The Startup Council
empowers Founders.

Supporting your entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems worldwide.

Everyone is welcome at The Startup Council!

We are a FREE volunteer community service group dedicated to accelerating the success of early stage entrepreneurs, investors, and innovation ecosystems worldwide.

Our mission is to increase access to relationships, expertise, and capital for innovative entrepreneurs, especially first-time, minority, and under-represented founders worldwide.

To join our free global community just subscribe to our email newsletters.

We’ll connect you with technology and life sciences startup entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capital firms, service providers, educators, startup employees and executives, community groups, and friends worldwide.

How We Help Startup Founders

Free Education for 1st Time & Underrepresented Founders

Fun Networking, Events, Community, and Ecosystem Building

Investor Resources - Transparent and Equal Access to Angel & Venture Investors

Publicity for Seed Stage Startup Achievements & Founders

SOME OF OUR SERVICES:

Startup Council Member News

Publicizing the achievements of startup founders like you.

The Startup Council is dedicated to promoting innovation, transparency, inclusion, and increased access to capital.

Our 6 free email newsletters feature the most important updates from our member startups and innovation ecosystems worldwide.

Subscribe to the free Startup Council News for the latest updates on innovation, deals, events, tools, services, discounts, venture investors, and growth strategies to help accelerate your startup.

Join the Startup Council FREE by subscribing today!

Find the RIGHT investors for your startup by using this specialized, low cost database of 3,000+ early stage venture investors.

Easily research and identify angel investors, venture capital firms, banks, private equity groups, and lenders who are ALREADY interested in startups like yours.

Designed to increase capital access for first-time and under-represented founders, StartupInvestorsDirectory.com includes first-of-its-kind search tools to help founders find investors who want to fund female, Black, immigrant, veteran, Latinx, rural, LGBTQ+, and first-time founders.

Stop wasting time pitching the wrong investors. Use the friendly research tools at StartupInvestorsDirectory.com to identify the RIGHT investors for your venture.

National Startups Directory

We built the National Startups Directory to offer a low cost way for startups worldwide to promote themselves to US venture investors.

The National Startups Directory offers a centralized directory where founders can post detailed profiles of their companies so investors can find them more easily. 

This kind of publicity directory isn't needed much by well-connected Silicon Valley serial entrepreneurs.  But for first-time, under-represented, and non-coastal elite founders our standardized directory of startups can help increase exposure and access to capital and connections. 

Includes first-of-its-kind “affinity categories” for founders to identify their startups, including female, Black, immigrant, veteran, Latinx, rural, LGBTQ+, and first-time founder categories to help investors who want to find and fund them.

Get a low cost listing for your venture to share your vision, team, deck, traction, and fundraising deal with National Startups Directory’s audience of angels, venture capital firms, and professional startup investors.

StartupEvents.org is the world’s ONLY calendar and newsletters solely dedicated to online events for startup founders.

Events are the best way for entrepreneurs to meet potential investors, team members, and partners. Offering education and new connections, events can help you build the relationships and expertise that leads to funding and growth.

And, you don’t have to live in California to attend - StartupEvents.org only publishes ONLINE events for startup founders and friends!

Join the free email list to be alerted about the best VIRTUAL events for founders and friends online.

Hosting a Virtual Event for Startup Founders? Submit your online startup event! We’ll publicize it to our worldwide entrepreneurs mailing list for you.

Get your Startup Questions Answered - FREE!

Our monthly #livestream brings Stanford, Silicon Valley quality venture advice to you - anywhere in the world.

Watch and participate FREE from anywhere in the world via LinkedIn Live, Facebook, or our popular YouTube channel.

Startup Council CEO Scott Fox answers founder questions LIVE. These fun, interactive AMA Q&A sessions focus especially on fundraising strategy for pre-seed and seed stage startups seeking capital from angel investors and VC firms.

Since 2017, the Startup Council has been hosting Startup Accelerator Workshops designed to help founders.

Instead of panel discussions or speeches, these are interactive group workshops where founders bring the questions and their investor pitches to practice. Workshops are held monthly, alternating between online and f2f events.

Attendees include founders, startup team members, angel and VC investors, service providers, and startup veterans - all working together to build community and accelerate your startup’s growth.

Learn How to Attend MasterMinds Startup Accelerator Workshops

Meetups Worldwide - F2F Networking in More than 40 Cities and 10 Countries

We support more than 50,000 local entrepreneurs and startup investors in groups in 40+ cities around the world!

Find a group online today to meet fellow founders, investors, and partners.

Want our FREE help promoting your startup events?

Check our Meetups page to find the Startup Council group in your city.

Submit your events here for FREE publicity in your community!

p.s. Don’t see your city (or country) yet?

If you have an entrepreneurs Meetup in your town, let us know. We’ll be happy to help publicize it and share events to help support your local startup ecosystem!

Grow your startup faster with expert help from StartupHelpers.org.

This FREE resource offers entrepreneurs (and investors) access to service providers who specialize in working with early stage companies.

Browse the dozens of categories of service providers and experts, or use the easy search tools to find the help you need to accelerate your company.

(Join the free StartupHelpers.org email list for special discounts from sponsors who want to reach startup founders!)

Join our Free LinkedIn Groups

Startup Accelerator Free Group for Founders, Entrepreneurs & Investors:

A free collaboration hub for entrepreneurs, investors, and #startup friends to exchange information and build relationships.

Innovation Ecosystem Building - Free Startup Community Strategy Group:

For community builders, entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs), and ecosystem development professionals (ONLY) to share expertise across geographies.

Startup Angels & VC Investors - Deal Flow and Discussion Community:

For accredited investors (ONLY) to exchange deal flow, due diligence, and early stage investing opportunities.

