Claudius ⧑ Mbemba 🇨🇲

Most startup pitch events have founders pitching to investors. This one flips the script. On February 4th, during Utah Tech Week, Founders N' Funders is hosting the VC ReversePitch™ Event in Salt Lake City. Instead of founders pitching .... VCs take the stage and pitch to founders. Why this event is actually useful for founders: - Learn how VCs think before you pitch them: Hear investors explain their thesis, decision process, and red flags — in their own words — without the pressure of selling. - See how different VCs are not interchangeable: Industry focus, check size, risk tolerance, stage, and value-add vary widely. The VC ReversePitch™ makes these differences obvious. - Avoid wasting months pitching the wrong investors: Clarity upfront saves time, energy, and credibility during a fundraise. - Understand what “good fit” actually means: Founders often optimize for logos. This helps you optimize for alignment. - Get smarter about fundraising — even if you’re not raising yet: The insights compound. Founders who attend earlier raise better later. - Build context before building relationships: Conversations after the event start at a deeper level because expectations are already set. - Meet active VCs in person after determining which VCs might be a potential fit for your company. If you’re a Pre-Seed to Series A founder actively thinking about fundraising (or a VC who believes in transparency and education) this event is for you. 📍 Salt Lake City 📅 February 4th 🗓 Utah Tech Week ------------ Apply to attend here: https://lnkd.in/g7esVJiP Adam Shaw Inger E. Jeff Erickson

27

12 Comments

I'm excited to announce the official launch of Silicon Slopes Chapters — a comprehensive network of community-driven groups connecting entrepreneurs and professionals across every corner of Utah. For years, we've watched Utah's tech ecosystem become one of the nation's premier innovation hubs. But the real strength of our community isn't measured by unicorns and funding rounds alone — it's measured by the quality of relationships we build and the opportunities we create for everyone. That's why we're launching Chapters. Two Types of Chapters: Community Chapters bring together people who share common interests or industries — AI, FinTech, Sales Leadership, Women in Leadership, Blockchain, and more. Go deep with others facing similar challenges in your field. Regional Chapters serve specific communities across Utah — from Logan to St. George, Vernal to Cedar City — ensuring innovation and opportunity aren't confined to the Wasatch Front. Our 29 Community Chapters: Agile • AI • Angels • Blockchain • Community Builders • Consumer Products • Cybersecurity • EdTech • Education • Energy • Environment • Executive Training • Finance • Financial Planning • FinTech • Founder • Go To Market • Growth Strategy • Health & Wellness • HealthTech • Latino • Leadership Development • Public Policy • SaaS • Sales Leadership • Sports Business • Startup • Technology Law • Women In Leadership Our 13 Regional Chapters: Cedar City • Farmington • Lehi • Logan • Ogden • Park City • Price • Provo • Salt Lake City • Sandy/Draper • St. George • Tooele County • Vernal How to Get Involved: Join a Chapter (Free) — Find chapters that align with your interests or location. Access private communities and monthly events across the state. Lead a Chapter — We need passionate leaders to facilitate these communities. No cost, just commitment to serve. 5-10 hours/month to organize events, moderate discussions, and create value for others. Why This Matters: Communities thrive when people invest in relationships, not transactions. Utah has something special — a culture of collaboration over competition, where people genuinely want to see each other succeed. But culture requires intention. It requires people willing to do the work of bringing others together. Chapters are the heartbeat of our community — spaces where relationships form, knowledge is shared, and opportunities are created for everyone. The only requirements to join or lead: ✅ Give more than you take ✅ No one matters more than you, and you don't matter more than anyone else ✅ Care about Utah's tech community and its long-term success Join the chapters that speak to you. Show up. Contribute. If you're called to leadership, step up and lead. Together, we're building the strongest, most inclusive tech community in America. Welcome to Silicon Slopes Chapters. This is your community. Learn more and join: https://lnkd.in/gKWu4Feg #SiliconSlopes #UtahTech #Community #Leadership #Entrepreneurship

86

13 Comments

Great lineup ---- Excited to hear from awesome Utah-based VCs at the Founders N' Funders event tomorrow! EPIC Ventures - Just raised $200M fund. Invest in Seed, Series A & B with a focus on SaaS, healthcare and tech in general. Spacestation Investments - Very active early-stage investor. Leveraging influencer marketing and community expertise to help early-stage consumer and tech startups scale. Stalwart Ventures – Early-stage VC backing founders with long-term, disciplined support and a growing leadership team. Ollin Ventures – Utah County–based fund investing $250K–$750K in transformative pre-seed and seed B2B SaaS and health tech startups. Startup Ignition Ventures – Pre-seed “first-check” VC focused on early B2B SaaS startups with strong founder potential. Tandem Ventures – Founder-led VC investing $500K–$2M from pre-seed to Series B+, powered by its unicorn mentorship network “The Stable.” ------------ If you haven't applied to attend already, here's the link: https://lnkd.in/gqz5_2Pr

67

4 Comments

Harpoon Ventures + Black Flag is teaming up with Microsoft for Startups to provide founders with access to up to $250,000 in Azure credits, empowering builders to scale faster, train models more efficiently, and access world-class AI infrastructure. What’s included: ⚡ Up to $250K in Azure credits (usable across Azure OpenAI, Grok 3, Llama 4, and more) 💻 On-demand GPU VMs for model training and fine-tuning 🧠 Access to GitHub Enterprise + Microsoft 365 Business Premium 🤝 Dedicated Microsoft technical + GTM support This partnership is designed to give deep-tech and dual-use founders the tools and resources they need to win. Because when they win, we all win. 🏴‍☠️

