Members

FFL is a community of experienced professionals who are working on software technology startups and want to help others overcome the challenges inherent in starting a company.

Program

When you join Founder Friendly Labs (FFL), you are committing to:

• Attend a peer mentoring session hosted from Silicon Valley via Zoom

• Be an active member of the community and help each other out

Leadership

Mendel Chuang graduated from MIT with two degrees and joined Google pre-IPO. During his 5 years at Google, he worked on a variety of projects including Google Desktop, Toolbar, Blogger, AdWords, and AdSense, where he won the Google Founders Award. He was the Co-Founder and CEO of a mobile startup and is the Executive Director of Founder Friendly Labs and a General Partner at Acquired Wisdom Fund.

FFL

• $1,990 USD program fee

• One peer mentoring session hosted from Silicon Valley via Zoom

• Amazon Web Services - Up to $10,000 USD in AWS credits valid for 2 years

• Google Cloud - Up to $2,000 USD in Google Cloud credits valid for 2 years

• Stripe - Credits for fee-free processing + Stripe Atlas discount

• Carta - 20% discount off your first year of a paid plan

• Online community with 200+ experienced alumni

• And more

Program Fee

FFL does not take any equity. The program fee per startup will be due upon admission to the class. This fee is usually tax-deductible (check with your tax advisor to confirm). There is no fee to apply to the program.

Program Requirement

We understand founders are busy, so we offer a low-commitment experience. The only program requirement is to attend the one-day peer mentoring session hosted from Silicon Valley via Zoom.

Peer mentoring is the cornerstone of the FFL experience. FFL is a community of experienced startup founders who like to help each other out. In the class session, members offer advice based on their own experiences with their current startup or previous companies. For many of our startups, the most valuable advice comes from peers because members have deep experience.

The session begins with individual introductions, followed by peer mentoring, and then details about how to register for the perks and benefits. Each startup will have a chance to ask the group one question and respond to questions from other startups. Everyone receives a class roster so teams can follow up with additional questions or advice.

Selection Criteria

FFL is looking for startups that are developing technology products for external customers (B2B or B2C) and we have worked with startups that are based around the world, at various stages of development. FFL does not work with nonprofits, subsidiaries, personal blogs, hedge funds, dev shops, consultancies, or agencies.

Through our application and interview process, primary considerations include:

• Experience and past accomplishments of team members

• Team members’ drive, helpfulness, and product instinct

• Startup’s ability to benefit from FFL's community and partners

Application Process

1. Submit an application.

2. If you already have a 1-pager or pitch deck, please email it to ffl@joinffl.com.

After the application deadline, some startups will be invited to interview via Zoom. For startups invited to interview, the CEO and all team members who would participate in FFL (meaning they would attend the class session, join the online community, etc.) must be at this interview as there is no second interview. In addition to the CEO, startups have the option to select up to 2 other key team members to participate. Startups will be notified of their acceptance soon after all the interviews are completed, and the exact date for the program session is selected a few weeks later.

Experienced Founders

Our specialized program is not for everyone. Our low-commitment accelerator is best suited for experienced professionals who are interested in joining a community of like-minded founders and who can immediately benefit from our perks and benefits. Other programs are a better fit for startups whose members lack past work experience, want weekly mentoring, or need to fundraise urgently. For seasoned professionals who need to fundraise urgently, you can apply to pitch Acquired Wisdom Fund.

Supportive Community

FFL was created to help startups, with a focus on founders that also want to help each other. We are a community where all of our members can be encouraging, provide advice when it makes sense, and support one another.