Judges for Nov 8th competition
Designed to Cultivate
Early-stage, growth-driven startups to market success through mentorship and funding
This program has access to a dedicated pool of serial entrepreneurs, professionals and venture capitalists around the globe who are uniquely positioned to help startups navigate through various growth cycles and funding stages. OPEN Startup Connect will benefit founders in one of two ways
We connect early stage startups with
Industry experts or Mentors
Just write it out and submit your Idea
industry leaders and tier 1 investors
Entrepreneur and Investor mentors
Karen Page
General Partner at B Capital
Mudassir Sheikha
Co-founder / CEO at Careem
Najeeb Ghauri
Founder, Chairman and CEO of NETSOL Technologies Inc
Jamal Rana
President, American College of Cardiology California Chapter
Idris Kothari
Vice President, Vasona Systems International LLC
Ghufran Ahmed
Vice President, Oracle
Haseeb Budhani
Kubernetes Operations for Enterprises & Service Providers
Faisal Aftab
Co-Founder & GP at Zayn Capital
Fauad Hasan
Board Member, Biopharm
Kewan Khawaja
Co-CEO, Techlogix Inc.
Imran Sayeed
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, MIT Sloan School of Management
Raghib Hussain
Chief Strategy Officer and EVP, Marvell Semiconductor
Rehan Jalil
President & CEO, SECURITI.ai
Omair Farooqui
Shareholder, Palo Alto Legal Group, PC
Naveed Anwar
MD, Global Head of Digital, Treasury and Trade Solutions at Citi
Salman Azhar
Advisor, ExpatBuddy
Umair Khan
Chairman, Folio3 & Mentor's Fund
Safwan Shah
CEO, PayActiv Inc.
Raiz Karamali
Corporate Partner, Counselor, and Cross-Border Dealmaker , Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Naveed Sherwani
Chairman, Silicon Foundation
Naeem Zafar
Co-founder & CEO, TeleSense
Muhammed Irfan
President, Whizz Systems Inc.
Moazzam Chaudri
Customer Field and Partner Czar, Google
Malika Junaid
Principal Architect and Partner, M Designs Architects
Junaid Qureshi
Managing Partner MDI
Junaid Razzak
VP - Global Professional Services, Paypal
Kash Iftikhar
SVP and General Manager, Oracle
Fahad Aziz
Caremerge & Forbes Contributor
Faisal Jeddy
Partner, BDO USA LLP
Faysal Sohail
Executive Chairman & Board of Directors, InoBat Auto
Awais Nemat
GM, Amazon (AWS)
Frequently Asked Questions
OPEN Startup Connect is an initiative of OPEN Silicon Valley designed to guide early-stage startups and growth-driven companies to market success. This program introduces founders to a dedicated team of entrepreneurs and professionals who are thought leaders in their fields. The program connects qualified startups and growth companies with Venture Capitalists for funding opportunities or Mentors to become part of the Leadership Council.
No, there is no deadline. You can apply anytime by going to the link here
Members of our Core Committee constantly review applications on a first come first served basis. Depending on the number of submissions we may review your pitch as early as one week, however, if there are too many submissions it may take more time.
If we like your pitch we will inform you and send your idea to our Leadership Council with recommendation for Investment or Mentorship
Each Council has at least one VC, one legal Counsel and multiple experts in the industry vertical for your company.
Once your company is selected, then yes you will have a chance of meeting them either in person or via video conference.
If the Leadership Council member or members request a meeting with you that generally means they will like to explore more. Depending on whether your request is for funding or mentorship (or both), Leadership Council will begin to discuss and assist in those. During the call or meeting, the Council member may decide to work directly with you or recommend you to the OPEN Startup Connect team to include you to present your ideas to our other VCs for potential funding.
No. It is not a common practice in Silicon Valley to sign an NDA at this stage.
No. Even if you have raised Seed or Series A, you are welcome to apply. Being in Silicon Valley we are fortunate to have notable VCs from the Silicon Valley and outside the Silicon Valley that are interested in investing from angel, seed to Series A and beyond.
Our Leadership Council has no boundaries, however, our presence is more in Silicon Valley Startups.
Even if your idea is similar to the idea we have received before, We will connect you to the VCs if you are selected by our Core Comittee.
Yes. The more you have worked on your Startup idea the more chances you have to be selected by OPEN Startup Connect to be infront of the VCs
Yes, a single person can apply for the funding.
Yes, you can apply as many times as you like.
At this time, Startup Connect does not take equity or charge any fees.