I am a co-founder of Securly, a cloud-based service that keeps kids, schools and families safe online. This post is about our wonderful experience with the FOUNDER.org program so far – about half way into the yearlong program for founders chasing big ideas.
We got introduced to FOUNDER.org via Wharton while I was finishing up my Executive MBA at Wharton San Francisco. We applied to the FOUNDER.org $100K Competition, and were among the 10 startups that were selected (from a pool of over 500 who applied) for the first cohort. FOUNDER.org started by Michael Baum (WG ’89), the CEO and founder of the highly successful enterprise company and darling of many IT admins, Splunk. I still remember our face-to-face Skype presentation to FOUNDER.org. My co-founder and I had boot-strapped Securly and were debugging a server crash when we jumped on a call with Michael. It was perhaps the least prepared presentation I have ever given simply given how long it had been since I had pitched the company. At the end of the essentially improvised pitch, Michael said something to the effect of, “your presentation could be better, but I believe in the problem and really love your solution.” It was a refreshing change from having pitched to investors who ask a company with two first-time entrepreneurs, with no sales background, but a $250K+ recurring revenue in six months to “try making your product viral first.”
