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Last updated: February 18, 2026
Forum Ventures is a pre-seed venture capital firm and accelerator built for B2B software and AI startups. With 550+ portfolio companies, over $125M deployed since 2014, and a 65% three-year average fund-through rate, Forum partners with early-stage startups from first check through their seed round and beyond. Forum operates a 16-week accelerator program with cohorts of 10 companies, providing $100K in funding, hands-on go-to-market and fundraising support, and access to a community of founders, enterprise buyers, and investors.
If you're evaluating whether Forum Ventures is the right partner for your B2B startup, don't just take our word for it. We asked founders across our portfolio what they found most valuable about Forum Ventures' accelerator and having us on their cap table. Their answers speak to the tangible impact we have had on their businesses, from closed funding rounds to revenue growth to the community that sustains them through the hardest parts of building.
Here's what they told us, in their own words.
Results Summary
Here are headline outcomes from Forum Ventures portfolio founders:
Fundraising Support
Founders regularly choose Forum over larger accelerators because we provide hands-on, personalized support that translates directly to closed funding rounds. Here's what they say about our approach to fundraising.
Kaylee Lieffers, Founder and CEO, Blanka (raised $2.7M CAD seed in 2023)
"Forum Ventures helped us close an oversubscribed seed round. Initially, we aimed to raise $1.5 million. However, with the guidance, preparation, and strategic insights gained from the accelerator, we were able to surpass our goal, raising $2 million USD within just 10 weeks. The program demystified the process of fundraising, presenting a clear and effective playbook for securing a successful funding round."
Sam Dundas, Founder, Bloom AI (raised $3.1M seed round in 2024)
"Forum was the fractional cofounder that helped us refine our product, and calibrate our vision to resonate with the right investors to raise a Seed. With all the ups and downs in the early days, having the Forum team in our corner helped us keep up momentum and execute to the best of our ability."
Mike Rowland, Founder, Droplet (raised $4M round and reached profitability in 2026)
"Our conversations with Mike Cardamone around market conditions, valuations, benchmarks, standard fundraising terms have been the most valuable. Forum has also been great at always teeing up investor meetings before a raise. Looking forward to joining the next investor week before our A round."
Learn more about Forum's fundraising support
Go-to-Market & Sales
Josh Ellars, CEO, Patri Inc. (raised $2.4M in 2023)
"Forum Ventures was instrumental in setting up our company for go-to-market excellence and lasting growth. Since partnering with Forum, our company has grown 8x and is adding some of the best talent on the market. I recommend Forum to any founders wishing to do the same or better."
Bilyana (Billy) Freye, Co-Founder & CEO, Orbiit
"Forum Ventures is one of the most accessible, proactive, responsive and hands-on investors on our cap table. They are always first to respond to our investor updates and jump on any calls to action, like BD or other investor intros. They have helped us with tangible advice in all areas of the business—from fundraising, to GTM, hiring, navigating crisis, etc."
Pieter Luitjens, Founder, PrivateAI (raised a total of $11.3 million to date)
"Forum Ventures was a game changer for our company. We're a tech-heavy team and the Forum Ventures program gave us the help on the business side of our company we needed. The small cohort size of 10 is great and Jonah's advice was invaluable."
Jason Steinberg, Founder and CEO, Scanifly (announced integration partnership in February 2026)
"Building a company isn't easy, and there are many highs and lows as you go. Working through the key period of customer discovery, establishing product-market fit, honing in on a pricing strategy, beginning to scale, and preparing for institutional funding is especially difficult. Forum Ventures provides the tools to help you succeed during this time. The combination of their curriculum, webinars, experts and office hours is a fantastic crash course on all things SaaS."
Explore Forum's go-to-market accelerator
Platform & Network
Sean Thorne, Founder, People Data Labs ($54.5M in total funding to date)
"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."
Arjun Sahgal, Founder, Humanic
"The platform team (Olivia) was instrumental in us getting introduced to our first few customers for discovery. Olivia not only helped us with customer intros but also helped us perfect our messaging for investors and helped with those introductions as well."
