Helping founders succeed is our only obsession.
Startup Haven Programs
Recent Special Guest Speakers
Thanks to our generous sponsors and community partners:
Accelerator Partners
Community Partners
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Thanks to our generous sponsors and community partners:
Accelerator Partners
Community Partners
Startup Haven negotiates with select partners to bring exclusive and best-in-class benefits for our members. We don’t use the terms “exclusive” and “best-in-class” loosely — open and/or publicly-available offers are eligible for the program. So you can be sure that offers made through the Member Advantage program are worth your consideration.
If /Level 2 benefits are not what you need, that’s totally fine. /Level 1 is not a compromise. As /Level 1 you are a full-fledged Startup Haven member and we are here to support you the same as every other Startup Haven member. If you circumstances change or we add a benefit that you find compelling, you can apply for /Level 2 access at any time.
/Level 1 members receive a personalized welcome email and the offer of a brief introductory phone call with Startup Haven’s founder.
As the member adanvatage program grows in value and administrative complexity, the cost of the program may increase as well. The fitst 100 members to upgrade to /Level 2 will be gruaranteed to receive the introductory $300 price for their second year.
In chapters where demand for seats at our flagship Startup Poker 2.0 events exceeds supply (which eventually will be ALL of our chapters :-), not everyone gets a seat. /Level 2 members will be guaranteed to get a seat.
Most member offers available to all Startup Haven members. However, in cases where members need to limit availability of their offer or in casees where fulfillment is complicated, Startup Haven takes on the overhead of managing access to these special offers. /Level 2 members get priority access to the offers.
/Level 2 members are eligible for the most valuable Member Advantge program partner offers. In most cases, taking advantage of just one of these offers will more than recoup your /Level 2 dues.
/Level 2 members who take advantage of the Vouch Recruiting program will receive a 5% discount on program fees.
/Level 2 founders get access to the GroundWork Accelerator program curriculum, may attend select GroundWork Accelerator content workshops and recieve a one-hour working session with a GroundWork Executive Mentor.
Founder to Founder Forums bring founders together in dedicated and trusted peer groups to provide learning, support and accountability. This program is under development, expected to launch Q3 2019.
Venture Vino is a full-bodied blend of wine, wit and wisdom. Space for this event is lmited but /Level 2 members recieve early access to tickets and a discount. This event is under development, expected to launch Q2 2019.
Live and in-person programs and events have natural capacity constraints. While /Level 2 members cannot be guaranteed access to the special programs, they do get exclusive and/or priority access.
Yeah, it’s technially swag. But, like everything else we do, it’s good stuff.
Some premium events (see /Level 2 benefits list) are exclusive to /Level 2 members while some are available to /Level 1 members on a space-available basis.
With more than 2,000 members representing more than 1,000 member companies, the Startup Haven ecosystem provides an ideal marketplace for startups to help other startups by offering special deals on their company’s products and services to other members.
The best help a startup can get often comes from other founders and investors who have truly been there and done that. Asks & Offers is an online tool that helps our members make highly-relevant asks and offers among other members.
Fund raising is among the most difficult, exhausting, frustrating and time-consuming challenges a venture scale founder faces. Of course, we can’t fix fund raising; but we can help our startup founder and angel investor members make the most of the Startup Haven network effect.
Recruiting the THE hardest aspect of building and growing a venture-scale company. Startup Haven’s Vouch Recruiting program leverages our members’ professional networks to recruit great candidates at rediculously low cost.
Yep, it’s real poker for real money. But Startup Poker 2.0 is friendly, low stakes and beginners are welcome. The just is no better activity to facilitate building relationships and practicing practical desicion making skills.
Since 2006, Startup Haven’s core programs and events have provided venture-scale founders and investors unparalleled opportuinties to forge lasting and valuable relationships amoung peers. These core events and programs are available to all Startup Haven members.
You’ve got to eat… and we’re buying. You’ve never been to a founders dinner like this before. As with virtually all of Startup Haven’s events, Founders Dinner is by invitation only… and only members are invited. We also host an open bar and our no-pizza rule means you’ll likely enjoy the food.
The areas Bob can help most with are: Business Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Funding & Capital.
Bob is a life-long technologist, software engineer and startup exec. He has founded or co-founded five venture-backed companies, serving variously as CEO, CTO and CMO. Bob’s mentor and advisor experience spans more than 200 companies over more than a decade, including his work with accelerators like Techstars, Alchemist, 9MileLabs, Founders Institute, TiE Youth Entrepreneurs, AngelHack and others.
Augmenting his experience writing nearly 1,000,000 lines of production code and nearly 20 years as a startup exec Bob holds bachelors and masters degrees in philosophy from University of Washington and California State University.