Startup Publicity

Promote your venture and the events in your startup ecosystem to attract more founders and investors.

Publish company milestones, deals, new hires, event announcements and more through the Startup Council’s several low cost publicity services for startups.

We can help you reach the press, podcasters, radio shows, event attendees, angel investors, VCs, and fellow entrepreneurs, too.

Learn about our online publicity services, publicize your virtual startup events to founders and investors worldwide for online attendance, plus our dozens of entrepreneur Meetup groups around the world, too.

3 Best-Selling Entrepreneurship Books

The Startup Council’s CEO, Scott Fox, has written 3 popular books to help entrepreneurs worldwide develop and implement their own visionary startup businesses.

Translated into many languages (Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Vietnamese, Polish, etc.), the books are pioneering guides to developing businesses based on your own interests and strengths in order to make some money and make the world a better place, too.

Available in bookstores worldwide and online at Amazon.com.

Private Startup Founder Coaching

Startup Council CEO, Scott Fox, is a world-recognized serial entrepreneur, 3x best-selling entrepreneurship author, and active angel investor. Founders worldwide turn to him for strategy and fundraising advice.

If you would like Silicon Valley quality, board-level advice to discuss your startup’s challenges, Scott offers a limited number of monthly private coaching calls.

Sponsors

Thanks to these Sponsors for supporting the work of the Startup Council. Entrepreneurs worldwide appreciate their investment in the future.

Contact us if you would like to reach startup founders and investors worldwide.

One affordable media buy can help you reach startup audiences across ALL the properties noted above!

Services for Startup Companies

We help startups find the resources and capital to succeed.

  • Attract investors by listing in the National Startups Directory

  • Find the “right” investors faster using the Startup Investors Directory

  • Consult StartupHelpers.org to find the best expert partners and service providers

  • Publish your company’s announcements in the Startup Council News

  • Showcase your startup at educational, networking, and investor events on StartupEvents.org

  • Startups can access Member Benefits that can help grow your company - including discounts on valuable services - attorneys, accountants, credit cards, insurance, HR, and more

Services for Startup Investors

We help angel investors and VCs find better deals.

  • Investors, incubators, and accelerators publish your criteria, investment thesis, and portfolio interests at StartupInvestorsDirectory.com to attract deal flow from qualified startups worldwide

  • Add a listing at StartupHelpers.org to attract more attention from entrepreneurs

  • Publish your latest deals, fund and cohort announcements, and exits in the Startup Council News

  • Subscribe to our free newsletters for industry updates and valuable deal news.

  • Participate in the many events we host and publish at StartupEvents.org to meet promising new founders and companies

Services for Corporate Partners

We connect community and corporate partners with startups.

  • Law Firms, Software Shops, Accountants, Design Agencies, Real Estate Pros, Marketing Experts, Consultants, Universities, non-profit Services and more all attract more business by listing at StartupHelpers.org

  • Introduce and explain the value of your services to highly targeted audiences across our websites and in the Startup Council News

  • Participate in the many events we host and publish at StartupEvents.org to meet promising new founders and companies

  • Promote special deals or your content to attract new client business from startups and investors

Mission

The Startup Council supports entrepreneurs worldwide, especially first-time, women, minority, and under-represented founders, including those in under-represented geographies.

We do this by:

  • Including everyone who wants to participate. No gate-keeping

  • Increasing access to “Silicon Valley insider” expertise, information, and networks

  • Increasing transparency in the angel and venture capital startup investing process

  • Offering free and low cost resources that early stage founders and team can afford - no matter where they live or what they look like

What Startup Council Partners Say

“Scott Fox and the Startup Council have been a partner and sponsor of Tech Coast Angels since 2018 and have made a big difference to our local innovation ecosystem. Their connections, events, and publishing in support of TCA activities and local entrepreneurship have become critical to the innovation community which we are growing. Their attention to under-represented founders is helping our ecosystem become more diverse, both in the startups we fund and also by encouraging new venture investors and supporters.”

Tech Coast Angels Orange County

“The Startup Council has been instrumental in supporting the innovation ecosystem. While it is open to everyone, the organization is especially impactful to first time founders and newer entrants to tech, many of whom come from diverse and under-represented backgrounds. Through its various activities, website, and network of resources, the Startup Council assists these founders and entrepreneurs with navigating a complex web of people, resources and information, all in an effort to help them build and grow successful new ventures.”

Silicon Valley Bank

The Startup Council has been a valuable resource for SBDC and the innovation ecosystem, supporting tech and life science startups. Our partnership with the Startup Council generated new client leads and provided technical assistance, extended client reach to investors. The Mastermind group helped clients grow in a cohort setting, a valuable resource for scaling innovation. Startup Council provided resources, training and assistance to our 300 annual SBDC clients in all demographics, greatly appreciated for their expertise and commitment.
SBDC @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation

“The startup expertise that Scott Fox shares with our students and alumni is invaluable. We are committed to accelerating the startup ecosystem and Scott has been a big supporter. We're very appreciative of his dedication to helping early stage founders and increasing diversity in the U-M startup community, by sharing his insights and enthusiasm with our network.”

University of Michigan Ross School of Business

“The Startup Council is a vital component of the startup community in SoCal.  Over the past 10 years the SoCal tech scene has evolved from being a small ecosystem to being one of the largest in the world.  This is in no small part thanks to the great work of the Startup Council, who are a constant support system to the entire community.  Keep up the great work.  Investors like Expert DOJo appreciate you.”

ExpertDojo

“Scott Fox and the Startup Council have been tremendous partners to the Stanford entrepreneurial community in Orange County as we build up our efforts there. Their events attract a great set of people and we look forward to continued partnership as we grow.”

Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs of Southern California

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