Company Overview:
FoundersBoost is dedicated to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship within local startup ecosystems, focusing on high-growth startups in the early traction phase. Our commitment to giving first and maintaining a high-quality, well-structured program enables us to empower early-stage startups to achieve Acceleration, Investment, and Revenue. Over our 7 year history, we’ve supported over 600 startups, 80% with underrepresented founders, across 3 continents and led them to raise over $350M in funding.
As part of an initiative with the City of Glendale, FoundersBoost is launching separate B2B & B2C accelerators in Glendale to support startups from across Southern California, with the B2B program already active. These 7-week cohort-based programs are aimed at empowering promising, early-traction founders during this critical stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Additionally, FoundersBoost is supported by our partners Hacker Fund and the Alliance for SoCal Innovation to separately run hackathons and a seed stage investment support pipeline, respectively.
Position Summary:
This is a part-time position requiring a consistent 10 hour per week time commitment.
This position is to oversee the Consumer Technology accelerator.
The co-Director will co-lead with one other director and share overall ownership of the outcomes of the B2B and B2C accelerators but each director will take primary ownership of one of the two accelerators. In this role, you will serve as the primary representative of our organization within the SoCal ecosystem, leveraging your passion and deep understanding of the community to foster growth and innovation.
Key Responsibilities:
* Program Execution: Lead all phases of the accelerator cohort, including recruiting, in-program sessions, and post-programming support. FoundersBoost maintains a robust back-end admin portal and application management system to aid in operational tasks. * Team Leadership: Manage a small support team including a Program Manager and Associate and liaise with HQ. Deepen community partnerships and leverage startup ecosystem leaders such as mentors, investors, and other seed-stage accelerators. Represent FoundersBoost at industry events. * Application Process Oversight: Help in sourcing startup teams within the local community. Decision-making responsibility for selecting 8 startup teams from a pool of applicants. * Entrepreneurial Support: Act as the Lead Mentor for cohort founders. Provide guidance to entrepreneurs on business model refinement, market strategy, partnerships, and pitch preparation. More so, your goal is to pair the startups up with mentors who will do the same, ultimately scaling your impact through their efforts. * Session Oversight: Source potential mentors, guest speakers, and industry experts to participate in the weekly sessions. * Partnership Development: Find and work with ecosystem partners and sponsors to help further the capacity of the program. * Demo Day Preparation: Guide participants in preparing for demo day, ensuring they effectively showcase their progress and potential to investors and stakeholders. * Demo Day and Additional Event Logistics: Oversee, coordinate, and delegate tasks for our exclusive in-person Demo Day event. Manage additional events (~2) held in coordination with our partners.
Required Skills & Qualifications:
* Strong operational expertise, with a track record of proactively managing projects and teams effectively. * Exceptional leadership skills, with the ability to inspire, motivate, and guide participants and team members. * Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships with diverse stakeholders. Comfortable speaking to audiences in excess of 50 people. * Experience in pre-investment stages of startups, including fundraising and investor relations, is highly desirable. * Passion for supporting local startup ecosystems and a commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
Compensation:
Compensation is $10k per cohort (5 months) with the possibility of additional sponsorship commission.
Application Process:
Applications will be accepted until July 4th.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members. Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to submit your application.