Waterloo Startup Founder 101

4.3•332 ratings

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.\

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.\

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!\

Join the group to be invited to our next event!

Upcoming events

See all

Startup Advisors 101: How to Find Advisors and Maximize their Impact
Mon, Mar 23 · 8:30 PM EDT
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Online
Online
Great startup advisors can be a huge benefit for early-stage founders - helping them access networks, avoid mistakes, supplement missing skills, and even provide emotional support. But finding great advisors can be challenging, and their benefits are typically tied to how well you can leverage their limited time. On this interactive online event, we'll break down a practical, founder-friendly process for finding, vetting, and activating great startup advisors from our experience facilitating tens of thousands of advisor relationships since 2009.

❯❯ RSVP now at 👉 https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23124 to get your link and join us live!

❯ What You'll Learn:
- How to identify the right advisors.
- The chemistry + contribution test: how to evaluate fit before making anything official.
- How to structure advisor interactions so they produce outputs.
- When and how to use the FAST Agreement to standardize responsibilities + equity and avoid drawn-out negotiations.
- Common failure modes (advisor vanity, “free consulting,” misaligned incentives) and how to prevent them.
❯ 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 8100 portfolio companies with nearly $2B 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?
- Founders at the idea, pre-seed, or early traction stage who want help but don’t want drama.
- First-time founders building their first advisory board.
- Operators and technical founders who need domain, distribution, or fundraising support.
- Mentors/advisors who want a clearer framework for being helpful (and getting properly compensated).
❯ The FAST Agreement (Founder-Advisor Standard Template)
The FAST Agreement is used by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and advisors per year to establish productive working relationships, trading advice and support for a standardized amount of equity. See the free agreement at FI.co/FAST.

❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at 👉 https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23124 to get your link and join us live!
7 attendees
From Idea to Startup Team: Meet Your Future Co-Founder
Mon, Apr 6 · 8:00 PM EDT
·
Online
Online
Starting a company has never been more accessible. With AI, one person can validate ideas, build prototypes, and launch faster than ever before. But one thing hasn't changed: choosing the wrong co-founder can quickly derail a startup. In this Founder Institute event, you'll learn practical frameworks for evaluating co-founder fit and then meet other builders through structured networking and speed matching. Whether you're a professional exploring entrepreneurship, a solo founder with an idea, or a builder looking to join a startup, this session will help you connect with people who are serious about building.

❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23950 to get your link and join us live!

❯ To get the most out of this Co-Founder networking event:
- Come ready for live video networking
- Prepare by visiting our Guide to Find a Co-Founder
- Fill out our Co-Founder Networking Worksheet
To access all of the networking features of this event, please join using Chrome or Firefox from a desktop or tablet, or download the Airmeet Mobile App.

❯ What You'll Learn:
- A practical framework for evaluating co-founder fit
- How to align expectations around roles, equity, and commitment
- Common mistakes founders make when forming partnerships
❯ Featured Host:
- Jonathan Greechan - CEO & Co-Founder of Founder Institute, General Partner at Founder Capital - Jonathan Greechan is the Co-Founder and 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 100 countries. The Founder Institute's mission is to activate entrepreneurial potential and empower communities across the globe to build ventures with positive economic and societal impact. He is also a General Partner at Founder Capital, the Founder Institute's Global VC Fund; and serves as an Economic Development and Innovation Advisor to several governments and organizations; like Oxford Entrepreneurs, Horasis, the USC Incubator, and a Fortune 500 company. Jonathan's writing has been featured on Fortune, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and he has been a Keynote Speaker at business conferences on five continents.
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23950 to get your link and join us live!
3 attendees
How Multiple Pivots positioned Checkbox as the Legal Front Door for Corporations
Mon, Apr 13 · 8:00 PM EDT
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Online
Online
Some startups fail because they pivot too late. Others fail because they pivot too often. The rare ones survive long enough to pivot intelligently and catch a market wave at exactly the right moment. Join us for a candid fireside chat with Evan Wong (Co-Founder & CEO of Checkbox) on how multiple pivots — plus years of bootstrapping and persistence — positioned Checkbox at the forefront of the fast-growing legal AI industry. Checkbox recently raised $23MM in funding from top investors, and counts top corporates as customers, like Hitachi, SAP, PepsiCo, and more.

❯ You’ll leave with:

A framework for evaluating pivots

Real examples of what didn’t work

How positioning unlocked enterprise traction

Lessons from bootstrapping before raising capital
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23325 to get your link and join us live!

❯ Featured Speaker:
- Evan Wong - Co-founder & CEO @ Checkbox: Evan began building companies at 17 and co-founded Checkbox nearly a decade ago to help non-technical teams automate complex workflows. Today, Checkbox is used by global legal teams at companies like SAP, Hitachi, and Elastic, delivering 50–80% fewer low-value requests and up to 85% faster turnaround times. Evan is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and LegalTech CEO of the Year, and recently led Checkbox’s $23M Series A to scale its product, AI, and global team. Evan began his company-building journey at seventeen and has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and LegalTech CEO of the Year. As CEO, Evan leads Checkbox’s strategy and execution, guiding the development of its legal intake, automation, and reporting platform used by in-house teams globally.
❯ About Checkbox:
Checkbox is the AI-powered Legal Front Door for in-house legal teams. Its no-code platform centralizes legal requests from every channel, enables AI-driven self-service for routine work, and gives teams visibility into all legal activity—helping legal operate faster, smarter, and with more confidence. Named in Gartner’s 2025 Hype Cycle™, Checkbox highlights how modern legal teams can drive efficiency and strategic value through intelligent intake, triage, and AI legal chatbots. Checkbox is also a graduate of the Australia-NZ Founder Institute. Learn more at www.checkbox.ai.

❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23325 to get your link and join us live!
1 attendee