The areas Mark can help most with are: Operations, Marketing, Sales, Hiring, Fund Raising, Business Strategy, Entrepreneur Experience, Business Development, Culture, Leadership.
Mark is the Co-founder of Bonanza, an online eCommerce marketplace with over 5 million active users. Prior to Bonanza, Mark founded Dorsey Floral, an importer and distributor of fresh cut flowers.
Mark has been involved in the Seattle startup scene for over 20 years and Startup Haven since 2010. Mark has extensive knowledge in scaling businesses from basement bootstrap to scale.
Mark can provide expert advice in eCommerce, Public Speaking, Business Development, Sales, Marketing, Culture, Customer Service, Hiring/human resources, negotiations, strategy, and fund raising.
The areas Arry can help most with are: Operations, Design, Marketing, Sales, Hiring, Fund Raising, Governance, Regulatory Compliance, Business Strategy, Entrepreneur Experience.
Arry is a 20-year industry veteran, serial founder, and strategic operator with expertise in scaling technology businesses with a consistent track record building high performing teams. Key strengths include:
— Management/leadership organizational change, design, and strategy experience, in addition to high visibility leadership in the technology and blockchain community
— Delivering product (both enterprise and consumer) with high quality and highly engaged customers
— Building communities/partnerships
She is founding Chair of the Cascadia Blockchain Council and Board Member with the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA). She also serves as the Managing Director of Yellow Umbrella Ventures advising and investing in technology companies with six companies in their portfolio to date. Her entrepreneurial experience begins in 1999, and includes:
— As a first-time CEO and co-founder of a FinTech startup called GiftStarter, Arry raised $640,000 in angel funding in 2015, while also 8 months pregnant. She and her team of five, onboarded several partnerships like B&H Photo Video, butter London, and Providence Health. Together, they built one of the largest databases of products and brands globally, where people could go to the destination site and find/search for any product sold online to purchase it with multiple payment methods.
— Arry led the $32 mm Initial Coin Offering (ICO), building a global crypto-community in less than six months.
Co-Founder and COO/President, she took the team from original two founders to over 25 employees globally. An innovator, inventor and writer, she is widely published: Forbes, CNN Money, Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Puget Sound Business Journal, Geekwire, Retailing Today, and Seattle Times. Additionally, over the years, Arry has worked regularly with both investors and development across four continents to launch the products
In addition to investing, Arry helps teams with mentoring in the areas of PR, positioning, and strategy. She enjoys spending her personal time with her husband and business partner, and their two sons.”
The areas Jon can help most with are: Engineering, Fund Raising.
Jon is a deep technologist and experienced executive in both on-premises enterprise software and consumer SaaS businesses. In his prior leadership roles, he was Vice President and CTO of VMware’s Cloud Management Business Unit, which generated $1.2B/year for VMware.
Other positions include CTO of Mozy, and CTO of EMC’s Cloud Services division. As a co-founder of Tignis, Jon is an experienced entrepreneur, having founded two other startup companies. He sold his last startup, Smart Desktop, to Pi Corporation in 2006. Jon is a former tenured professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University, and his highly-cited academic research work was awarded the prestigious 2010 ACM Software System Award for contributions to the field of recommendation systems. Jon holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, and a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Lewis and Clark College.
The areas Joe can help most with are: Marketing, Sales, Fund Raising, Business Strategy, Entrepreneur Experience.
20 year Internet startup founder, co-founder. Raised over $50M, took a company public, have worked globally, love working with builders. I am a business guy with a sound understanding of technology.
In my corporate life I have scaled a business from $40M to over $200M in 3 years so I know that ride. If you want to work with a passionate, hard working, results-oriented, strategic thinker then I am a good fit. Check out my LinkedIn profile for the details.
The areas Alex can help most with are: Operations, Fund Raising, Business Strategy.
“I’m an Alaska born entrepreneur turned investor who visits Seattle frequently.
My background includes real estate investing/operations, Alaska tourism, valuation and turn-around consulting, and early stage startup investing.
I’m a huge fan of creating value, and want to be a small part of providing the building blocks entrepreneurs need to succeed.
I’m grateful for all those who have helped me over the years in my own journey, and I want to continue to pay that forward. ”
The areas Martina can help most with are: Sales, Hiring, Fund Raising, Business Strategy, Entrepreneur Experience.
Martina Welkhoff is a Founding Partner at the WXR Fund, a venture fund focused on women-led spatial computing companies. Prior to starting WXR, Martina founded Zealyst, a corporate gaming platform whose customers included Amazon, eBay, P&G, and Expedia.
After exiting Zealyst, Martina founded ConveneVR, a social VR production company. She is on the advisory board of the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking at the University of Washington and serves on the Washington Technology Industry Association XR Innovation Council. Previously, Martina was the President of Seattle Women in Tech, served on the board of Seattle Angel, and was a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
The areas Erik can help most with are: Operations, Marketing, Hiring, Fund Raising, Governance, Regulatory Compliance, Business Strategy, Entrepreneur Experience, Executive and Founder’s “mind” coaching.
