Founders Network · Requirements

Founders Network membership requirements

Every criterion Founders Network publishes, with its source, the date it was verified and how confident we are in it — plus superseded figures, so you can see how the tests have moved.

A gallery space with cocktail tables and low light before guests arrive — Illustration

Read a requirement as the organization's published floor, not as a promise. A revenue test may have alternative versions for different business types, chapters can set stricter local tests, and invitation-only bodies publish criteria that describe members rather than admit them.

Current published criteria

4 rows

Criterion	Published requirement	Note	Provenance
Role or title	Must be a full-time founder of a technology startup	Stated as "You are working full-time on building your tech startup. No service firms."	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Industry restriction	Technology startups only; service firms are excluded	The membership requirements text explicitly excludes service firms.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Invitation	Invite-only; applicants without an invitation request one and are reviewed by a membership committee	The site states "FN is an invite-only community" and routes non-invited applicants to a request form.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Other criterion	Tier placement is set by the funding or revenue of the applicant's current or past companies	Launch tier is pre-revenue to US$10K revenue or up to US$100K raised; Scale is US$10K-US$1M revenue or US$100K-US$3M raised; Lead is US$1M+ revenue or US$3M+ raised. These are pricing bands, not exclusion thresholds.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗

How admission works

Application process

Applicants either arrive with a member invitation or request one through the site. The published flow is a short application of about two minutes plus an optional longer addendum. A membership committee reviews complete applications by the last Friday of each month and notifies applicants of the decision the same day.

Invitation required

Sometimes

Sponsor required

Sometimes

Selectivity

Not publicly disclosed. The organization calls itself invite-only and says it researches applicants' backgrounds, but publishes no acceptance rate or rejection statistics.

Membership term

Annual commitment, renewed annually; monthly payment plans available on some tiers

Primary audience

Full-time founders of technology startups, from idea stage through post-Series A, who want peer mentorship rather than capital or an accelerator programme.

Typical member

The organization describes its members as vetted full-time tech startup founders; it states that members have collectively raised more than US$5 billion, that average funding per member is US$1.1 million, and that 50 percent are serial entrepreneurs. Service firms are explicitly excluded.

Reported threshold changes

2026Organization reports 600+ members, 2,000+ startups helped and US$5 billion collectively raised by members; annual conferences fnIRL and fnSummit scheduled for 2026. ↗

Do you appear to meet them?

The qualification tool reads these rows against a profile you give in ranges and explains which criteria appear met, unclear or unmet. Check your profile

If not: alternatives to Founders Network — Hampton, South Park Commons, Entrepreneurs' Organization, On Deck.

Last verified: 6 September 2026 Report an error on this page

Sources

Founders Network - Startup mentorship, peer to peer forums, Founders Network. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 1
About Us - Founders Network, Founders Network. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 1
Founders' Friday in London - Founders Network, Founders Network. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 1
Benefits - Founders Network, Founders Network. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 2
FAQ - Founders Network, Founders Network. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 2
Application - Founders Network, Founders Network. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 3
fnMexico City Chapter Coffee Connect, Eventbrite (Founders Network organiser page). Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 8

Source tiers follow the published hierarchy: 1 official site · 2 official membership materials · 3 application documents · 4 annual reports · 5 government filings · 6 reliable business publications · 7 credible interviews · 8 other reputable secondary sources. Sources and data policy.