01
Apply
Submit an application. We review against our criteria and respond with a pre-approval decision.
A community exclusively for venture-scale founders
Founders need better decisions. We're built for that.
Venture-backed companies fail not from bad ideas, but from avoidable decisions made without the right experience in the room. Every element of FounderNexus is structured to change that.
Where elite founders spend the most impactful hour of their week
The success equation
Why small improvements in decision quality produce outsized outcomes
Every founder decision can be graded 0 to 1. Success is the product of all those decisions multiplied together — even modest, consistent improvement compounds dramatically.
The Formula
P(success)=d1×d2×d3×···×dn
Because decisions multiply rather than add, a consistent improvement in quality produces a dramatically larger improvement in overall outcome probability.
Expanding your circle of trust always produces a better decision.
More qualified, relevant experience applied to any decision improves its outcome — without exception. The constraint isn't willingness to seek input. It's access to the right people at the moment the decision needs to be made. FounderNexus removes that constraint permanently.
Adjust the inputs — see the compounding effect
Key decisions per year10
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10
20
30
40
50
Avg. quality without FN0.70
0
10
20
30
40
50
Avg. quality with FN0.80
0
10
20
30
40
50
Without FN
2.82%
compound success probability
With FN
10.74%
compound success probability
Improvement
4x
times more likely to succeed
The success equation
We look for battle scars. Then we make you earn your seat.
Every voice must add as much value as it extracts. We recruit for hard-won experience — including failure — then let the group decide if you belong.
Who belongs in the room
You've been wrong before
Failed raises, bad hires, missed markets. Your failures are often more instructive than your successes.
You've built real pattern recognition
3+ years of venture-scale decisions — enough repetitions to recognize what a situation actually is.
You give as much as you take
Membership is reciprocal. You're simultaneously a student and a resource for everyone else in the room.
You're building at venture scale
Pursuing $100M+ ARR with VC or angel backing. Shared ambition makes the advice directly relevant.
Pre-approval criteria
{01}
3+ years as a venture-scale founder, or meaningful VC round already raised
{02}
Experience navigating a VC or angel raise — successful or not
{03}
Building — or seeking to build — a $100M+ ARR business
Evaluated holistically — we're looking for battle-tested judgment, not a checklist.
Why FounderNexus
Why small improvements in decision quality produce outsized outcomes
Venture-scale focused
Dedicated time with your chapter chair — a seasoned founder who knows your context and challenges personally.
Peer-earned invitation
Membership is offered, not purchased. Application, pre-approval, attendance, peer evaluation — in that order.
Founders facilitating founders
Every session is led by a seasoned founder. Pattern recognition is everything, not facilitation technique.
Always on, anywhere
Multiple events per week, all online. Async forum for immediate decision support. No geographic penalty.
You don't age out
Pre-seed through Exit. FN is present for you at every inflection point as you grow your business.
Beyond your circle of trust
Your network reflects your past. FN expands your present with founders ready to engage on your current problem.
Stage-matched peer groups
The tier system.
Every gathering is organized by stage — not by company type, geography, or revenue alone. You're always in a room calibrated to where you actually are.
Each gathering places you with peers at your exact stage — plus founders who've already navigated it. You're always surrounded by founders you can learn from. You're never stuck educating people at earlier stages unless you want to.
Tier 1
Exploring
Experienced founder seeking co-founder or new idea
Tier 2
$0 – $2M ARR
Pre-seed / Seed
Tier 3
$2M – $10M ARR
Series A
Tier 4
$10M – $50M ARR
Series B / C
Tier 5
$50M+ ARR
Series D+
Membership process
Membership is offered.
It isn't sold.
The quality of FounderNexus depends entirely on the quality of its members. Every step of this process protects that — for everyone already inside.
02
Attend as a guest
Pre-approved applicants attend one or two events at no cost. Participate fully — this is your opportunity to demonstrate value.
03
Peer evaluation
The group assesses whether your experience and perspective genuinely strengthen the community.
04
Invitation extended
If the group believes you belong, you're offered membership at the tier that matches your current stage.
