Founder Gym is an online training center for underrepresented founders who want to build successful tech startups. Incorporating best practices from entrepreneurship, education, and sports psychology, Founder Gym offers an innovative approach to develop the world's next great entrepreneurs. During the span of 6 weeks, founders complete structured exercises to increase their strength in a core area of startup success, and receive expert training from investors and experienced founders.
Venture capital is a tool that helps tech startup founders have a competitive advantage over their competition. It provides founders with money they can use to scale their startup faster than they otherwise could.
Unfortunately, most underrepresented founders are not getting access to venture capital. Less than 10% of VC-backed founders are women, less than 2% of VC-backed founders are Black, and less than 1% of VC-backed founders are Latinx. Founder Gym is here to change that.
In our 6-week virtual cohort, founders are trained by leading venture capitalists and founders in Silicon Valley and beyond, to ensure founders have the network, knowledge, and know-how they need to secure funding.
This cohort is open to all underrepresented founders, but you must apply to be admitted. The program requires 100% participation in order to graduate, so only serious founders need apply.
There is incredible diversity amongst underrepresented founders across a variety of spectrums, including race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, age, etc. that we aim to more strategically service. Going forward, we will be experimenting with affinity-based cohorts, providing underrepresented founders with an additional option to experience our programming.
We are starting with Black founders for two reasons: the need is great (less than 2% of VC-backed founders are Black), and the demand is high (62% of Founder Gym graduates to-date identify as Black). This 6-week virtual cohort will have the same structure as Cohort 5, but is designed with the unique experiences and commonalities of Black founders in mind.
Irrespective of which cohort founders participate in, they all come together as members of Founder Gym’s global community, building relationships, working together, and supporting each others’ success.
CEO of The Riveter
Amy raised $5.5 million for The Riveter, a membership workspace and community platform for women and allies.
CEO of ExemptMeNow
Sevetri raised $2 million, becoming the first Black woman in New Orleans to raise more than $1 million.
CEO of Waggit
Susan raised $3.3 million for Waggit, a health and well-being monitor for dogs to improve and extend their lives.
The Gym is officially open, and it’s time to get to know your fellow Gymmates from around the world! FG veterans will help you get a clear understanding of what you need to do, in order to succeed in the cohort, and you’ll feel empowered and inspired to hit the ground running.
Who are venture capitalists? How are they different from angels, accelerators, syndicates, and loan officers? What do they care about when making investment decisions? Learn who these VCs really are and what makes them tick, so you can better position your startup to be an attractive investment opportunity.
What makes VCs invest in some companies and not others? Is it the number of users, the amount of revenue, the size of the market, the founders on the team, the story behind the vision, or something else entirely? Uncover what metrics really matter, so you can stop wasting your time on the ones that don’t.
You only get one chance to make a great first impression and you don’t want to blow it. What you say, how you say it, and who co-signs what you have to say are incredibly important when it comes to fundraising. Whether it’s a tweet, DM, email, or in-person pitch, it’s essential that you learn the communication etiquette investors prefer.
Learn from an experienced underrepresented founder who’s already done what you’re trying to do: secure the bag! There is a very high chance you will be pitching investors who don’t share your identity, background, or lived experiences, so it’s important that you learn how to navigate the nuances of fundraising from someone who’s walked in your shoes.
You’ve learned A LOT in a short amount of time. Now, it’s time to "walk the talk" and show everyone what you’re made of. For graduation, you will present a 2-minute pitch of your startup in front of your FG Cohort peers and invited alumni. You will also get to step in the shoes of an investor and decide which of your peers is most deserving of investor capital.
Managing Partner at Sterling Road
Ash participated in Y Combinator as the Co-Founder of SendHub, which later sold to Cameo Global. Ash is now the Managing Partner of Sterling Road, a venture fund focused on seed stage B2B companies. Ash has mentored hundreds of startups at YC, Techstars, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA.
Visiting Partner at Y Combinator
In 2017, Holly’s startup, Kabam, sold for $1 billion! Holly led design for the award-winning "Kingdoms of Camelot" franchise, which grossed over $250 million, and she helped grow Kabam’s staff 500% in just three years. Holly is now a visiting partner at Y Combinator, investing in the next set of game-changing tech startups.
Frm. Partner at Collaborative Fund
Born in Soweto, a township outside of Johannesburgh, South Africa, during apartheid, Kanyi worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign, was a professor at NYU and Stanford, and most recently was a Partner at Collaborative Fund, which has invested in Lyft, Quora, Kickstarter, Reddit, and Blue Bottle.
