Kicking Off the Startup+ Founder Stories Series 🚀
Even Startup+ has a startup story!
Every founder has a wild story - full of twists, unexpected lessons, and probably a few existential crises. At Startup+, we’ve seen it all: scrappy solopreneurs, well-funded unicorn chasers, and everyone in between. So, we figured—why not tell those stories?
Enter the Startup+ Founder Stories Series, our new Substack initiative where real founders share their real journeys. No polished PR nonsense, just raw, unfiltered experiences from the trenches. Of course, this is in addition to the Networking series by Jaynish Shah we kicked off a couple of weeks back.
And to kick things off? Well, what better story to start with than Startup+ itself—the community I started because, honestly, I just needed a good in-person startup event. Zoom meetups weren’t cutting it, and I was knee-deep in building Remitto with two friends, trying to learn startup strategies from wherever I could. Fast forward to today, Startup+ has hosted 75+ events, 12+ pitch nights, and brought in 6,000+ attendees—not bad for something that started with me scrambling to find venues every week.
This series is just the beginning. We’ll feature founders from all walks of life—bootstrapped hustlers, VC-backed dreamers, and those figuring it out as they go (so, most of us). If you’re a founder with a story worth sharing, hit us up. Who knows, maybe this will be a success, and we will venture into venture folks’ origin stories as well.
Right off the bat - We will not feature agencies or similar businesses; we would like to see founders with real MVPs. First - I am going to reach out to the amazing 120+ founders who pitched at my events (They deserve the first chance) and once I have a few stories in the pipeline, will send out an intake form via Substack.
The first story, the story of Startup+, which is the question I had to answer most in my events, will come out tomorrow, 2/10/2025 Monday, and there is no going back, even if I am lazy (Please hold me accountable!). My best faith estimate is to have 2-3 genuine super-duper-inspiring stories every month, showcasing the journey of pre-seed and seed founders going through.
Let’s build together. And more importantly—let’s tell those stories. 🚀
Aneesh Lal | Founder | Startup+
www.startupplus.club