Amplifying Founders Others Overlook
Venture Builders connects a venture fund, accelerator, and vibrant founder community into one flywheel — designed to generate deal flow, support founders, and reinvest in the ecosystems that fuel it all.
Venture Builders Fund is an early-stage venture fund and accelerator-as-a-service provider. Our strategy is to back founders emerging from vetted accelerators and venture builders across North America — investing at pre-seed and seed stage in founders from underserved startup ecosystems.
Our thesis
The best founders don't always raise in Silicon Valley
They build in Memphis, Cleveland, Boise, and hundreds of other communities where capital and connections are scarce — but the caliber of work is not.
Our strategy is to invest in exceptional founders emerging from vetted accelerators and venture studios, before the rest of the market finds them. Our edge is the relationships — 15+ years of combined team experience building trusted partnerships with the accelerators and venture studios that develop these founders.
How we work
Three interconnected pillars
The Fund
An early-stage fund investing in exceptional founders emerging from vetted accelerators and venture builders across North America. Deal flow from trusted ecosystem partners who provide behavioral data — not just pitch decks.
Learn moreCommunity & Content
A growing network of founders, mentors, and ecosystem builders united by a shared mission to support the overlooked. Pivot, our founder story platform, is where founder stories reach the people who care about them.
Join the communityAccelerator-as-a-Service
Fractional accelerator leadership and centralized programming for underserved startup ecosystems worldwide. Local partners scout founders. We deliver world-class curriculum, mentorship, and programming.
Explore the modelSelf-reinforcing
The Flywheel
Each pillar feeds the next — a continuous loop of deal flow, founder support, and ecosystem growth.
Click any node to explore the flywheel
Why this matters now
The traditional VC model was designed to serve a handful of cities
The rest of the country has been overlooked because the system was never built to find them.
Our team has spent 15+ years building relationships with accelerators, studios, hubs, and innovation programs across six continents — through prior programs members of our team built and led before VBF. In many cases, we helped shape the practices these organizations use today.
- We understand how each partner coaches and supports startups
- We know their resources and how reliable their judgment is
- Trusted relationships built over years of showing up and delivering value
- Trust is the mechanism behind everything we do
The people
The team behind VBF
General Partner & Co-Founder
Jillian spent the past decade fostering a community of startup support organizations before stepping in as CEO of the Global Venture Network — a global venture community spanning six continents with over 300 ecosystem leaders supporting over 5,500 startups per year. She built the SOLIDWORKS for Startups program, which served 30,000+ hardware startups — companies like Boom Supersonic, Bevi, and SparkCharge participated in the SOLIDWORKS program. She also advises startups through Rhodes College Entrepreneurship Program, Fierce Foundry, and SXSW.
General Partner & Co-Founder
Steve served as GVN's Chief Experience Officer, where he designed, built, and delivered the first-of-its-kind curriculum to train ecosystem leaders from across the globe how to build accelerators and venture studios. With a decade in science, five years building companies, and five years in journalism, Steve brings investigative rigor and founder empathy to every interaction.
General Partner
Paul brings 25+ years of institutional Wall Street experience — equity research at Bank of America and PaineWebber (now UBS), and portfolio management at SAC Capital (now Point72) and Omega Advisors, specialising in global technology, media, and telecoms. He brings institutional-grade analytical rigour to VBF's investment process.
Misha Agrawal
Our Amazing Intern
Misha works on thesis development and venture analytics, bringing a background in neuroscience, computational genomics, and open-source AI systems to the investment process. She approaches early-stage companies the way she approaches research — looking for the underlying systems, the quality of the people running them, and the conditions that allow both to scale.
What sets us apart
We do things differently
Aligned with Ecosystems
We structure partnerships so that success with founders flows back to the ecosystems that developed them — the organizations doing the unglamorous work of screening and coaching deserve a seat at the table.
Challenging the Status Quo
The traditional model concentrates in major tech hubs. Our team has been building relationships in rising ecosystems for years — through prior programs, long before the rest of the market caught on.
Deep Trust
In many cases, members of our team helped shape the practices these organizations use today. We understand their methodologies and standards — the result of years of working alongside them, not a transactional referral pipeline.
Genuine Enthusiasm
Building something meaningful should be enjoyable. Everyone involved chose this work because they cared. We bring that energy to everything we do.
Ready to build something different?
Whether you're a founder, an ecosystem builder, or a partner building something meaningful in your community — we'd love to hear from you.