The Green Room (TGR) is a space I built for founders to practice their pitches in front of select VCs, industry leaders, and fellow founders in a low-stakes, judgment-free environment. The goal is to provide founders with the honest, blunt, often critical feedback they need ahead of raising for real.

One two-hour session is held privately via Zoom once a month, focused on a specific topic. Each session includes 3 founders/founding teams and 3-4 VCs/industry expert panelists who have been hand-picked to ensure relevance.

During the session, each founder/founding team does their pitch and then the panelists (and fellow founders!) discuss and provide feedback.

While TGR is structured aound the pitch itself, the discussions often verge into broader territory (e.g., the business model, growth strategies, how to build competitive differentiation, talent, etc.). Basically, it’s your chance to ask anything and get the honest, judgment-free advice from VCs who have spent a lot of time in this space. Nothing is off limits. 

We place a strong emphasis on trust and confidentiality. What happens in The Green Room stays in The Green Room. Founders can feel safe sharing their ideas, plans, and challenges, knowing that they will be treated with the utmost respect and kept strictly confidential.

The panelists in The Green Room are not there to judge or criticize. They genuinely want to help founders succeed.

• This is not about giving founders “pats on the back” or participation accolades. TGR was designed for real talk, in a way that’s actually helpful to founders during what can be a very difficult and confusing process.

• This is an intimate, judgment-free environment where nothing is off limits. As a result, meaningful connections can be made in a short amount of time.

• Unlike a pitch competition where founders are pressed for time, TGR gives founders a full 35 minutes to go through their pitch and get meaningful feedback.

• Each session is focused on a particular topic or industry, and panelists and founders are hand-picked to match to ensure relevance.

• Nothing is shared with panelists in advance, ensuring founders get raw, unfiltered reactions and can engage in authentic exchange in the moment.

• By having multiple VCs in the room together, founders get a better sense of where there is/is not consensus and get a preview of what to expect when they pitch to different VCs during their fundraise (e.g., different preferences, biases, etc.)

• Founders get to learn not just by pitching themselves, but also by hearing their fellow founders (who also happen to be solving problems in the same space) pitch and receive feedback.

TGR is a full two-hour session. There are 3 founders/founding teams and 3-4 VCs/industry experts in the room, and all are expected to stay for the complete time.

TGR happens in a completely closed off, private Zoom meeting – everything discussed there, stays there. Strict confidentiality is enforced.

Each founder/founding team gets a full 35 minutes to spend however they wish. Usually, founders want help with their pitch so will spend ~20-25 minutes going through their deck, with ~10-15 minutes of feedback and discussion with the VC/industry expert panelists and fellow founders.

Typical agenda (all times in PT): 

• 9:00-9:05am – housekeeping & panelist intros

• 9:05-9:40am – founding team 1

• 9:40-10:25am – founding team 2

• 10:25-11:00am – founding team 3

The Green Room is free and open to founders of all startup stages and sizes. However, it’s typically most impactful to early-stage and first-time founders.

Founders can apply for upcoming sessions here. Selections are made and communicated roughly 7-10 days before the scheduled session. When founders are not selected for their desired session, we still keep their applications in mind and may reach out regarding future sessions, where relevant.