I’ve spoken with over 400 founders in the past two years, and I’ve asked all of them about their challenges and needs as part of a larger strategy for WTIA to deliver more value to startups. As I had these conversations, there was a common thread that persisted: the greatest need was for connections – connections to investors, connections to potential co-founders, connections to potential customers, and connections to resources like legal or product development.

Even in a tight-knit city like Seattle, the greatest need these founders had was for a community to support them and for introductions into that community. As I had more of those conversations, I realized there was something more specific that early stage founders needed: they needed introductions to THE RIGHT PERSON in that community.   

The problem is that finding the right person is hard, and it’s time-consuming. Who are the startup lawyers? Who are the startup accountants? Where do I turn if I need HR help? Who can help me build a cheap MVP? What investors are relevant for me based on my company and stage? Do I actually need to fundraise?

Most of the first-time founders that I speak with use a Google search to help answer these questions, but that’s not an efficient approach. It will likely lead to many wasted conversations with folks that are not relevant to your company or your stage, or, at worst, may just be a leech on the startup community.  

That’s why we created the WTIA Startup Club: to help founders navigate the startup ecosystem and receive stage-appropriate resources along the way. It takes a little while to get plugged into the startup ecosystem, but once you’re in, you’re in. We want to help founders get connected with the service providers, the investors, and the enterprise companies working with local startups because a little direction early on will help save time, money, and stress in the long run.

Enter the WTIA Founder Cohort program.  

We are selecting 24 venture-scale, seed-stage startups to help grow and scale over the course of a year. Our partners and WTIA will provide founders with a roadmap that will help guide them through the next year as they navigate increasing revenue, securing investment, and growing the team. Our goal is to help invest in our ecosystem and use our connections, sponsors, and partners to support the next generation of companies via mentorship, education, coaching, and connections. We also want to connect early-stage entrepreneurs with similarly-staged peers to build cohorts of connected founders that grow together.

After year one, the cohort will continue to grow together and as they become more experienced and see more success, they’ll become mentors for later cohorts. This will create a cycle of mentorship in the startup ecosystem. The more folks we can teach the ins and outs of the startup landscape, the more people they’ll be able to teach, and the more successful the startup ecosystem will become.

It’s a long-term play to make sure Washington remains a global leader in tech with a healthy ecosystem of startups creating new ideas, launching companies, and building innovative technologies. I’m very excited for it.