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Founders Bay Brief

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📓 Journal

📓 From Our Blog (3)

⭐ Top 100 AI VC Directory

🗽 Featured New York (6)

🌉 SF Events (6)

🖥️ Virtual Events (6)

🌴 LA Events (1)

💼 Jobs of the Week (6)

Hi Friends,

Just got back from LIB and wow… what an experience. I reflect on it below.

Tonight, we’re hosting a SOLD OUT https://luma.com/bes940ac with 100+ investors confirmed.

This weekend, I’m heading to Titanic’s End Annual Summer Camp and can’t wait to reconnect with my Burning Man family ❤️

Then it’s straight to San Diego for our https://You.com offsite, followed by NYC for a16z Tech Week, where we're hosting 4 events, including the closing Yacht Party!

Also, you can now see all NYC a16z tech week events here: https://www.foundersbay.com/nyc/tech-week-calendar

🎙️ New podcast episode

Mariane Bekker Built a 200,000 Founder Network by Accident

I sat down with the Peer Effect podcast to share the story behind Founders Bay — how a 200,000-founder network came together (mostly by accident), what I'd do differently, and where it's headed. The full conversation is live now.

▶ Watch the episode →

👥 Going to this event?

See who else is attending LinkedIn for Founders: Grow Your Following & Build a Magnetic Personal Brand and connect before you go.

See who's attending →

This Week's Journal

What If?

What if you existed in a world where the truth was whatever you wanted it to be?

For a few days, I think I did.

A world where nobody asked what you did for work.
Where nobody cared how successful you were.
Where nobody needed you to be anything except present.

And maybe that’s why Lightning in A Bottle felt so freeing.

Because back home, most of us are performing all the time.

Especially the ambitious ones.

The founders.
The engineers.
The leaders.
The parents.

The people everyone depends on.

You become the strong one for so long…
you forget there’s a version of you underneath all the survival.

A softer version.
A quieter version.
A human version.

And somewhere along the way, love starts feeling tied to performance.

To how useful you are.
How successful you are.
How much you can carry without breaking.

So you keep going.

Even when you’re exhausted.
Even when you feel disconnected from yourself.
Even when your soul is begging you to slow down.

And I think that’s the question so many people quietly carry underneath it all:

“If I stop performing…
will people still love me for who I really am?”

This week reminded me how badly I wanted the answer to be yes.

Because for the first time in a long time…

I wasn’t thinking about metrics.
Or growth.
Or being “on.”

I was dancing.
Laughing.
Crying.
Feeling alive in a way I forgot I needed.

And somewhere between the music, the lights, and complete chaos…

I realized how many people are walking around carrying invisible versions of themselves just to survive the lives they built.

Maybe that’s why I built Founders Bay.

Not just to connect successful people.

But to create a place where people belong before they become impressive.

Because before the titles, the money, the followers, the companies…

We were all just people with dreams hoping someone would love us before we had anything to prove.

🗽 Featured New York

In-person events in New York — VIP members attend for free

📓 Founders Bay Journal — What If? | May 28

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