"We were expecting a lot of skepticism from founders initially," Duggirala told Business Insider. "The financial diversification was easy to explain, but we were unsure if founders understood the value of being in a network of other founders. So it was eye opening to see how vehemently some entrepreneurs defended the idea on Hacker News when investors tried to push back.
"Just like VCs, founders need an opportunity to diversify their risk and build their networks," Jeffries said. "It could create a stronger skin-in-the-game community of founders and help get direct, honest feedback from other entrepreneurs," Benoleil said. Building allies among startups is a good thing, especially since "large players in tech are also making it harder for startups to innovate and compete," he said.
"We are identifying and labelling the traits that make founders compatible. We are mapping the relationships between founders and their companies, building a 'founder relationship graph,'" he said. And others think the idea has merit. For instance, Jas Hothi, a risk consultant with Ernst & Young, thinks FounderPool is a "fantastic idea as founders often work in silos, and this pooling model builds ecosystems with non-competitive start-ups.
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