Built in Austin, for founders who came from somewhere else
The International Founders Network (IFN) runs a monthly in-person meetup in Austin, Texas for people building a company in a country they did not grow up in. We have run it every month for more than six months.
Why IFN exists
Most people who start a company after moving to Austin hit the same wall, and it is not the product. It is a legal system you did not grow up in, a visa that limits what you are allowed to do, a bank that asks for documents you have never heard of, and a professional network that has to be rebuilt from nothing.
There are two usual answers and neither one fits. General startup meetups are friendly but never touch any of that. Accelerators do touch it, but they take a share of your company, they decide who is allowed in, and they run on one fixed cycle a year.
IFN sits between the two. One meetup a month, open to anyone who wants to come, plus an optional yearly membership for the part that happens between meetups.
Around 100 to 300 people are on our meetup and newsletter list: a real number, and a modest one. We would rather print it than round it up.
What a meetup actually is
Four things you can check before you decide whether to come.
- Where
- Downtown AustinAt our venue partner. The address is on every event listing.
- How often
- Once a monthOne in-person meetup, every month, for more than six months so far.
- What happens
- Introductions, not minglingWe use a structured one-to-one format run with our format partner, so you leave having actually spoken with a few people.
- Who runs it
- A small founding teamThe same people who founded Yani Partners, a fractional technology firm. We say so because you should know who is behind this.
How we work
Six things that are true about IFN today. If any of them stops being true, this page changes.
Austin first
The meetup is in Austin and so are the people who host it. Founders join us from other cities and other countries, and that is welcome, but we will not describe ourselves as something larger than the room we can fill.
One meetup a month
A single date, every month, in person. One date a month is something a small team can actually keep to, which is why it has held for more than six months rather than fading out.
Practical answers
Visa status, opening a United States bank account, setting up a company, hiring someone in another country. These questions get answered by founders who have already been through them.
You meet people, not a room
Our speed-networking format pairs you with a few founders for real conversations. Nobody is left standing at the edge holding a drink, which is the part most newcomers dread.
No equity, no selection
You do not give up any part of your company to be here, and you are not screened for admission. Membership is a flat yearly fee, and it is optional.
We only claim what we can prove
No borrowed logos, no invented numbers, no quotes from people who do not exist. You are choosing who to trust in an unfamiliar country, and we would rather be small and accurate.
Come to the next meetup
The honest way to find out whether IFN is useful to you is to spend one evening in the room and talk to the people there. One city, one venue, once a month. You do not have to be selected to come.