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The Forum
Accelerator
Everything you need on your B2B SaaS journey from zero to sustainable
Starting a company is really hard – we understand that firsthand. As former SaaS founders and operators, we know the importance of having capital, support, and an outside perspective on this journey.
When you join Forum Ventures, you’ll have a fractional co-founder with differentiated world class expertise to help with product, GTM, and fundraising. You’ll feel supported and backed by a team and community at the most crucial of times. There are a lot of accelerator programs out there, but none go the extra mile like we do.
Personalized, hands-on support, wherever you are in the early founder journey
Every company has different needs. We personalize our program, mentors, and expertise where you need it most to get you to where you need to be.
Download our Program package
Idea
MVP
In Market
Traction
Fundraising
Growing
$100k
in Pre Seed Funding (USD)
$600M+
in follow-on funding
750+
Co-Investors
A Dedicated Fundraising Track
Fundraising is a huge part of enabling company growth, but it’s often unchartered territory for founders. Our fundraising track is designed to get you to your next round of funding feeling ready and confident. Founders who raise with Forum Ventures do better than those who go it alone, because we guide you closely through the process from start to finish – bringing an investor mindset to every step.
A Strong Fundraising Narrative
A Professional Investor Deck
Advice & Best Practices from Our Community
Pitch Practice with Investors
Introductions to Qualified Funds
Two Weeks of Investor Meetings
Your Fractional Cofounders
Your dedicated Managing Director will become an extension of your team, work with you day in day out, act as a sounding board, and ensure you’re always moving forward.
Bocar Dia,
Managing Director
Managing Director
Specialties: GTM, Early Stage Sales, Customer Acquisition
Bocar works 1:1 with portfolio founders through the early stages of building, including go-to-market, founder-led sales, and fundraising. As part of the founding team of the Enterprise product at Hootsuite, Bocar helped the business grow to well over $150M+ and 2,000+ employees in under seven years. Bocar continues to co-found, advise, coach and angel invest in SaaS startups from pre-seed to Series A. Bocar is passionate about helping build and scale hyper growth SaaS companies.
Maia Benson,
Managing Director
Managing Director
Specialties: SMB/SME, Strategy, Revenue, Growth
Maia helps our portfolio founders build from inception to revenue and profit growth. She has spent over 10 years building net-new digital businesses for both Enterprises and VC-backed companies. Maia co-founded Nifty Luxe, a company that enables luxury fashion brands to make and sell their digital assets leveraging NFT technology and best in class commerce technology, and was the Global Commercial Head of Shipping & Fulfillment at Shopify.
Jonah Midanik, COO and Managing Partner
Specialties: Storytelling, Narrative, Fundraising
An engineer by trade, Jonah has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of marketing and technology as a serial entrepreneur in Canada. Jonah has been lucky enough to have several different lenses on the founder journey from bootstrapping, to launching new corporate divisions, and raising 8 figures of venture capital. Jonah works hand in hand with founders preparing to fundraise, coaching them on their pitch, narrative, deck, and investor meetings.
Customer Perks
Get access to over $100k worth of corporate perks, like Hubspot, Carta, Early Growth, and more, exclusive to founders in our community.
Customer Intros
Meet key customers from our network of 300+ F500 and F1000 companies to help drive early product feedback and revenue.
A Community of Alumni and SaaS Mentors
Get matched with best-in-class operators, industry-leading executives, and seasoned founders for 1:1 mentorship.
Peter Zotto
General Manager at Profitwell
Kyle Wiggins
Co-Founder & CEO at Assembly
Pooji Ennamuri
GTM Strategy + Ops @ Couchbase
Alex Kolodkin
Founder & CEO at Set Scouter
Rachel Renock
CEO & Co-Founder, Wethos
Taylor Black
Principal Program Manager at Microsoft
Meghan Pfeifer
Senior Brand Strategist & Product Marketer @ Innovatemap
Matthew Lombardi
Managing Director at OneEleven
"Forum was a very valuable experience for us."
“Forum was a very valuable experience for us. They provided us with key customer introductions to companies in our target market that led to over $200K of revenue. Two months after demo day, we had grown revenue to $850K ARR and were able to close our seed round.”
Sean Thorne
CEO & Co-Founder, People Data Labs
CEO & Co-Founder, People Data Labs
People Data Labs enables companies to build innovative, trusted people data driven products at scale. Sean and his team joined our San Francisco program in August 2015 and we were the first check into the company. They have since gone on to raise close to $10M across a seed and Series A from funds like Susa Ventures, 8VC and Founders Fund.
How much do you invest in each company & what are your terms?
We provide $100k USD in pre seed funding to each company joining our program. We’re usually the first check in, and we write checks quickly (day 1 of the program), which founders truly appreciate. Our terms are $100k USD for 7.5% equity on a standard, post money SAFE.
What type of companies do you fund?
We fund B2B SaaS companies in any vertical in the early-stage (pre-seed) of your journey who have taken on less than $500k in funding, and have or are about to have an MVP in market.
What type of founders would be a good fit for Forum's program?
We love working with founders who are passionate about what they’re building, have strong founder-market fit, and are looking for a fractional co-founder to guide them and push them to the next stage. We work best with founders who are both driven and coachable.
What is your stance on Diversity & Inclusion?
We believe we have a platform and the responsibility to make an outsized impact on the tech industry. We’re committed to building a diverse team, cohort, and community. We’re actively working on this by increasing diversity in our mentors, building educational modules to help our founders build out their own diverse and inclusive teams, and more.
How does the pitch process work?
When you’re ready to apply, go ahead and fill out our pitch us form. We’ll then get back to you within 1-2 weeks on whether or not it makes sense to have a call with our team.
Do I need to be in one of your locations?
While we have office space available in our three locations – Toronto, New York City, and San Francisco – we are happy to work with founders remotely, wherever they may reside. We also love to connect in person, so we encourage office visits when you can! We also host regular events for our founder community in each of our locations, and we'd love you to join us from time to time.
What does Forum provide, re: corporate discounts etc.?
We provide hundreds of business perks to our founders to help you scale your company in an affordable way. For example, 90% off your first year of Hubspot, or a free subscription to Carta for founders until they raise over $1M. It accumulates to over $100k of savings for each company and if we don't have the perk you're looking for, you can request it, and we'll try to get it for you!!
Meet our Portfolio Founders
They’re unique, ambitious, and resilient. Unwaveringly dedicated to their vision and obsessed with their business. Plus super authentic. Come get to know them.
Felix Orwa
Felix Orwa is the Co-founder of Sote, the operating system for trade in Africa. Sote went on to raise a $3.6M Seed round. Felix is incredibly driven and ambitious; and has a big vision for the impact Sote can have on Africa.
Kate DeWald
Oncue is a software and booking service for moving companies to make it easier for them to run their business from anywhere. Oncue joined our San Francisco program in Jan 2019 and we were the first check into the company. They have since gone on to raise $12M+ in funding across a seed and Series A round from funds like Bowery Capital, Crosslink Capital and Rethink Impact.
Sam Udotong
Sam Udotong is the Co-founder & CTO of Fireflies.ai, an AI assistant for meetings that records and transcribes voice meetings. Sam manages a team that operates out of 5 continents and raised $5 million in seed funding.
Get to know them all
