Re: I Need Your Honest Feedback (This Is Real)

Dear Founderscrowds community,

Before I send you another deal memo or trending tech analysis, I want to actually talk to you.

Not as "Jose from Founderscrowd" the brand.

As Jose the person who's spent the last decade watching how broken access to great investments really is.

Read time: 4 mins

WE NEED YOUR HELP

I've been on both sides of the table. Built companies, exited them.

Worked at top VCs. Helped a founder I believed in raise $110M that became $1B+.

And throughout all of it, I kept seeing the same pattern.

The best investment opportunities in the world were locked behind velvet ropes.

SpaceX 12 months before their IPO? Locked.

OpenAI before everyone knew about it? Locked.

Anthropic at a $5B valuation? Locked.

Databricks, Cerebras, Polymarket, Kalshi, Kraken, every deal I would have killed for as an investor?

Locked.

And the lock wasn't on the companies. It was on the people allowed to participate.

If you grew up rich, had family money, or knew the right people in Silicon Valley, you got access. You got to write $100K checks into the next unicorn and watch it 10x.

If you were everyone else talented, hardworking, smart about markets- you got locked out. You got to buy the IPO like everyone else. After the VC guys already made 10x.

That's not capitalism.

That's a club.

I got tired of it.

Not in an angry way. In a "this is fixable" way.

The private markets aren't actually exclusive because the deals are hard to find. They're exclusive because someone decided you weren't allowed in.

We decided to change that.

Founderscrowd started as a newsletter. Just me, sharing the deals I was seeing, the trends I was watching, the inside intel that VCs kept to themselves.

The response was immediate. People wanted in. Not because they wanted to gamble. Because they were tired of being locked out.

Over the last few months, we've connected our community to investments in:

We've done this through partnerships, intelligence, and relationships built on trust.

But here's the thing:

We're just getting started.

We're not stopping at a newsletter.

We're building a platform. Something that works differently than everything else out there.

Not another app where you scroll through YC companies and angel notes written by people who don't actually know the space.

Something built by someone who's been inside. Who's raised capital. Who's seen what matters and what doesn't. Who knows that investor access should be a right, not a privilege.

A place where:

We're building it with you in mind. Because I remember being on the outside. Angry, frustrated, locked out.

This platform is our answer to that.

We're not perfect. We don't have all the answers.

We're building in real-time. Learning what works, what doesn't, what people actually need versus what we think they need.

That's where you come in.

I'm asking for something specific: Your honest feedback.

Not compliments. Not "I love what you're doing." Real, critical, specific feedback.

What are your main frustrations with private market access?

What do you wish existed that doesn't?

What would actually make you use Founderscrowd as your primary private markets platform?

What else should we be thinking about that we're clearly missing?

Reply directly to this email. That's it.

I read every reply. Personally. Not a VA, not an autoresponder. Me.

If you take the time to write thoughtfully, I'll take the time to respond thoughtfully.

This isn't marketing copy. This is me asking you to help build something we all want: a world where great investments aren't gatekept, and anyone with skill and conviction can participate.

You're not just our subscribers. You're our community.

And communities aren't built on one-way newsletters or transaction-based deals. They're built on real dialogue, real feedback, real trust.

I started Founderscrowd because I was frustrated by gatekeeping.

I'm writing this letter because I'm committed to not becoming another gatekeeper.

That means asking you what you need. Listening. Actually changing based on what we hear.

We're launching the platform next month. But it's not done without you.

Send feedback. Tell us what's broken. Tell us what's missing. Tell us what you'd build if you were in our position.

Then we'll build it together.

Whether you've been with Founderscrowd since day one or you just subscribed, you're betting on something.

You're betting that private market access can be fair.

You're betting that founders like me actually care about changing this.

You're betting that a newsletter from some guy in [location] can actually compete with the entrenched gatekeepers.

That's faith. And I don't take it lightly.

Reply to this email. Tell me everything.

What's frustrating you about private markets?

What would actually change your life?

What should we build?

I'm listening.

Hunt accordingly. ☕

Jose