🤝 Apply now for invites to our curated happy hours in NYC (11/5) and SF where we’ll bring together standout engineers and top founders for drinks, bites, and great conversations. Next Wednesday, meet founders from Crosby AI, Blacksmith, Counsel Health, and more in NYC.
It’s no secret we run a startup community and host flagship showcases that connect top founders with exceptional engineers. What’s less known is that we sometimes invest in startups too, continually introducing them to top talent for their growing teams.
It was the overwhelming positive response to our showcase that inspired this fund. We started Founders You Should Know with one goal: help talented engineers find career-defining opportunities. Turns out when you cultivate a strong community of great engineers, founders want to be there too. In fact, founders who present at our showcase are often are so impressed with the engineers they meet that they want to stay connected with new attendees. We’ve found the most effective way to continue introducing them to talent is by formally supporting them through investment.
We’re most valuable as an investment partner when everything — growth, customer demand, revenue — starts to inflect. This is the point when the rules of the startup growth game fundamentally shift, and every team feels short on hands for the work ahead. At the same time, this is often the most exciting moment for engineers to join: momentum is high and challenges lead to quickly deployed results. This is the stage that our community is most excited about, thus where we can help facilitate the most valuable introductions to talent.
Adam Guild of Owner came across our radar when Charlie Curnin at Sequoia suggested he present at our showcase. He subsequently wowed us at our February showcase (and the audience members he hired!), and was eager to continue expanding his team to meet growing customer demand and tackle new engineering challenges. We invested in Owner after the show, made high-quality candidate intros for their team, and have recently helped hire two engineers.
From time to time, we’ll also place a bet on an early-stage founder we’ve known for some time or that comes highly recommended by trusted members of our community.
We first met Juan Lozano in 2023 when he attended the show. True to tech spirit, after the showcase he chose to start his own company instead of joining one. When he launched Mariana Minerals in 2024, it was clear he was building something special, and after years of being in the community and helping us get founders ready for the show, we knew he had what it takes to be a great founder. We invested early in his team and helped bring on talented engineers. Just 9 months later, they announced their Series A with a16z.
These are just two of the 25+ teams we’ve backed through our community fund. Every team is supported by our LP base: founders we’ve featured at the show, talented engineers, and investors at larger top-tier funds. A number of engineers and the founders we’ve met have come through our network of LPs. Our fund is truly a community fund — we believe great people know great people.
If you, a friend, a former roommate, or anyone else you know are raising capital soon and looking to build your team of talented engineers, we’d love to hear from you. If you’re an engineer looking for your next role at a career-defining company, we’re happy to introduce you to any of the teams we support here. Send us a note — if it’s a great fit, we’ll make the intro.