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Venture firm and founder campus in San Francisco
Founders, Inc. (also known as f.inc) is a venture firm and founder campus based at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California.1 Founded in 2020 by Furqan Rydhan, the firm writes first checks ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 and takes 4-7% equity in its portfolio companies.2 The campus occupies 42,000 square feet between Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco's Marina district.4
Founders, Inc. operates differently from traditional venture capital firms and accelerators. Unlike accelerators, which run time-bound programs of a few months, Founders, Inc. provides a long-term home where founders retain access to the campus after receiving investment.2 The firm does not accept pitch decks; instead, prospective founders apply and, if selected, are invited to build at the campus for one to two weeks before an investment decision is made.2
The firm also runs four cohort-based programs per year, each lasting four to six weeks, designed for builders who are not yet ready for investment.2 Several portfolio founders have gone through other programs like Y Combinator and returned to the Founders, Inc. campus afterward.2
The Fort Mason campus includes a hardware lab equipped with CNC machines, soldering irons, 3D printers, and Raspberry Pis.4 A media studio provides cameras, microphones, lenses, and lighting equipment.4 Open workspaces accommodate up to 80 founders with desks and monitors.4 The campus also has a gym and a gaming room.4
Regular programming includes weekly ship-it sessions on Fridays, demo days, founder talks, and one-on-one office hours.4 Access to the campus is restricted to portfolio founders and invited applicants.4
Founders, Inc. has an 11-person team.3 Furqan Rydhan serves as Founder, with Hubert Thieblot as General Partner and Mike Shin as COO.3 The founder experience team includes Joher Khan and Kiran Khanzada.3 Stavan Patel leads creative direction, Shafaq Ahmed handles operations, Adrianna Lakatos manages portfolio and ecosystem, Ruslan Al-Jabari leads investments, Aiden Blumenstein runs programs and storytelling, and Dante Lentini focuses on growth.3
The portfolio spans more than 80 companies across AI/ML, AR/VR, gaming, hardware, web3, developer tools, and consumer products.5 Portfolio companies include LiveKit (open-source real-time communication), thirdweb (web3 development platform), Levels.fyi (salary and career data), Lexica (AI image search), Shapes (social AI agents), Sync Labs (lip sync API), Atom Limbs (bionic prosthetics), and Aurelius Systems (counter-drone directed energy systems).5
Hardware-focused investments include Tangible (humanoid home robots), Orangewood Labs (NLP-powered home robotics), Budbreak (autonomous vineyard disease detection), Catalyx Space (autonomous labs in space), and Thalassa Robotics (subsea autonomy).5 Several portfolio companies operate directly on the Fort Mason campus, while others work from a separate space called the Garage.5
The firm focuses on emerging technology sectors: AI/ML, AR/VR and gaming, hardware, web3, developer tools, and consumer products.2 External investors can participate in the fund through AngelList.16 The firm publishes events through Luma and maintains presences on X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok.1
Furqan Rydhan founded Founders, Inc. in 2020.8 Rydhan previously co-founded AppLovin (as founding CTO) and Bebo, and currently also co-runs thirdweb.8 Hubert Thieblot, who founded Curse, Inc. (later acquired by Twitch), joined as General Partner in April 2022.7 The campus grew from its initial space to the current 42,000-square-foot Fort Mason location over approximately three years.1
Founders, Inc. (also known as f.inc) is a venture firm and founder campus based at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California.1 Founded in 2020 by Furqan Rydhan, the firm writes first checks ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 and takes 4-7% equity in its portfolio companies.2 The campus occupies 42,000 square feet between Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco's Marina district.4
Founders, Inc. operates differently from traditional venture capital firms and accelerators. Unlike accelerators, which run time-bound programs of a few months, Founders, Inc. provides a long-term home where founders retain access to the campus after receiving investment.2 The firm does not accept pitch decks; instead, prospective founders apply and, if selected, are invited to build at the campus for one to two weeks before an investment decision is made.2
The firm also runs four cohort-based programs per year, each lasting four to six weeks, designed for builders who are not yet ready for investment.2 Several portfolio founders have gone through other programs like Y Combinator and returned to the Founders, Inc. campus afterward.2
The Fort Mason campus includes a hardware lab equipped with CNC machines, soldering irons, 3D printers, and Raspberry Pis.4 A media studio provides cameras, microphones, lenses, and lighting equipment.4 Open workspaces accommodate up to 80 founders with desks and monitors.4 The campus also has a gym and a gaming room.4
Regular programming includes weekly ship-it sessions on Fridays, demo days, founder talks, and one-on-one office hours.4 Access to the campus is restricted to portfolio founders and invited applicants.4
Founders, Inc. has an 11-person team.3 Furqan Rydhan serves as Founder, with Hubert Thieblot as General Partner and Mike Shin as COO.3 The founder experience team includes Joher Khan and Kiran Khanzada.3 Stavan Patel leads creative direction, Shafaq Ahmed handles operations, Adrianna Lakatos manages portfolio and ecosystem, Ruslan Al-Jabari leads investments, Aiden Blumenstein runs programs and storytelling, and Dante Lentini focuses on growth.3
The portfolio spans more than 80 companies across AI/ML, AR/VR, gaming, hardware, web3, developer tools, and consumer products.5 Portfolio companies include LiveKit (open-source real-time communication), thirdweb (web3 development platform), Levels.fyi (salary and career data), Lexica (AI image search), Shapes (social AI agents), Sync Labs (lip sync API), Atom Limbs (bionic prosthetics), and Aurelius Systems (counter-drone directed energy systems).5
Hardware-focused investments include Tangible (humanoid home robots), Orangewood Labs (NLP-powered home robotics), Budbreak (autonomous vineyard disease detection), Catalyx Space (autonomous labs in space), and Thalassa Robotics (subsea autonomy).5 Several portfolio companies operate directly on the Fort Mason campus, while others work from a separate space called the Garage.5
The firm focuses on emerging technology sectors: AI/ML, AR/VR and gaming, hardware, web3, developer tools, and consumer products.2 External investors can participate in the fund through AngelList.16 The firm publishes events through Luma and maintains presences on X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok.1
Furqan Rydhan founded Founders, Inc. in 2020.8 Rydhan previously co-founded AppLovin (as founding CTO) and Bebo, and currently also co-runs thirdweb.8 Hubert Thieblot, who founded Curse, Inc. (later acquired by Twitch), joined as General Partner in April 2022.7 The campus grew from its initial space to the current 42,000-square-foot Fort Mason location over approximately three years.1