Referred by a VC fund?
FounderNexus partners with select VC funds who refer portfolio founders directly. Fund-referred founders receive expedited pre-approval — ask your investor if they're a partner.
The value case
The most leveraged spend in your budget
Whatever your membership tier: what else at that price compounds enterprise value the same way?
What the same dollars buy elsewhere
A few hours of attorney time
one timeOne investor dinner
one timeA few extra hours of dev time
one timeA round-trip flight to meet a contact
one timeA small test marketing spend
one timeWhat FounderNexus delivers every month
1:1 access to your chapter chair
ongoingExpert speakers, multiple times per month
ongoingFundraising support — deck, intros, process
ongoingAsync forum — answers when you need them
ongoingStage-matched peers at every inflection point
ongoingA bad hire avoided:
$50K-$200K saved
A better term sheet:
0.5-2% dilution preserved
A pivot made 6 months earlier:
Immeasurable
A legal mistake avoided:
Always costly
Your membership is generally tax deductible. Membership dues qualify as a business expense for most founders, dramatically lowering your effective cost. Confirm the specific treatment with your tax professional.
How we compare
FounderNexus vs. other leadership groups.
Most founder communities are built for broad appeal. We're built for one thing: venture-scale founders who want to make better decisions.
Other leadership groups
Generic, broad, cohort-bound.
Revenue or wealth thresholds for entry
Mixed company types and risk profiles
Professional facilitators, not founders
Cohort-based — you age out
Chapter quality varies by geography
Monthly events, general agenda
FounderNexus
Curated, calibrated, compounding.
Application, peer evaluation — invitation earned
Venture-scale founders only
Seasoned founders lead every session
Scales with you from pre-seed through Exit
Local + online means no geographic penalty
Multiple events per week, stage- and topic-specific
I can say with confidence that I get far more value from FounderNexus than the cost of the membership, and I'm not even taking full advantage! This community is going to be an important part of my journey as I continue building and growing my company.
Steve Tout
founder, Identient
I really loved how welcoming the vibe felt from the moment I arrived.
Katrina Romatowski
founder, reSpace
It was awesome
Edan Shahar
founder, Wild Zebra
The event was great! Highlight: Encouragement of diverse viewpoints and good founder mix
Darian Parrish
founder, PwrOn
I think the breakout sessions are a loose but useful way to get people talking about challenges and resolutions.
Mark Fiebig
founder, Payscore
I was initially hesitant to join yet another group as there is no shortage of people claiming to help entrepreneurs, but Court Lorenzini and FounderNexus are the real deal. Any serious founder will benefit immensely from joining FounderNexus.
Jasper Kuria
co-founder, ConversionMagic
Great event, I learned a lot! Looking forward to next one
Shama Keskar
founder, Mudita Studios
FounderNexus fills a gap for entrepreneurs by complementing traditional incubator and early investment programs with a high-quality peer founder network.
Bob Lach
founder, Lightbridge Solutions
I also felt a sense of real community for the first time as a founder. You're all onto something special here!
Elias DeFaria
co-founder, SDF Labs
This was a fast track to relevant experience/advice in a room where you hold nothing back.
Nicole Resch
Co-founder, Imperative
I have attended events nationwide and joined so-called “MasterMind” groups, but nothing comes close to the network and support I have experienced at FounderNexus.
Arthur Baranovskiy
co-founder, ARY Engineering
Upcoming events
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Upcoming events
AI for Founders & CEOs: The Five Levels of Thought Partnership (Remote only)
15
April
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Zoom
Sam Keller
"Incredible event that taught me a LOT about how to use AI to help me be a better leader."
"This was my favorite event! I loved the feeling of learning. It felt like being in a college class again."
After a successful first event in San Francisco, FounderNexus is partnering with Gen AI Academy again to bring back an exclusive AI workshop. This time virtually, so everybody can join from wherever they are.
This isn't another AI overview or hype session. It's a practical deep dive built around one core promise: you leave with tools and skills you'll use the very next day.