Partner at First Round Capital
Hayley served as Co-CEO at Birchbox for five years from conception and launch, raising $70MM in venture capital and growing the business to over a million monthly subscribers. Hayley is now a Partner at First Round Capital, which has invested in Birchbox, Blue Apron, Mint, Uber, and Warby Parker.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Base10
Adeyemi is originally from Spain and half Nigerian. He was the Co-Founder of Tuenti (The “Spanish Facebook” acquired by Telefonica in 2010 for $100M), Co-Founder of Identified (“AI for HR” acquired by Workday in 2014) and a founding investor of Cabify (the largest ride-sharing company in Latin America currently valued at over $1B). He recently raised $137MM for Base10, the largest debut for a Black-led venture capital firm.
Co-Founder & CEO of Blavity, Inc.
Morgan is at the helm of Blavity, Inc., the largest network of platforms and lifestyle brands serving the multifaceted lives of black millennials, including Blavity, 21Ninety, Afrotech, Travel Noire, and Shadow and Act. Morgan is one of the youngest Black female founders to ever raise a Series A, having successfully secured $9.4MM from investors like Google Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Cross Culture Ventures, Harlem Capital, and others.
Atom Factory and Cross Culture Ventures
Troy rose to prominence in the music industry, as the manager of Lady Gaga, John Legend, and Meghan Trainor. His foray into the tech world resulted in the formation of Atom Factory's angel fund and VC fund Cross Culture Ventures. Troy’s early-stage investments include Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, Spotify, Warby Parker, theSkimm, Gimlet Media, and ATTN, and he was recently a guest shark on Season 7 of ABC's hit primetime show Shark Tank.
Partner at Kapor Capital
Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” is one of the only Black female partners in the entire venture capital industry! Her firm, Kapor Capital, does seed stage investments, and they have over 120 portfolio companies, including Twilio, Uber, Genius Plaza, AngelList, and Clever. Ulili’s primary focus is on digital health and medical technology industries. Previously, Ulili served as Director of Global Programs at Village Capital, an accelerator program and VC firm.
Partner at Kapor Capital
Mitch Kapor is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Kapor Capital. His investments include Twilio, Uber, Clever, and Class Dojo.
Partner at Precursor Ventures
Charles is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Precursor Ventures, with over 70 pre-seed investments. He was previously a Partner at SoftTech VC.
Venture Capitalist
Ellen was a Partner at Kapor Capital and Kleiner Perkins. She was also the interim CEO at Reddit and served on the boards of Flipboard, Datameer, and Lehigh.
Partner at Cross Culture Ventures
Suzy Ryoo is a Partner at Atom Factory & Cross Culture Ventures, whose investments include Warby Parker, Lyft, and Dropbox.
Partner at AngelList
Parker Thompson is a Partner at AngelList, a former Partner at 500 Startups, and he has made over 70 investments to-date.
Venture Capitalist
Monique Woodard was a Partner at 500 Startups, Co-Founder of Black Founders, and her investments include Blavity and O.School.
Partner at First Round Capital
Phin Barnes is a Managing Partner at First Round Capital. Formerly an early employee at AND 1, Phin is a self-proclaimed sneakerhead. He's made over 50 investments, including Birchbox and Blue Apron.
Partner at Base Ventures
Erik Moore is a Managing Partner of Base Ventures. Originally an angel investor in Zappos, Erik has since made over 70 investments in tech companies, including Olly, StyleSeat, Mayvenn, and Blavity.
Partner at Kapor Capital
Freada Kapor Klein is a Founding Partner of Kapor Capital and diversity & inclusion expert. Freada has made over 100 investments, including Twilio, LendUp, and Genius Plaza, and has pioneered gap-closing social impact investing.
Partner at Backstage Capital
Starting in 2015, Arlan built a venture capital firm from scratch, while homeless. Her firm, Backstage Capital, is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are of color, women, and/or LGBT. Arlan has now invested in over 100 startup companies led by underestimated founders.
CEO and Partner at Y Combinator
At age 23, Michael co-founded Justin.tv which became Twitch and sold to Amazon for $970 million. At age 33, Michael became the CEO of Y Combinator, arguably the most successful startup accelerator in the world. He has invested in over 50 companies, including Reddit, Jopwell, and Walker and Company.
Co-Founder & CEO of The Muse
Kathryn overcame 148 investor rejections, bias, and sexual harrassment to go on and raise $28 million for her company, The Muse, a career platform serving millions of people all around the world. Kathryn is also an Operating Partner at X Factor Ventures that invests in pre-seed and seed stage startups that have at least one female founder.
Angel & Co-Founder of Bloomjoy
David is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is currently the co-founder of BloomJoy, the Associated Press for lifestyle content. Previously, he co-founded Hackbright Academy, the leading software engineering bootcamp for women, which sold for $18MM. Prior to that David co-founded Banjo, which is backed by $120MM in funding.
