PlatformOS

What is PlatformOS?
Platform’s primary goal is to provide the infrastructure for founders to reduce risks, have a higher success rate and achieve faster results than traditional venture—so we hope you’ll consider us a potential co-founder! If you’re interested in building with us, please reach out to learn more about being a Founder-in-Residence (FIR) at Platform.

We recognize that not everyone in the ecosystem may wish to found a company themselves, but would like to contribute to solving big problems in other ways.

There are many other roles you can take in the Guild:

PlatformOS is our proprietary software platform to manage the studio process, and guide founders and companies to success. We think of it as "Github for Building Startups". It lets a wide group of people work together to discuss themes and trends, source unmet needs, and collaboratively build startups together. Platform Guild is the community and ecosystem created by this wide group of people.

This article provides more background: Could the Future of Venture be Like Github?

How do I participate in the Guild?
Platform’s primary goal is to provide the infrastructure for founders to reduce risks, have a higher success rate and achieve faster results than traditional venture—so we hope you’ll consider us a potential co-founder! If you’re interested in building with us, please reach out to learn more about being a Founder-in-Residence (FIR) at Platform.

We recognize that not everyone in the ecosystem may wish to found a company themselves, but would like to contribute to solving big problems in other ways.

There are many other roles you can take in the Guild:

• Investor - you’ll hear first when Platform companies are starting to fundraise. (Note: you have to be an accredited investor in our network to invest.)
• Subject-matter expert - we address unmet needs in a variety of different industries. This necessarily means that we won’t be experts in each of those industries. We frequently post "help requests" for industry experts to help us research and better understand certain areas of interest in exchange for advisor equity in those companies.
• Coach - quite simply, being a founder is hard. Our founders need guidance, and we are lucky enough to have many Guild members willing to coach those founders through the company-building process.
• Founder Associate - Our Founder Associates assist our FIRs with building their companies. A Founder Associate is a quintessential generalist and gets to witness firsthand how a founder creates a company from scratch. For someone who aspires to be a Founder themselves one day, we believe there is no better, hands-on experience than being a Founder Associate. Open Founder Associate positions will be posted here when available.
• Commenter & Curious Person - Platform is “choose-your-own-adventure”. You can serve in any of the roles above, or you can simply read and comment on different discussions being had. Just jump in and join the discussion on unmet needs, themes, and companies you are interested in.

What are "Option Points"?
We want everyone who helps build a startup to have "skin in the game". When a Platform Guild member provides help to a Platform startup - e.g. by picking up a Help Request - we award the Guild member with Option Points in that startup. Why are they "points" rather than simply advisor stock options? At the point time when the help is given, the startup in question may not yet have been spun out as a separate legal entity. This is part of what keeps Platform's studio model simple and capital efficient; we only create separate legal entities when a startup reaches a certain stage of development. When a company is spun out, we will convert any outstanding Option Points to actual advisor stock options. This article provides more context: The Truth About Advisors

How do I turn a Guild conversation into a company?
So, you’re having a really interesting conversation with someone on the Platform feed, and you want to see that turn into something bigger. There are a few ways we suggest getting started:

• First, reply and see if they’d like to have a meeting about the topic. As much as doing work asynchronously can be helpful, there is nothing quite like discussing an idea with someone live. Many Platform Guild members share their scheduling link on their Platform profiles.
• If you feel like an idea has legs and would like to build with Platform, feel free to reach out or tag us in the comments, and we can offer our feedback.

We also regularly read all posted Unmet Needs and will reach out if we find one promising.

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Platform is a growing community of founders, experts, and investors building startups together.

[build with us](/content/build-with-us/index.html)