What is PoorFounders?
A group of founder friends all co-investing together, buying secondary shares from founders and early employees in products we use and love ❤️
But…Why?
Back in 2015 when Murtaza Hussain and I were running Streamlabs, we had an acquisition offer to buy the company. Our investors at the time did not want to sell, and offered to buy some secondary shares to help keep us going. So we sold some of our shares and kept going — which ultimately helped in getting to a larger exit several years later.
Most founders and early startup employees are rich in monopoly money, but poor IRL. Life — relationships, student loans, starting a family, buying a house — aren’t going to wait for your IPO. They will pass you by.
The most valuable thing we have in life is our time.
How?
We want to make running a startup a tiny bit less of a personal sacrifice for founders and early employees. We’re founders ourselves, so we understand the struggle. Startups take on average 7–10 years to exit. Selling a tiny % of your shares helps de-risk you so you can worry less and play the long game.
From a selfish perspective, we hope to also generate superior returns by buying into an asset class that most investors do not, and getting into more deals that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Examples of past deals: Airbnb, Carta, Udemy 🚀 🚀 🚀
Unlike a typical fundraising, we’re not going to take months or waste your time. We’ll reply in 24 hours, terms in 5 days, and close in 3 weeks or less. We’ll also take care of documentation & legal in a simple and fast way.
While we generally only buy into products that we use ourselves and love, we’re happy to look at new deals that we may have missed.
Here’s a short list and our criteria — I’d love to hear from you 💌
