Vetted Co-Founders

Stephan Thomas

Screened

Executive growth strategist specializing in technology, M&A, and digital manufacturing

San Francisco, CA25y exp

“Repeat founder who has co-founded two companies and sold the most recent one three years ago. Currently exploring a fintech-style debt management tool for SMBs focused on covenant monitoring, reporting, and forecasting, and is still in customer discovery with a mock demo and landing page. Brings a thoughtful, customer-first approach to evaluating startup ideas and a solid understanding of how venture studios support companies from 0 to 1.”

“Performance marketer with 5+ years of deeply hands-on experience across Meta, Google, YouTube, and full-funnel growth systems for e-commerce, supplements, CPG, and lead-gen businesses. Stands out for combining strategy, execution, tracking, and client communication—highlighted by scaling Gaspari Nutrition from under $10K/month to over $250K/month and helping REDCON1 triple revenue while managing $100K+/month in ad spend.”

“Sourcing-focused early-stage VC operator who stays embedded in high-signal founder ecosystems (YC/Techstars-style accelerators, state programs, investor Slack/angel networks) and runs a curated community of ~45 VCs to drive consistent deal flow. Uses a structured, metrics-driven outbound and screening process (25 reachouts/week; 5–8 calls) plus Airtable-based pipeline management and n8n follow-up automation; has advanced sourced deals (e.g., rare earth materials, quantum/grid optimization, plasma fuel for fusion) into pitch sessions and late-stage diligence.”

Tyler Hurd

Screened

Executive Product & Operations Leader specializing in IoT hardware and water/hydration technology

Milwaukee, WI16y exp

“Founder who has raised $2.5MM from angel investors to build and operate smart beverage fountains in fitness studios that dispense user-personalized hydration. Former Pentair product manager (residential water purification) who identified an on-demand purified + additive-dosed beverage opportunity and chose to pursue it as a startup, using lean customer discovery, MVP prototyping, and pitch-competition-driven fundraising.”

“Current co-founder of an early-stage AI B2B SaaS startup automating systematic reviews for researchers, where they personally lead go-to-market. They’ve already defined multiple ICPs, built outbound prospect lists, sourced contacts through scraping and directory research, and converted early outreach into demos and active validation conversations with researchers.”

Philip Akin

Screened

Executive CEO Coach and Growth Strategist specializing in marketing, franchising, and operations

Cedar Falls, Iowa44y exp

“Operator-turned-CEO coach who founded and scaled a laundry services business from a $500 start into an international, multi-location chain. Led high-stakes retail merger integration and rapid store expansion at Advance Auto Parts (600→1,200 stores in ~9 months; 2,500+ additional openings over 5 years) and developed an OGSI operations framework adopted by dozens of companies.”

“Real-time VFX artist who shipped effects for the Meta Horizon VR project "Kaiju City Showdown" using PopcornFX, with a focus on optimizing particle/overdraw performance while maintaining visual quality. Uses tools like ChatGPT for technical scripting/math support and Midjourney for texture creation, and is comfortable working in both indie and large-team production environments.”