108

8 Comments

Check out the latest funding news from across the Techstars portfolio. → Zipline (Techstars 2011), a drone delivery and logistics startup, raises more than $600M in new funding, boosting its valuation to $7.6B, as it expands commercial deployments. → Language learning startup Preply (Techstars 2015) raises $150M and becomes the 23rd known unicorn from Techstars accelerators. → Hydrosat (Techstars 2019) raises $60M in Series B funding → Tive (Techstars 2017) receives a $20M investment, valuing the shipment-tracking systems developer at slightly more than $500M. → Parambil (Techstars 2023) raises an additional $6M in seed funding ($8M to date). → Seasats (Techstars 2021) receives $24M in Department of War APFIT funding to accelerate the fielding of its autonomous surface vessels. → Hawaiian Airlines’ newly announced $600M Kahuʻewai Hawai‘i Investment Plan features a strategic investment in Ampaire (Techstars 2018) to support hybrid-electric aviation in the islands. → Fintalo (Techstars 2025) secures $500K+ in oversubscribed Pre-Seed funding. → PraxisPro (Techstars 2024) closes an oversubscribed $6M seed round. → Samara Aerospace (Techstars 2024) closes $10M seed round to help bring more stability to sats in orbit. → MyARC (Techstars 2022), a platform that enables fitness creators to train their communities at scale, secures £1.5M investment. Massive congratulations to these incredible portfolio companies!   🔗  Read more at https://lnkd.in/dxtCTvrg 

164

7 Comments

🚀 Every.io partners with Draper University's Hero Training Program Company formation and back-office setup shouldn't distract founders from building great products. Today, I'm announcing Every.io's partnership with Draper University to support their Hero Training program, where some of the most ambitious founders take their first entrepreneurial steps. Key partnership elements: - Day 0 integration with direct access to Every's platform - Week 1 workshops on company formation fundamentals - Special offers on formation, banking, payroll, accounting, taxes, and much more. As someone who's scaled venture-backed companies, I wish I'd had this level of infrastructure support from day one. Want to learn more? Chat with us here: https://lnkd.in/ggjPP43x Looking forward to working personally with the Summer 2025 cohort this May in San Mateo! Thank you, Waleed Arshad, for your collaboration on making this happen. #DraperUniversity #HeroTraining #Startups #BuildWithEvery

26

4 Comments

If you’re building a robotics or hardware tech startup, funding doesn’t have to mean VC money. In fact, it might not even be the best fit when you're starting out. There are options like family offices and government grants that can prove to be great long-term strategic investments. In this video, Satish Shukla and I discuss alternative funding sources and how they approached this at Addverb. Link to the full episode in the comments.

85

3 Comments

In 2026, everything I do will be in service of founders. Specifically: helping founders cross the line from 'builder' to 'operator.' It’s the first Sunday, and I felt inspired to share a mini-manifesto for the year ahead. This transition (from builder to operator) is where I see many high-potential founders struggle most. Building is the easy part (for most of you). - You can ship. - You can hustle. - You can close early deals. Where companies actually die? Business systems and operations. I’ve helped build three different businesses past $20M ARR. Never alone. Always with teams. Always with systems. At a certain point, founder-led everything becomes the bottleneck. Sales is usually the first place this shows up. When sales lives in the founder’s head + inbox, growth caps. Not because the founder can’t sell, but because the business can’t operate without them. From ‘Founder Chapel’ to ‘David Beats Goliath,’ and through the projects and partnerships I take on this year, everything will serve one goal: Helping founders transform into EXCEPTIONAL operators. The kind people want to work with, follow, invest in, and trust with real responsibility. Builders are common these days. Operators are much rarer. Companies scale when systems carry the weight founders were never meant to carry alone.

102

32 Comments

68% of all U.S. startup funding this year landed in California. Big rounds like OpenAI’s $40B obviously make headlines, but it’s not just that. If you look at the bigger picture, this keeps happening. For decades, California has been the place where ambitious ideas and serious capital collide. And that ecosystem keeps building on itself. Apple, Nvidia, SpaceX, Stripe, Anthropic - all started there. And judging by how things are moving with AI and autonomous tech, the next big wave likely will too. Hard to bet against that kind of momentum.

22

1 Comment

Harpoon Ventures + Black Flag is teaming up with Microsoft for Startups to provide founders with access to up to $250,000 in Azure credits, empowering builders to scale faster, train models more efficiently, and access world-class AI infrastructure. What’s included: ⚡Up to $250K in Azure credits (usable across Azure OpenAI, Grok 3, Llama 4, and more) 💻On-demand GPU VMs for model training and fine-tuning 🧠Access to GitHub Enterprise + Microsoft 365 Business Premium 🤝Dedicated Microsoft technical + GTM support This partnership is designed to give deep-tech and dual-use founders the tools and resources they need to win. Because when they win, we all win. 🏴‍☠️

50

4 Comments

Harpoon Ventures + Black Flag is teaming up with Microsoft for Startups to provide founders with access to up to $250,000 in Azure credits, empowering builders to scale faster, train models more efficiently, and access world-class AI infrastructure. What’s included: ⚡ Up to $250K in Azure credits (usable across Azure OpenAI, Grok 3, Llama 4, and more) 💻 On-demand GPU VMs for model training and fine-tuning 🧠 Access to GitHub Enterprise + Microsoft 365 Business Premium 🤝 Dedicated Microsoft technical + GTM support This partnership is designed to give deep-tech and dual-use founders the tools and resources they need to win. To keep pace with an increasingly hostile near peer environment, we need the complete resource stack: political, capital, technological. This is a great addition.

40

2 Comments