About us
Startup Founder 101 brings together aspiring and experienced tech entrepreneurs to discuss, meet, and collaborate to build great new startups, and to push the local startup ecosystem forward.\
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This group hosts numerous free events throughout the year where you can learn the best practices of starting a company from people who have been there and done that. You’ll have the opportunity to meet local founders and investors, exchange ideas with experts, get feedback on your idea, participate in startup workshops, and more.\
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Typical startup event topics include:\
• Coming up with a strong startup idea\
• Startup legal basics\
• How to pitch your startup\
• Starting a company without quitting your day job\
• How to raise funding for your startup\
• And much more!\
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Join the group to be invited to our next event!
Featured event
FounderX Silicon Valley: VIP Gathering of Global Founders/ Investors
FounderX is a highly-curated, intimate conference will gather ~300 investors, founders, technology executives, and startup ecosystem leaders from across the globe for three days of networking events, group workshops, and engaging talks from top Keynote Speakers.
Previous speakers for FI events include Elon Musk, Steve Jurvetson, Yamini Rangan, Naval Ravikant, Esther Dyson, Jason Calacanis, Ben Horowitz, and many more.
❯❯ Meetup members must RSVP at https://luma.com/659pksxq?coupon=WE2SPJ to attend, the early bird price is available until May 31st.
TO REGISTER, YOU MUST RSVP AND PAY AT THE LINK ABOVE. RSVPING TO THIS MEETUP DOES NOT GRANT YOU ACCESS TO THIS EVENT.
See all the latest event details at http://FounderX.com (exact details and speakers will not be updated on this Meetup page).
Please note: this event is mainly for Founder Institute investors, alumni, mentors, and leaders - so Meetup availability will expire.
The goal of FounderX is to facilitate meaningful connections and learning across the FI and Decile Group Networks, which span 40,000+ innovators across 100+ countries and 6 continents.
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❯ See all the latest event details at http://FounderX.com (exact details and speakers will not be updated on this Meetup page).
❯ Meetup members must RSVP at https://luma.com/659pksxq?coupon=WE2SPJ to attend, the early bird price is available until May 31st.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: To register, you MUST RSVP and pay at the link above.
❌ RSVPing to this Meetup does NOT grant you access to this event.
Upcoming events
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How to Choose the Right Startup Idea Before You Build
·OnlineOnlineThe hardest part of building a startup isn't execution. It's choosing the right problem to solve. Too many founders build ideas based on excitement, trends, or assumptions, only to discover there's no real demand. In this interactive workshop, Jonathan Greechan (Co-Founder and CEO at Founder Institute) shares the frameworks used to help over 10,000 founders stress-test, refine, and validate their startup ideas early. You'll learn how to think like an investor, pressure-test your concept, and identify opportunities others overlook. If you're serious about building in 2026, start here.
❯ What You'll Learn:
- How to identify real, painful problems worth solving
- How to pressure-test your startup idea before building
- A simple scoring framework to evaluate idea strength
- How to align your idea with your skills and unfair advantages
- How to gather meaningful early feedback
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23360 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Jonathan Greechan - Co-Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute - Jonathan Greechan is the Co-Founder & CEO 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 cities and over 100 countries, producing over 8,900 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.
❯ Who Should Attend:
- First-time founders exploring ideas
- Builders pivoting from a weak or unclear concept
- Entrepreneurs preparing to apply to accelerators
- Anyone looking to start something meaningful in 2026
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23360 to get your link and join us live!
4 attendees
How to Tell Stories That Win Clients and Investors with Lubna Forzley
·OnlineOnlineYou have a strong idea. But every time you explain it, people nod and move on. The problem is almost never the idea. It is the way the story is being told. Pitching persuades. Storytelling connects. Knowing which one to use, and when, is the skill that separates founders who close deals from those who keep refining their deck with no results. In this live session, Lubna Forzley, 2x TEDx Speaker and Founder of Stories, shares the exact framework she has used with executives at Coca-Cola, Google, and Microsoft. Register now and leave with a structure you can apply the same day.
❯ What You'll Learn:
- When to pitch and when to tell a story instead
- The story structure that builds trust without losing credibility
- How to use AI to build your narrative without sounding generic
- The storytelling mistakes that cost founders deals with investors
- How to craft a positioning statement that works across every channel
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/24741 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Lubna Forzley - Founder and CEO @ Stories: Lubna is a 2x TEDx Speaker, and an ICF-accredited coach who has spent 20+ years advising executives at Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and the United Nations. She has shared stages with Steve Wozniak, hosted global roundtables with world leaders, and built an AI-powered brand tool that gives founders in 15 minutes what agencies used to charge $100,000 for. She helps founders and leaders cut through the noise, own their story, and win clients and investors before they ever open a pitch deck.