Mr. Jansen is a seasoned operational and financial executive in building technology- and real estate-based businesses. He also advises several many public as well as private companies on is issues of strategic capitalization, market and product approaches as well as investor relations and access. Presently he is the Managing Partner of Windermere Realty Management Company (Indianapolis), a multi-million dollar LLP portfolio of commercial real estate holdings. Previously, he was founding exec of Goodwin Industries, a stealth medical products company developing innovations in CPAP solutions for sleep apnea. He was a General Partner of Ramp Equity Partners in Seattle, a team of operating executives conducting search assignments for IP for client corporations and new operating companies developing new products building upon ideas in those patents.
He originally played an integral part in building Texas Instruments’ billion-dollar Analog Semiconductor Division and moved to Silicon Valley in the late 1980’s to join the then-nascent semiconductor-based power conversion and energy management industry. Over the next decade he joined major Wall Street Investment banking firms Robertson Stephens and Alex. Brown (Now Deutsche Bank) rising to the position of Managing Partner while facilitating over $1 billion in IPO’s, acquisitions and other capital transactions. He was a founder and served as CFO and CEO of Palo Alto Technologies, a maker of ultra-high reliability, automated, lights-out manufacturing logistical solutions. Following its sale and his relocation to Seattle and joining DA Davidson Capital Markets Group, he has focused on financing and building local companies in the Web video spaces, medical solutions, communications software, flat panel displays and advanced semiconductor devices, among others. He has served 8 years as a special employee of the Department of Treasury, as a member of the US Mint’s Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee on a number of art, product and customer initiatives.
He completed his latest advanced degree (MS in Computer Science) at the University of Washington in 2004. He has also played active and oversight roles in various national, governmental and university advisory functions, including incubators, venture investing and regionally and nationally-oriented sustainability and climate change-focused think tanks and action-oriented organizations.
The areas James can help most with are: Operations, Engineering, Sales, Fund Raising, Entrepreneur Experience.
“Hi I’m James, the CEO and Cofounder of AdaptiLab. AdaptiLab is a B2B SaaS startup helping companies grow their machine learning teams from hiring to productivity. We were founded in summer of 2018, graduated Techstars Seattle, and have raised $2m to date. We’re based in Seattle and work out of Create33.
I’ve worked in the startup/vc ecosystem the last five years as a founder, vc fellow, and dev lead. I’m happy to provide support on machine learning, navigating pivots, b2b SaaS sales, product design and management, angel and seed fundraising, founder relationships, and engineering/data science hiring.
I studied computer science and statistics with a focus on machine learning at Duke University, and I am currently a mentor for the Duke Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Accelerator. ”
The areas Buzz can help most with are: Marketing, Sales, Fund Raising, Business Strategy, Entrepreneur Experience.
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The areas Kevin can help most with are: Engineering, Hiring, Fund Raising, Entrepreneur Experience.
Engineering Team Lead at Pioneer Square Labs. Responsible for working side-by-side with entrepreneurs to bring new concepts to reality and ultimately to create venture-funded startup companies.
Co-founder and CTO of Haiku Deck, an app for quickly creating flawless presentations on the web, iPad or iPhone. As CTO, I was responsible for overall technology vision, product strategy, engineering team management, and day-to-day development. Haiku Deck is one of the most popular iPad productivity apps of all time, has won numerous industry awards, and raised over $5M in
venture funding.
Prior to Haiku Deck I worked at Microsoft and Accenture and have an engineering degree from the University of Michigan.
The areas Jonathan can help most with are: Design, Marketing, Sales, Product, Blockchain.
Jonathan is seasoned blockchain and retail technology entrepreneur, executive, and educator having led engineering, product, and business teams for software and physical goods companies throughout his career in early stage tech, enterprise retail, and as a University instructor.
Jonathan is the Founder and CEO of TF Labs and TF Blockchain. TF Labs is a Blockchain and Product Startup Studio, working with enterprise companies and building internal startups, while TF Blockchain is a Conference and Event company hosting quarterly conferences focused on high value networking and education. Jonathan is a Blockchain Product Strategy thought leader, innovator, and technologist, with extensive domain expertise in Blockchain, Loyalty, Affiliate, Retail Tech, IoT, FinTech, and Payment technology.
The areas Javier can help most with are: Fund Raising.
Full time angel investor associated with different Seattle networks (Grubstakes, Alliance of Angels, SWAN Venture Fund II), accelerators (Female Founders Alliance, Venture Out) and mentorship programs (WeWork Labs, UW CoMotion).