David Silverstein, Founder and CEO, Ned (raised Series A in October 2024)
"Getting feedback drives our product roadmap. From our earliest days of engineering to today—where lenders are using Ned to launch fully new financial products—Forum's platform team gets us the market insight we need. We work with Forum to assess relevant, high-level stakeholders that can tell us what's compelling about our platform and where we can improve. Where hearing honest feedback at every stage of growth is key, Forum helps us move quickly so we can build, iterate, and ship products, and grow."
Learn about Forum's platform and network
The Forum Team
Margot Schmorak, CEO and Co-Founder, Hostfully
"We were in the accelerator program in 2017 with Forum Ventures. Since then, we've completed a merger, raised venture capital, and now we have a multi-million dollar business with more than 40 people around the world. The team at Forum, especially Mike, has been helpful to us every step along the way and we are so grateful for that. We have also gotten tremendous value out of the Forum community of founders."
Jared Kleinert, Co-Founder/CEO, Offsite (Raised $3 million in 2023, shortly after joining our program)
"Unsolicited shout-out to Forum Ventures. They've been great partners to Offsite in our early days. From constant contact with Michael (founder/GP) during time-sensitive transactions to support from the team (especially Jonah, partner/COO in early days on product/fundraising...and Olivia on marketing, early clients, random 'asks'), it's been a great experience."
Emiel Bril, Founder, VendorPM (Raised $20M Series A 3 years out of our accelerator)
"There are a lot of early stage funds that can write checks, but few go the extra mile like I have witnessed the Forum team do. The personalized, extension-of-team approach makes you feel supported at the most crucial of times. Forum was always my first call when times were tough and when there was something big to celebrate, no matter the time of day or night."
Meet the Forum Ventures team and partners
The Accelerator Experience
Founders regularly choose Forum Ventures over larger, brand-name accelerators. Here's why.
Tyler Burnett, Co-Founder and CEO, Wally Health (raised $18M in 2025)
"During the interview process, we got to know the team well. When we were deciding between several top accelerator offers, our chats with James and Mike and the rest of the team told us that spending the next 4 months with Forum Ventures would be the best fit to help our business get to the next level. This was right: the team, programming, network, and rest of the cohort were incredibly valuable. Our expectations were high, but the Forum Ventures program definitely lived up to them."
David K. Iyamah, Co-Founder and Advisor, Accountstory
"Forum was instrumental in providing us with the tools we needed to up level our business. We got invaluable support for all the things that matter to early stage founders—acquiring users, customer discovery, sales, and even expanding our network. The Forum team really cares, and takes the time to invest in your success. Founders, if you have the opportunity to join the Forum family, I'd highly recommend it!"
Kory Kelly, CEO, Legal Karma (has raised $6.8M to date)
"The 100k is nice... but the real value comes from having the MDs on your team. Their perspective, energy, and introductions as you grow are worth the investment. Especially for first time founders who need someone to walk the journey with. I know in 4 years I can still call up my MD and he'll jump on a sales call or help me wordsmith messaging."
Learn about the accelerator program
Community That Gets It
Osa Gaius, Founder, Parrotmob
"The community of founders that we were able to be a part of here was amazing. Just getting to be inspired by the folks here. It felt like playing sports in high school again; being motivated and learning from my incredible teammates around me. And as a solo founder, that was probably the best experience I could have hoped for from an accelerator."
Mary Lobson, Founder and CEO, REES
"The community we've been able to meet and be a part of—we've accelerated that process that we wouldn't have otherwise. Forum Ventures’ programming is excellent and the people they have in their community are awesome. Sessions, office hours, mentors—the quality of the experience has been excellent across the board."
Learn about the Forum community
Join the 550+ B2B Founders Building with Forum Ventures
These founders came to Forum Ventures at different stages, with different challenges. What they share is tangible progress: funding closed, revenue grown, teams built, markets entered. When founders choose Forum Ventures, they're choosing a partner who shows up, does the work, and delivers results that move the business forward.
