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Founder Gym Aims To Help Underrepresented Startup Founders Build Tech Startups

Founder Gym Aims To Help Underrepresented Startup Founders Build Tech Startups

Founder Gym, co-founded by Mandela Schumacher-Hodge and Gabriela Zamudio, is unveiling its online platform to support and train underrepresented founders building tech startups.

Instead of a school, bootcamp or incubator, Founder Gym describes itself as four-week training program that covers topics like fundraising, pitching, user growth and problem validation.

“We’re trying to use different language in order to break paradigms that have been established,” Schumacher-Hodge told Tech Crunch over the phone. “What we’re trying to do is create a new model.”

From Tech Crunch. Story by Megan Rose Dickey.

In week one, founders will learn fundraising basics from venture capitalists like Kapor Capital’s Mitch Kapor and Carolina Hauranca, Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures and Shauntel Poulson of Reach Fund, as well as from founders like Atipica’s Laura Gomez and Jopwell’s Porter Braswell.

Week two is all about winning the game of entrepreneurship, week three is about the unwritten rules of fundraising and week four is when Founder Gym will do its version of a demo day.

Schumacher-Hodge used the analogy of a gym to further describe what Founder Gym is all about. With a gym membership, the idea is that you go year-round because your fitness level is constantly evolving. There’s no concrete beginning and end.

“We want to break the traditional paradigm that you take these accelerators and incubators and then you’re good to go,” Schumacher-Hodge said. “Becoming a founder is an ongoing process.”

Founder Gym does not take any equity in startups, but it does charge a fee of $396 to participate. There are also payment plans and scholarships.

Applications for Founder Gym’s first cohort closes Nov. 30. The four-week program kicks off Jan. 8, 2018. The ideal candidate for this program, Schumacher-Hodge said, will already have some traction and skin in the game.