You're likely asking yourself, "Why is her site called The non founder?", When in fact, I am a founder of a venture backed b2b SaaS company. . .

Well, I am glad we're here then because believe it or not, I've got a story for you and LOVE when people ask why!

In 2019 when I met Mike, my co-founder and quite frankly the other side of my brain at this point, he would often bring up this "Ycombinator" thing. I was not sure if this was a developer tool, or a vendor he wanted me to use or just a cool spot to get information like LinkedIn or HBR. . . Now before you totally discredit me or write me off for being ignorant to the #1 startup accelerator in the world. . . hear me out.

I grew up in Houston, TX where oil & gas are King and land & cattle are real indicators of wealth, not just a casual dinner spot. The world of startups and accelerators only became a part of my vocabulary in my late twenties while living in Austin aka Silicon Hills.

Mike, however, grew up in Silicon Valley and knew Ycombinator (YC) for what it is, an incredibly elite collection of individuals looking to change the world. I have quite the story around our journey getting into this program, but that will maybe come up another day. . . For now, knowing that we got accepted is all that matters for this story. I was walking around townlake with a neighbor of mine when I got the call on a chilly December afternoon, We did it! We got into the YC W 21 batch!

The best way I can describe the experience of being apart of YC is a 90 day bootcamp for your business. . think about the intensity of those throwback workout DVDs P90X . . . they we're insane and brought to life every muscle in your body wether you were aware they existed or not. They were lit up!

That is YC. It's a 90 day strength and conditioning experience for every aspect of your business from purpose and vision to finances, to co-founders, to shining light on how and why your company can fail in order for you to pivot and make corrections etc. The organization ushers in a never ending knowledge base of founder wisdom across just about all industries and business categories. We'd constantly be in meetings with individuals from around the world who have truly changed how people live and exist. (Airbnb, Doordash, Stripe, Brex, and so many more. . google them) I can now email the founders of these companies and with our "special internal codes" I'd get a reply from someone wildly successful in the world of business. It's incredible.

At the end of this 90 day period, YC hosts what they call Demo Day. This is THE day we prepare for all 'bootcamp' long. This is where we bring our company to market in front of several thousands of investors with a 60 second pitch using a single slide in hopes to raise enough capital for our companies to survive until the next milestone.

Yep, we spend 90 days of intense work and countless meetings for 60 seconds. (and a few million dollars).

It is important to call out that each company that comes into YC is on it's very own journey. Some companies are established with traction and attractive revenue streams, while others are still at the inception stage and are backed by incredibly impressive founders. The "IT" factors for these founders are typically ivy league status, serial entrepreneur with previous successful exits, highly technical or some unicorn untouched space in the market of things and they're approaching it head on.

During my demo day, the concept of "The Non Founder" was born.

(Aren't you glad I've finally arrived at my point. . . )

Due to Covid 19, our Demo Day was executed on a virtual stage and this is a full 8 hour day for the investors / YC Team. There were a few hundred companies presenting during my batch and it's one after another for two hours with a fifteen minute break and on again for two more hours.

It goes a little something like this. . .

"Hi, I'm Brittani, Co-founder and CEO of XYZ Company. We're building XYZ to accomplish ABC by means of 123" is the gist of the script all of us follow. I am sure it turns into white noise to some after a while. . But not me, I was engaged with every founder. I am listening to every founder before me. . .

They're Ivy League

They're Highly Technical

They've built and sold 10 companies already

In that moment I laughed and said, "wow, I am none of these things", I remember thinking, "I am not Ivy League, I am not technical, I've never been a founder before" . . . Yet, I too, am a YC Founder about to pitch my company.

It was one of those very real almost tangible moments where imposter syndrome floods your mind. What's interesting is, somewhere along my lifespan I taught myself to cope with this feeling, unbeknown to me. I almost instantly redirected my focus to the countless moments more than two dozen of these exact founders reached out to me for a 1:1 over the last 90 days for advice on their business. They needed me. They were curious about GTM strategy, Sales pipeline progression stages, value selling, effective marketing campaigns, alternative lines of business and how to think about expansions within current customers. They wanted to know how to identify their ICP and where to find their buyers and confidence in presenting and so much more. In this moment I realized my wealth of knowledge complimented their skillset, just as their wealth of knowledge compliments my skillset. It was in this moment where I embraced being The "Non" Founder of the group. (Non Ivy, Non technical etc) and I loved that little play on words; it brought me back to my first business card, "B.A.D cleaning services" . . . It was so entirely Brittani and I appreciated that moment of realization that occurred in all of 45 seconds.

So, I am glad you asked why "The Non Founder" exists. . . I am too busy being all the things and I can't quite fit that into a "dot com" now can we!?

Thank yew.