Testimonials
Comments from our partner companies that give insight on how we operate and partner with you.
Yi Mao, Co-Founder, AdMovate
"It was our first time starting a business. We know what we’re good at, and we also know what we needed help with. Finding the right partner is hard, like dating. The right connection is subtle, elusive, hard to quantify. It’s a people thing. We wanted someone who understood us and what we were going through. With Brian and Greg, we found our perfect match. They were very honest, they let us know what they’re good at, but they trusted us to be in charge of our own destiny. They have their specialties that provide tremendous value to tech people like us, a very unique combination of qualities as compared to other investors. We liked their overall philosophy about the value of bootstrapping. I think we made the right choice.
​
One thing I’d say to a first-time entrepreneur is, never give up control of your company. It’s your venture, your destiny, and if you partner with the wrong investor, you can lose control because they have their own agenda. Brian and Greg helped us grow, but as true partners who were aligned with us and our vision so that we still had 100% control over the direction our business ultimately took.
​
Another thing that’s hard is putting together the right team. There’s alot at stake in the beginning, and everyone needs to do their job and trust each other, depend on each other, and be willing to go along with you and take risks. Startups are all about people in the end, and there needs to be the right chemistry for things to move forward. Brian and Greg helped us find that right team, and we’re still together now.
Startups are challenging. You never know what’s coming up so you need someone to help you who’s done it before. If tough times come up, you need someone to help you through it. After all, how much pain can you take? If you’re on your own and something comes up, it’s hard to see through to the end of it, so it’s of real value to have someone there to reassure you, this is OK, they’re just playing games, be patient.
​
And they’re nice guys too. We keep in touch even now, years later, catch up, have lunch. In the end I think we got really lucky teaming up with Brian and Greg when we did. It was perfect timing."
Shinji Kim, Founder/CEO of Concord (sold to Akamai)
"FP were a passionate partner in our business that helped to get the best outcome for everyone involved. Their deep understanding of corporate development processes and how to demonstrate the value of the M&A partnership were immensely helpful."
Dusan Omercevic, Founder, Cleanshelf
“The key value FP brings to non-US based founders wanting to build a business in the US is instant credibility in Silicon Valley. The second big value is help with actually building a business in the US, especially with respect to sales and marketing. For technical founders it can be frightening to have to learn to sell.
I believe the key ingredient of success is - luck, and I was lucky in my journey in the US to meet the right people at the right time.
​
My advice to CEE founders wanting to scale their company to the US: there is no one recipe, each business is different, there could be so many trajectories. However what one can achieve with FP is the geographical arbitrage, there is lots of technical talent in the CEE, and FP can bridge this technical talent with the business talent.
If you’re older than a 20-ty something, don’t join an accelerator, it is not worth your time.”
David Levine, Co-Founder/CEO of Mr. Beams (sold to Ring/Amazon)
"FounderPartners helped lead an inexperienced team of founders to an extraordinary exit through hard work, attention to detail, great instinct and a knowledge of the process that allowed them to visualize the outcome very early in the process."
Andrew Laffoon, Co-Founder, Mixbook
“Founder Partners were an early investor in Mixbook, and they have been incredibly helpful over the past 7 years. Without Brian and Greg, we would not be where we are today.”