If you're a B2B SaaS founder looking for hands-on support that translates to real outcomes, we'd love to hear from you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are your terms and why?
Our terms are $100K USD for 7.5% equity on a standard post-money SAFE. We intentionally invest at a small cap so we can put real time into helping you reach customers, prove traction, and get fundraise-ready. That includes dedicated 1:1 support from a Managing Director, access to our enterprise community, investor network, and the broader Forum founder community.
Does Forum's investment need to be part of an investment round?
No. You don't need to be raising a round to work with us. Most founders take our investment before any formal fundraising begins. If you include us in an active round, our terms stay the same. Forum is widely seen as a value-add early partner, and we're happy to speak with your existing investors about our support.
What type of founder joins your accelerator?
We look for founders with strong founder-market fit who have lived the problem, care deeply about solving it, and can stay committed when the path gets messy. They're driven and coachable, able to take feedback without losing conviction. Just as importantly, they're good humans you'd want in your corner. We don't care about age, gender, ethnicity, background, education, or years of experience.
What type of time commitment are we looking at?
We're not here to pile you away from building. The bulk of your week is spent working on your company, and we work alongside you rather than adding extra busywork. Your core time is your 1:1s with your Managing Director, focused on milestones that matter for your stage. Sessions and workshops are optional support when useful, but never lead your week or slow you down.
Do I need to be in one of your locations?
We have office space in Toronto, New York City, and San Francisco, but we're happy to work with founders remotely anywhere across North America. We love to connect in person and encourage office visits when you can. We also host regular events for our founder community in each location, and we'd love you to join us.
How does Forum help with fundraising?
When your company is ready to fundraise, we help you map milestones, build your target investor list, refine your narrative, and create a compelling pitch deck. Forum facilitates practice sessions with individuals in our network. Once prepared, you'll join our annual Investor Showcases to meet aligned investors. We also make targeted warm introductions across our network of 3,000+ Seed and Series A VCs, angels, and family offices.
What makes Forum different from other accelerators?
Traditional accelerators run startup school with playbooks, large cohorts, and generic sessions. We don't. Our entire approach is built around hands-on company building. Your Managing Director works with you one-on-one each week on things that actually move your company forward. We dig into details and challenge assumptions early, so you don't waste months going in the wrong direction. Nothing is theoretical or one-size-fits-all. We maintain a 3-year average NPS score of 80+.
Is Forum Ventures worth it for B2B founders?
We take 7.5% equity and work hard to earn every point of it. You get a $100K investment, bespoke 1-to-1 MD support with minimum 15 hours of their time, customer introductions to key executives in our 100+ enterprise community, 40+ investor introductions at our Investor Showcase, $100k worth of business perks from companies like Vouch, Vanta, Brex, Hubspot, and Stripe, plus access to our B2B SaaS founder community.
What types of companies does Forum invest in?
We invest in B2B Software companies that sell to SMBs, Mid-Market, or Enterprise businesses in any vertical. We also consider companies with both B2C and B2B aspects if at least 60% is B2B, B2B2C models, currently B2C with B2B aspirations, and marketplaces with B2B components. Out of scope: pure B2C, D2C, hardware, social networks, dating apps, and services businesses.
About Forum Ventures
Forum Ventures is a pre-seed venture capital firm, accelerator, and AI venture studio founded in 2014. We invest in B2B Software, AI, and SaaS companies at the earliest stages—from first check through seed round. Our 16-week accelerator program works with cohorts of 10 companies at a time, providing $100K in funding and hands-on support focused on early go-to-market and fundraising.
Since 2014, Forum has invested in 550+ portfolio companies and deployed over $125M in capital. Our portfolio companies have a 65% three-year average fund-through rate, and our founders have gone on to raise from leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Bessemer, General Catalyst, 8VC, Founders Fund, and many more. We operate across three locations: New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto.
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