You don't want to miss these founders

Hello, and welcome to Future Founders, an (almost) weekly newsletter from Day One that delivers insights and advice for early-stage entrepreneurs. If you haven’t yet subscribed, hit that button and join 5,000 founders - and future founders - who are leveling up as entrepreneurs every week.

Did that? Let’s dive in!

You don’t want to miss these founders

A little over a week ago, we held what might have been our most impressive Showcase ever.

We had 6 founders pitching, and each of those founders was so so impressive. I’m talking founders with 100,000+ users, AI powered apps (yes real ones, not flash in the pan ideas), and real-world businesses that are hitting new revenue highs every month.

You should find 30 minutes to watch the event. If you don’t make it a habit to attend demo days or pitch events, you should, because the amount of inspiration/motivation/ideas you’ll get is huge. Whether you’re a founder today or a “future founder”, this is an important piece of staying sharp.

One thing to note is that these founders run the gamut from bootstrapped to idea stage to pre-seed to seed stage and beyond (you can probably pick up on who’s at each stage). It’s quite useful to see what founders talk about at each stage… and if you were to get to know each of them, you’d have friends who are half a step, 1 step, and 2 steps ahead of you.

Well… this is your chance! Give the session a watch, see what each founder is building, and connect with them - they’re all open and excited to engage.

But - in case you can’t watch, or if you just want some guidance, let me give you a rundown of who presented and what they’re building:

👇

Savina Hawkins founder of Altis - an AI powered UX research tool that analyzes your conversations and pulls out deep and real insights. As someone who’s spent many many hours in user interviews and doing UX research and customer development, Savina is building THE tool I’ve always wanted to streamline and supercharge my work.

Whether you’re a research team, product manager, or anyone who has conversations with customers/partners/users, Altis takes hours of work and gets it done for you, and even finds threads and insights you might have missed. You can join the waitlist now, or just contact Savina directly at [email protected] if this is for you!

Stuart Barrass, founder of Kaizen Languages - an AI powered language learning app that gets you actually talking, which is the key determinant in learning a language. Stuart would know, having spent years learning Japanese by living in Japan. He’s now giving anyone the ability to learn a language like they’re immersed with people speaking it.

Focused for now on English, Spanish and Japanese, you can get started using Kaizen today. But Stuart and team are also breaking into bigger organizations like universities and language schools, supporting a huge market made up of not just casual language learners, but people learning languages to get better jobs or move to new countries - which makes learning a language an investment that has huge upside for millions of people.

Matilda Nerén, founder of Madici - a luxury brand focused on MMA and fighting sports, bringing modern collectibles to the fighting sports world. As a former champion boxer, Matilda is deep within the space and knows what fighters and fans alike need and want, and what’s missing.

So she’s creating the experiences that until now have been absent from the world of fighting sports. She’s still early and figuring out exactly what form that takes - so if that’s you, follow along with what Matilda is building.

Donna Caruso, founder of 11th Element Wellness - a spa and wellness facility in northeast Pennsylvania. Donna has built a thriving business that survived through Covid and is now thriving - Donna and her husband are expanding and adding new services, forming partnerships, and launching new product lines.

She’s a small business owner who’s on a mission, and leans into the personal and service side of building an enduring business. She knows what makes her business successful, but also doesn’t rest on her laurels, always trying new things and looking for ways to grow. If you want to connect, for a collaboration, partnership, or even just to try out the spa, you can reach her directly at [email protected].

Danny Phantom, founder of Wellbeings - a gamified platform that’s driving holistic wellness practices. Danny is a multi-time and multi-faceted founder, having built big brands in web3, with experience in tech and running a development agency.

In his pitch Danny brought the energy, and it’s because he’s so passionate about who he’s serving - young people who are facing mental health and wellness challenges. So he’s building a tool to serve millions who want to be healthy but need the help to start and maintain the habits that will get them there. Danny is active on Twitter, find him there and say hello if you want to get involved!

Mariam Nusrat, founder of Breshna - a no-code platform for building online video games. Once I heard Mariam say that Breshna was “Canva for gaming” I couldn’t get the idea out of my head… especially when you consider how big Canva is ($30B last time I checked), and then how big the gaming industry is, and then how underserved the long tail of gaming is from a creator POV.

It’s the perfect storm, and Breshna is leading the race to be the household name that democratizes video game creation and makes it so anyone can make a video game. And with over 100,000 people who have used the platform to launch a game, the proof is in the pudding. Breshna also has an ambitious launch schedule for the rest of 2023, so get dialed in and follow along, because this is one that is going to take off.

Okay, phew - if you just breezed through that, it’s loads of talent and 6 exciting business. That’s what happens inside Day One - founders get deep, specific support, but also connect with a diverse set of peers and mentors.

The last thing I’ll say is that if you thought these pitches were fire… I can tell you, they don’t all start out like that. Pitching is a fundamentally important aspect of building a business - it’s not always investors, but partners, team members, and customers need to be sold on your story.

Ultimately, getting a pitch this good is about focus and practice, with enough accountability to make sure you put in the work to get it where you want it, and enough support around you to make sure that you’re improving and fixing things as you go.

That’s the recipe, simple as that.

So if you’d like to be in Showcase like this, and have a pitch like that, get in touch - we’d love to jam with you on your pitch and how we can help.

That’s it for now, see you next time!