Being accepted into the prestigious Founders Space as one among 10-12 startups globally was a true honor for us. It turned out to be a superb experience overall, in terms of focusing on the right aspects of the business and staying lean. I would recommend the program to any startup that wants to take their game to the next level.

The two-week program was extremely productive and useful. Captain Hoff and Steve Austin are superstars and deserve a lot of credit for the success of the program. Captain Hoff focused on improving the fundamentals of the core business and strategy, while Steve Austin complemented with great traininig on how to be a better executive and how to tell the story right. Overall, it was a transformative experience.

There were great guest lectures on various topics starting from legal to SEO and valuation of startups. The mentor days were especially awesome. Expert mentors spent a lot of time on each startup’s specific business, providing surgical feedback. These mentors are renowned experts in various fields. Their advice and inputs made a huge difference. By bringing different perspectives and experiences from different mentors, this supplemented the program very well. Read More...

The Founder Space program is an outstanding resource for first time founders like us. The program helps cultivate a variety of skills critical for every startup, including developing the right product-market-fit and business model as well as delivering a compelling elevator and 3 minute pitch. Although the two-weeks fly by in a daze of myriad video lectures, mentor sessions, and speakers, knowledge gained from the program will guide our business for years to come.

We really appreciated the honest and critical feedback we received from Naomi Kokubo, Steve Austin, and Captain Hoff and count ourselves lucky to have been a part of the program.

SE3D is a biotech startup that designs and develops 3D lab robotics for biology. We have a desktop bioprinting and liquid dispensing device that can print living cells, biological materials and food based materials. We are currently funded by the National Science Foundation and seeking partners who are interested in what we do. To learn more about our technology, please visit us here.

Thanks for TIEC helping Theia to Founders Space Program. TIEC is the accelerator that bridges Taiwan Startups and the US market. Thanks for Founders Space, we learned a lot from the very intense 2-week program.

Theia provides 3D display with no glasses. During the program, a lot of mentors advised us, from how to sell (explicitly on hardware and software), what should be noticed for product design, and overall market strategy, to how to set up sales and marketing team in US. Also, the program gave opportunity to build connection with some potential clients. Steve Austin gave us a lot insights on B to B sale. Steven Hoffman taught us the right attitude to be a successful startup. Austin and Hoffman both gave us a lot of one-on-one meetings to perfect our pitch. We also had a great time on the final pitch day and get a lot of responses.

We met a lot of participants and we exchanged our notes for the program, not only made us friend but also gave us chances to learn from each other. We realize the business should focus more on how you do networking instead of how you build the technology.

Joining Founders Space was an invaluable experience for me. Not only did I learn a lot from the many resource materials and lessons, I was also immediately immersed in the local network of mentors and professionals in Silicon Valley. They have many years experience in the startup world. Everybody was eager to help and share their own knowledge and experience. I received more contacts in the intense two weeks program than I could ever normally get in a month!

Those of you in startup La-La-land, Sergeant Steve Austin will kick your ass to startup reality. Those of you that are just in love with your own solution and not the customer’ pain points will get a real wake up call, and question your startup’s real existence. But once you survived Sergeant Austin’s “Startup reality bootcamp”, you will get a confidence boost, that your idea, your startup and all the sweat equity you put in is worthwhile and realistic. Thank goodness we already had traction, but Sergeant Austin still put us thru his rigorous quality control to make sure we are of Silicon Valley standards.

Thank you, Founders Space, for the platform you have created to enable startups from all over the world, an equal opportunity to learn, experience and connect. Thus giving us an edge to excel and hopefully make the world a better place for everyone. Read More...

We picked Founders Space because we wanted an incubator that understood what it means to be a global start up from the ground-up. The two weeks helped clarify our sales strategy, our investor pitch and gave us perspective on the Silicon Valley ecosystem. It also put us in a place with energized, hard-working and focused founders from around the world. Finally, the pitch day opened up some doors we are hoping to take advantage of. Thanks to the Founders Space team for the experience!

Participating at the Founders Space accelerator program was a one in a lifetime experience. Especially coming from overseas, it helped us a lot to learn and understand the business environment in the US.

Captain Hoff and Naomi have compiled a tremendous schedule. The variety of lectures, mentoring by very experienced serial entrepreneurs and information sessions about outsourcing activities during your early start-up phase, was a perfect combination of all you need to know, in order to succeed in Silicon Valley; even more we also received valuable input for our overall strategy and improvement ideas for the European market.

Even though the program was very intensive (in particular due to the demanding pitch training by Steve Austin – thanks a lot for this perfect preparation!), we still had time and the opportunity to get to know the other participating start-ups better and make new friends. Read More...