Founder Stories, Unfiltered @ Focus Innovation Studio
What’s it really like to build a company?
Founder Stories, Unfiltered is an intimate, TED-style morning gathering where 3–5 founders take the mic for 5-minute, no-slides talks—just honest stories about the parts of the journey that don’t usually make it into pitch decks.
Expect real conversations about:
What surprised them most along the way
Challenges they didn’t see coming
Lessons learned the hard way
Mistakes, pivots, and moments of clarity
No polished presentations. No buzzwords. Just candid stories from people in the trenches.
The format is short, casual, and conversational—followed by time to connect with fellow founders, builders, operators, and investors over breakfast and coffee.
🗓 Agenda
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
☕ Curated Networking & Breakfast
Connect with founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders over a morning meal.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
🎤 Founder Stories, Unfiltered — TED-Style Talks
3–5 founders share 5-minute, no-slides talks about their journeys—covering unexpected challenges, lessons learned, pivots, and moments of clarity. Honest, candid, and real stories from people in the trenches.
12:00 PM – 12:30 PM
🤝 Open Networking
Continue the conversation and build relationships with the community.
Whether you’re building, thinking about building, or just curious about the founder journey, this morning is a space to listen, learn, and relate.
☕ Casual vibes. Honest stories. Real connections.
About Us
We provide flexible workspace, a pop-retail collective and a corporate meeting venue for artists, founders, designers and technologists. Focus Innovation Studio is a private members studio, designed to generously spawn creativity and collaboration between our members. Our second and third-floor workspaces are designed for flexible and affordable lease rates. We offer private offices, dedicated desks, and hot desks and will host companies for as long as they need. Our unique building is able to hold lectures, events, and large meetings.
Founders Bay is a membership community of 150,000+ founders, executives, investors and operators coming together to grow their market through curated weekly events, expert-led virtual workshops, mentorship programs and educational resources. Proudly woman-owned and operated by Mariane Bekker, we are dedicated to empowering a diverse and inclusive startup ecosystem.
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