea before you change anything about your job;
• What to do in the week after the session to take the first step.

Featured Speaker:

• Jonathan Greechan - Co-Founder & CIO @ Founder Institute: Jonathan Greechan is the Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer, and former CEO of the Founder Institute, the world's largest agentic company builder. Since 2009, he has grown and scaled the organization to chapters in over 200 cities and over 100 countries, which have produced over 9,000 portfolio companies with nearly $2BN with an estimated value of $20BN. He also serves as an Advisor to Oxford Entrepreneurs (Oxford University), Horasis, and the USC Incubator (University of Southern California).

❯ Who Should Attend:

• Professionals with 5 to 15 years in one industry whose role is changing because of AI;
• People who were recently laid off or expect their role to change soon;
• Domain experts who have been saying they will start something someday;
• Career changers weighing a startup against the next job.

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❯❯ This is a live, interactive online event, so be sure to RSVP at https://fi.co/e/405965/meetup to receive the Zoom URL to join us live!

❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/403116/meetup to get your link and join us live!

Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture firm focused on writing the first institutional check for the most promising software and hardware companies. Under his leadership, Precursor has raised four funds and manages more than $200 million. He has invested in over 375 companies and backed more than 400 founders, including the teams behind Clearco, Juniper Square, The Athletic (acquired by The New York Times for $525 million in 2022), Incredible Health, Carrot, and Pair Eyewear. Before founding Precursor, Charles was a Partner at Uncork Capital and the Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games. He holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University. A committed champion of the venture community, Charles served as the 2023–2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors, mentors emerging managers, and sits on the San Francisco Opera Advisory Board.

❯ What We'll Cover:

• Charles's path into venture and the philosophy behind backing founders at the earliest, riskiest stage
• What he looks for when writing the first institutional check, often before the data exists
• Lessons from a portfolio of 375+ companies, including standouts like The Athletic and Juniper Square
• How he thinks about conviction, pattern recognition, and betting on people over traction
• His advice for emerging managers building durable, high-performing venture firms today

❯ Who Should Attend

• Early-stage founders raising or preparing to raise their first institutional round
• Repeat founders refining how they tell their story to pre-seed and seed investors
• Angels and VCs studying early-stage sourcing and conviction
• Ecosystem leaders and emerging managers building global founder networks

About Venture Trailblazers Venture Trailblazers is an exclusive event series that educates and connects operators and investors across the global Founder Institute, VC Lab, and FI Venture Network communities. Each edition spotlights a leading voice from the ecosystem in a candid conversation on what's driving the next wave of innovation in venture capital.

About VC Lab VC Lab is the leading venture capital accelerator worldwide for new and emerging managers. 900+ funds have successfully completed the program, building ethical and enduring venture capital firms around the world. The program provides all the tools needed to launch a fund and close on capital in six months or less. Managers participate in weekly fund-building sprints, receive tactical advice from experienced domain experts, and join a collaborative, global community of peers. VC Lab also develops essential fundraising skills and offers access to Decile Hub, the trusted venture platform for VCs to generate top decile returns. Learn more at https://GoVCLab.com and apply to the program at https://FI.co/apply/vc

❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/403116/meetup to get your link and join us live!

Panelists:
John Whaley, Founder of Inception Studio & Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford. He is a three-time cybersecurity founder and holds a Stanford Computer Science PhD. He leads Inception Studio to help serial AI entrepreneurs find co-founders and launch their next startup. His honors include being named to the Forbes AI 50, winning the Arthur L. Samuel Thesis Award and working at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center and Tokyo Research Lab.
Jeni Chang, Managing Director at Founder Institute & New Energy Financial ---Our relationship to AI is rapidly changing. As agents shift from tools we use to things we interact with, technology alone is not enough. The untapped potential is not only understanding human drivers but applying that understanding to channel accelerated growth and investments

Sacha Ledan, Co-Founder and COO of Raisable, a founder community and organizer of innovation events including hackathons and accelerator programs. He spent the previous decade at Stanford GSB, StartX, and WilmerHale building founder programs and communities. These included dy/dx, launched with Accel, Index, Lightspeed, and Sequoia, and Stanford Ignite for Ukrainian founders.
And more to be announced...

Agenda
🔴We will start with a short introduction of our panelists, followed by 45 minutes of moderated discussion, before opening the floor to a few questions from the audience.

About us: Founder Institute San Francisco/Oakland
AI rewrote the rules of company building. The playbook has changed. Skills are no longer the barrier. Direction is.
At Founder Institute, we’ve merged our structured programs with AI agents that help founders do the work, not just learn how to do it. Learn More: https://fi.co/aifounder
Interested in our program? Meet the Team: Jeni & Lucas
➡️ Our upcoming Fall cohort starts soon! Apply by Oct 18th https://fi.co/san-francisco

✨ The decisions that shaped these companies were made when nobody was watching and nothing was certain. Founders from across the FI network walk through what they chose early, why, and how those choices look in hindsight.
🤖 What they are building with AI now, and which of their original assumptions survived. 💬 Q&A, then open networking. 👉 Register now to get your link and join us live! . ❯ Featured Speakers:

• Jai Chinnakonda — Founder & CEO, ENGAIZ (FI Toronto Alum)
• Kelly Anderson — Founder & CEO, DyeConverter™ (FI Silicon Valley Alum)
• Brenda Bernal — Founder & CEO, Compliagence (FI Los Angeles Alum)

❯ Featured Host:

• Jonathan Greechan - Co-Founder & CIO of the Founder Institute - Jonathan Greechan is the Co-Founder & CIO of the Founder Institute, the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009, he has grown and scaled the organization to chapters in over 200 and across over 100 countries, producing over 9,000 portfolio companies with nearly $2BN in venture funding. In his long career in tech and marketing, Jonathan has advised thousands of startups on marketing, growth, and product strategy and has spoken at startup conferences on four continents.

❯ What You'll Learn:

• What these founders decided in their earliest months, and why;
• Which of their original assumptions survived and which did not;
• What they are building with AI now, and how it changed their roadmap;
• What they would tell a founder at idea stage today;
• How the FI network mattered to them, concretely.

❯ Who Should Attend:

• Idea-stage founders who want to see how the early decisions get made;
• Prospective applicants evaluating what the network actually produces;
• Founders in smaller chapters with limited access to breakout founders;
• Anyone who wants to network with founders beyond their own city.

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❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23175 to get your link and join us live!