❯ Who Should Attend:
- Experienced Professionals ready to start a company
- Solo founders who have an idea but struggle to explain it clearly
- AI-curious professionals who want to build their brand using AI
- Anyone preparing to pitch to investors or first customers
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❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/24741 to get your link and join us live!4 attendees
How to Start a Unicorn as a Solo Founder, with Adeo Ressi
·OnlineOnlineThe first solo founder unicorns are being built right now, not necessarily by 22 year olds in a garage, but by experienced professionals using deep industry knowledge and the right AI toolkit.That founder could be you. You may already have the expertise and the idea. What's missing is a clear path to get started. In this free online event, Adeo Ressi, founder of 11 startups, 14 VC funds, and nearly $2B in exits, will break down how to identify the startup opportunity inside your experience, use AI tools to replace parts of a founding team, and map the first 90 days of building. You'll leave the session knowing exactly what to do on day one.
❯ What You'll Learn:
- How to identify the startup opportunity hidden inside your professional experience
- Which AI tools and AI agents are replacing co-founder functions at the earliest stage of company building
- Specific AI tools and workflows for market research, competitive analysis, and early prototyping
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/25335 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Adeo Ressi - CEO at Decile Group and and Chairman at the Founder Institute - Adeo has personally launched 14 venture capital funds and founded 11 startups, having nearly $2 billion in exits before the age of 30. He is currently CEO of Decile Group, powering the next generation of venture capital firms worldwide and parent of the VC Lab venture capital accelerator; and Chairman at the Founder Institute, a pre-seed accelerator with chapters in over 250 cities worldwide and over 8,900 portfolio companies.
❯ Who Should Attend:
- Professionals with 5 to 15+ years of experience in an industry who have been thinking about starting something but haven't made the move yet
- Solo founders who have an idea and the drive, but need a structured process to move forward without a team
- Professionals whose role is changing because of AI and who want to turn that disruption into their own company
- Ambitious professionals who are ready to bet on themselves and work harder than they ever have
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/25335 to get your link and join us live!
2 attendees
What It Takes to Get Funded: Live Investor Q&A w/ Maayan Teper
·OnlineOnlineDo you want to ask questions to startup investors about fundraising in a friendly, judgment-free environment? Are you looking to raise funding in the future, and want to learn what investors look for and how they evaluate potential investments? Then join us for this live, interactive Q&A event featuring Maayan Teper, Investor at Resilience VC. Don't miss this opportunity to expand your network and ask in-depth questions.
❯ What You'll Learn:
- The key metrics investors evaluate in early-stage startups
- What makes founders stand out during fundraising
- How investors assess traction, market opportunity, and risk
- The differences between angels, VCs, grants, and other funding sources
- Practical ways to prepare before raising your next round
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23991 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Maayan Teper is Investor at Resilience VC, a seed-stage fintech fund backing embedded financial technologies that expand economic access for low- and moderate-income Americans and small businesses. Before Resilience, he evaluated investments at Better Ventures across climate, healthcare, and the future of work, and worked as a senior associate at Social Finance. Maayan has spent his career at the intersection of capital and impact; and brings a rare combination of financial rigor and mission-driven perspective to every conversation about what makes an early-stage startup worth backing.
❯ Featured Host:
- Chris Foltz is a Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Founder Institute and Managing Director of Responsible Solutions, a Silicon Valley-based global strategy firm. He advises founders, executives, and policymakers across 6 continents on brand storytelling and go-to-market strategy. Named to the IRG100, an annual list of the world's top 100 CMOs and change agents, Chris brings a rare, unfiltered perspective shaped by a career that has spanned partisan politics, personal adversity, and a remarkable reinvention.a seed-stage fintech fund backing embedded financial technologies that expand economic access for low- and moderate-income Americans and small businesses.
❯ Who Should Attend:
- Founders preparing to raise their first round
- Early-stage entrepreneurs seeking insight into investor decision-making
- Aspiring founders planning to fundraise in the future
- Anyone curious about how investors evaluate startups
About the FI Venture Network
The FI Venture Network is an exclusive network of investors actively funding pre-seed and seed-stage startups before anyone else. Learn more by visiting the FI Venture Network page.❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23991 to get your link and join us live!
1 attendee
Past events
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