Led by Sam Keller, Co-Founder of Gen AI Academy, this session has already transformed how 300+ leaders think about and use AI — and now it's coming to you, wherever you are.
Before the workshop, you'll receive a personalized AI Self-Assessment so the session is calibrated to exactly where you are and where you want to go.
What You'll Walk Away With
In just three hours, you'll learn how to:
• Pressure-test your biggest decisions: use AI to challenge assumptions and stress-test strategy in real time
• Get dramatically better outputs: brief AI the way you'd brief your sharpest executive
• Build your AI Dream Team: specialized assistants working for you around the clock
• Automate with AI Agents: move beyond insights into real execution: research, workflows, and action
• Win in high-stakes moments: from strategic planning to major negotiations, have AI in your corner
What Leaders Are Saying
"Best one this year by far!! Immediately valuable."
"I was literally blown away - I will be utilizing the new tools immediately."
"This will take our company to the next level. We are already applying it."
"Now I have a much deeper understanding of how to use AI tools in my work."
About Gen AI Academy
Gen AI Academy has an origin story unlike most: in 2023, founder Sam Keller and his 12-year-old son Kaz sat down to explore the promise and pitfalls of ChatGPT. That father-son experiment quickly grew into something much bigger, as hundreds of leaders joined their workshops hungry to make sense of this powerful new technology.
What Sam kept hearing was the same thing: leaders didn't just want technical how-tos. They needed the mindsets, skills, tools, and habits to weave AI into strategy, culture, and daily work. Gen AI Academy was built to answer exactly that need. Today they've trained 1,000+ professionals, including 300+ Founders & CEOs, delivering hands-on training, custom-built AI tools, and governance frameworks that make adoption powerful and responsible.
Featured in Forbes. genaiacademy.ai
Spots are limited. Reserve yours now and show up ready to lead differently.
Innovator's Edge
Sam Keller is Founder and President of Gen AI Academy, where he works directly with CEOs and executive teams to turn AI into a competitive advantage, while helping their broader organizations adopt AI in practical, high-impact ways. Rather than treating AI merely as a productivity tool, he helps leaders use it as a strategic thought partner – sharpening decision-making, accelerating execution, and increasing leadership leverage. He has trained 350+ CEOs and dozens of executive teams to integrate advanced AI capabilities into how they think, plan, and operate.
Before launching Gen AI Academy in 2023, Sam spent more than two decades building and scaling venture-backed companies. He held senior leadership roles at five startups and, at Roofstock, led cross-disciplinary teams building machine-learning and data analytics capabilities during the company’s rapid scale to unicorn status.
Sam is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University. He completed UC Berkeley’s Executive Program on AI for Business Strategy and Execution. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, and The Today Show.
upgrade your approach with our community
Experience transformative knowledge exchange and problem-solving through our curated group discussions. We use proprietary algorithms to ensure you're matched with the perfect peers for maximum insight and impact.
expert event
83(b) elections, founder vesting, and option pools
21
May
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Zoom
Daniel Neuman
The decisions you make around equity in the first year of your company can have six-figure tax consequences — and most founders don't realize it until it's too late.
In this session, Daniel Neuman from Carney Law will break down the mechanics of 83(b) elections, founder vesting schedules, and option pool sizing - the foundational equity decisions that affect your tax bill, your cap table, and your leverage in future fundraising.
We'll cover:
- What an 83(b) election actually does and why missing the 30-day window can be incredibly expensive
- How to structure founder vesting so it protects co-founder relationships and satisfies investors
- Common mistakes founders make when setting up equity for early employees
Come with your questions. This is a small-group, interactive session. Not a lecture.
Start a local chapter
Bring FounderNexus to your city.
When we see a local density of founders engage with FounderNexus, we activate a chapter in their area — led by a credentialed local founder who becomes the chapter chair. If you're passionate about growing your local founder community, we'd love to connect.
- You're an experienced venture-scale founder with an established local network
- You're passionate about growing your local entrepreneurial community
- You want to be at the center of a high-quality, curated founder community
- We provide everything you need to get a chapter started