This content was created by Tim Draper. This content was uploaded by Tim Draper. This is a YouTube video titled "Incubating Entrepreneurs with Fownder | Gerard Adams" (created 2016-06-08). The excerpt is an interview-style exchange between an interviewer (Speaker A) and Gerard Adams (Speaker B) about Foundrs (spelled F-O-W-N-D-E-R-S), a newly launched incubator focused on young entrepreneurs. Topics include helping students move from idea to scale, building marketing and business plans, mentoring and advisor networks, partnerships with local universities (Rutgers, NJIT), community engagement, and addressing education/student debt issues.
What are you doing?
We're incubating entrepreneurs. So we're looking for just basically youth right now that is interested in entrepreneurship. And they want to be able to understand how to really— they have an idea. Maybe they've gotten started. They're very early stage. But they want to learn how to really now go from seed to scale, how to actually build the right marketing plan, business plan, Have a network of advisors and mentors, resources that can help them get to the next level. And then at that point in time, we can introduce them to the right investors.
And what's it called for everybody in the audience? Maybe they want to try it.
It's called Foundrs, but spelled with own in the middle of it. So F-O-W-N-D-E-R-S.
Very cool. What have you seen so far in the very early days of Foundrs?
So we just launched this month. And it's really exciting. I've had so many young entrepreneurs and young startups that are local that have been coming in. And a lot of students— we're doing a lot of work with Rutgers University, NJIT in the area. You're starting to see this whole area change. The universities are really buying the land. And you're seeing a lot of change in the community. And the community's embracing it.
Yeah.
If I had something like this, and we're noticing a lot of this in the local community with the students, they have a passion for entrepreneurship, but they don't necessarily— they don't really have all the resources. The schools are giving a lot of the resources, but they want to also be able to be in an environment like this where they're rubbing shoulders with other entrepreneurs that are like-minded, other mentors and founders.
Yeah.
It's been really exciting because they've all embraced it. And if I would have had something like this growing up, maybe I wouldn't have dropped out. And for me, it's important. Education is very important. So for me, if I can help a lot of those, the local community, be able to help them get educated while still pursuing their entrepreneurial passion, that's the goal.
You say education is really important to you. How do you square that away with dropping out to be an entrepreneur and found a company? How do they fit together?
You know, I do think that, you know, you do gain a lot from it. I do think that, for me, it's— I don't— I dropped out, so I have a lot of students that have started coming in and saying, hey, you know, for me, I feel like, you know, it's not for me. And that's totally okay. You have to go with what you feel is the right path for you. It's different for everybody. But I think that the real change that needs to happen is We need to not separate the two, but work together with the universities and help them figure out how can we solve the issue with the debt crisis? How can we solve a lot of these issues? How can we bring entrepreneurship and partner up with these universities and help make real change in the system? Because I feel the system is broken. So for me, I want to be able to work with these universities. And they have a lot of resources. You could build a huge network with these schools as well. So—
