I recently started a new project called Founders RAW, a destination for video conversations with other startup founders.  Why are we recording these conversations?  Simply put, we think the truth of entrepreneurship needs to be heard far and wide.

From the About section:

Founders RAW is actually an experiment.  As founders of an early stage startup we quickly realized how difficult starting a company can be.  And being part of the larger startup community in Seattle we discovered we weren’t alone in our crazy, mind-blowing experiences – apparently others have them too.  The idea started to form once we noticed the frequency of finding ourselves 30 minutes deep in truth sharing and wisdom dropping conversations with founder friends.  We wondered if others would be interested in what we have learned, so we figured why not to bring a camera.  I guess we’ll see what happens.

Founders RAW a video blog with conversation style interviews focused on bringing out raw stories early stage founders experience in their challenging entrepreneurial journeys.  We invite founders to talk openly over a beer or a coffee about the “truth” of how they survive and grow their companies.  We post the full conversations on the blog but really, who has time to watch 45 minutes of video?  So we slice up the conversations and post nuggets each day as well as send out daily videos no more than 3 or 4 minutes long to blog subscribers.    Now we all can receive daily nuggets of the entrepreneurial truth.

Don’t forget to subscribe and please reach out to us if you are interested in chatting.

I brought in a few friends to help make this happen.  You can watch Nate and I talk over why we started Founders RAW in this video, Why we started Founders RAW.  We believe the best way to educate new founders is through candid and casual conversation with other founders, regardless of their experience level.  Although a veteran certainly knows more about starting companies than someone on their first go-around, we believe everyone has something unique to teach other people.  We hope we can continue to grow and expand the impact Founders RAW has on entrepreneurial communities.

=======================

Nick Hughes

Nick is an entrepreneur and writer in Seattle, WA.  He is currently the founder and CEO of Seconds, a mobile payment startup helping to bring payments into the mobile era using the web and text messages.  He also consults with other companies locally and nationally on business development and product strategies. In his spare time you will find him as far away from the desk as possible, hopefully on a trail or close to water. 

Nate Martinez

Nate worked as a business development manager for a venture capital and private equity data research platform. Prior to that role, he ran his own hedge fund trading search platform for three years, with particular focus on quantitative strategies. His early career was spent with Credit Suisse (NYC) trading on their investment grade credit derivatives and corporate bond desk.

Josh Peterson

Josh is currently head of Audio and Video production for Founders RAW. He also works as a web developer and media artist, and his interactive electronic artworks have been exhibited at galleries and events in Seattle. Josh hopes to develop technology that artists will use to make new and exciting forms of digital art.