Managing Partner at Owl Ventures
Amit leads one of the largest edtech venture capital firms in the world. He has worked closely with all companies in the Owl Ventures portfolio and serves on the board of Kuali, Lingo Live, Panorama Education, Securly, Swing Education, Thinkful and Tinkergarten. Before joining Owl Ventures, Amit founded and sold Personal Academic Trainers.
Principal at Kapor Capital
Carolina is one of the few Latinx women in venture capital. She began her technology career at SchoolNet, which was sold to Pearson for $230MM and later founded Spriggle, a marketplace for parents to identify educational products for their children. At Kapor Capital, Carolina is focused on making investments in future of work, urban tech, and education.
Founder Gym was an immensely valuable experience for me as a founder that is new to institutional venture fundraising. The expert trainers and personal coaches demystified the process for us and showed us the blueprint for navigating the Silicon Valley fundraising dance. It was like getting an insider’s look at how the game works. Because of the cohort, we are much more prepared to fundraise and I would definitely recommend this program to others.
Co-Founder of dealWIP
Brooklyn, New York
When I applied for Founder Gym, I was personally very exhausted and discouraged with my fundraising experience. However, being accepted into FG really changed that. Because of the program, I found renewed energy and motivation to continue on with fundraising and was successful in raising capital! I really appreciated getting to learn from experts that I never imagined I could interact with, as well as getting to know many amazing founders.
Co-Founder of Because Learning
Salt Lake City, Utah
Because of Founder Gym, I was able to get clear about the fundraising needs of my business, and I am now much better prepared to go out and secure capital. This has truly been an awesome experience. Mandela and her team are pros and it shows in the quality of information and mentors they were able to bring to the table. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of the inaugural cohort.
Co-Founder of The Brightly
San Francisco, California
Even after writing almost 100,000 lines of code over the summer, I can confidently say that participating in Founder Gym is the most important step I’ve taken as a CEO so far. With the techniques I’ve learned, I feel way more prepared to not only fundraise, but build a company that scales. I just wish I would have known about Founder Gym sooner; it would have saved me a lot of time and energy.
Founder of Notearise
Dallas, Texas
Set aside 30 minutes to complete the application and give yourself a chance to get admitted. If you pass the application screen, you will be invited to participate in a video interview.
You will receive an email notifying you whether or not you’ve been selected for the cohort. You have 48 hours to submit your down payment to reserve your spot.
Congratulations! You’re officially a member of the cohort. You will be granted access to the orientation materials, and begin preparing for the start of the cohort.
The cohort kicks off with Orientation. You will get the chance to meet your Gymmates and get your life in order, so you can focus on going hard in the Gym for the next 5 weeks.
You did it! You survived one of the most intense startup training programs. Now it’s time to use your new skills, strengths, and network to catapult your startup to the next level.
Your identity group (race, gender, etc.) receives dispropionately less startup funding than other groups.
Your startup develops its own technology and aspires to grow as big and as fast as possible.
You have already built something (MVP counts) that people are using and/or buying.
You’re not sure if you’re doing the right things and need guidance from experienced people.
You want a well-curated community that understands the challenges founders like you face.
Founder & CEO
An entrepreneur, educator, athlete, and well-connected Silicon Valley influencer, Mandela is uniquely positioned to lead this movement. Previously at Kapor Capital and Startup Weekend, Mandela is a recent graduate of First Round Capital’s Angel Track.
Program Director
Paige has operated at the intersection of education, entrepreneurship, and social justice. She is a well-respected leader in the Portland startup scene and has helped cultivate their ecosystem, including co-founding the XXcelerate Fund for women entrepreneurs.
Digital Engagement Associate
After studying Political Science and Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama, Cordelro founded Rapid Dissent, an emerging platform for social activists. Cordelro currently supports Founder Gym’s growing digital presence and brand development.
Business Operations Associate
Mallory leverages her experience in marketing and customer design from Singularity to inform the development of new FG products. She is the Co-Founder of Kubo, a media platform for Filipino millennials, and serves on the Board of Filipino Advocates for Justice.
Writing Associate
After graduating from Law School at the University of San Francisco, Cristal became a Justice Change Fellow at the Haywood Burns Institute. When writing for FG, Cristal draws inspiration from her commitment to social equity and her interest in entrepreneurship.
Visual Storyteller
After teaching for six years in schools like Khan Labs, Jeremy transitioned into sharing knowledge with a larger audience using multimedia. He specializes in photography and videography, and you may have seen his work featured on ATTN: or TechCrunch.
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