Building a startup is never easy, but doing so during a global pandemic and economic crisis makes it even harder.
Seattle-based Madrona Venture Labs (MVL) wants to lend a helping hand in the form of Founders Unite, a new community group it created to facilitate conversations between startup founders looking for advice and those that have years of experience building successful companies through the ups and downs.
MVL, the startup studio formed by Madrona Venture Group, plans to organize ask-me-anything sessions over the coming weeks where company leaders can ask questions about their businesses. It is working with other veteran tech execs in the Seattle tech community to offer advice; many are featured in the video above, including Koru co-founder Kristen Hamilton, Concur co-founder Steve Singh, The Riveter CEO Amy Nelson, and others.
“The purpose of these AMAs is to create an open forum for founders to work through issues together, as a sounding board, and share best practices and knowledge,” saud Mike Fridgen, CEO at MVL.
The idea for Founders Unite actually came about before the coronavirus crisis. MVL polled more than 100 current and former founders, and a constant theme was the importance of fellow founders to lean on for support during the startup journey.
“This all started as research into what founders value most,” Fridgen said. “Given the pandemic and in partnership with this group of founders, we are shifting our focus to donate our time to support other founders who need support in working through the challenges they are facing.”
MVL raised $11 million for its third fund last year. The studio has launched around ten companies to date, including interior design startup Spruce Up and Mighty AI, which sold to Uber last year.
MVL aims to come up with startup ideas, put them through extensive testing, and eventually recruit entrepreneurs to spin them out as companies. The investors at Madrona Venture Group also help to vet ideas and make sure they’re ready both for the market and future investors. It’s similar to Pioneer Square Labs, another Seattle startup studio.
We’ll update this story with more information about the AMAs as it becomes available.
