Join now
Contact
› › StartOut San Francisco

StartOut San Francisco

Founded in 2009, our San Francisco chapter utilizes the focus and density of the city’s startup culture to provide opportunities for serendipitous connections, as well as a mature ecosystem of angels to service providers, to give your startup a boost toward success.

Events

VIEW PHOTO GALLERY

Success Stories

Dr. Jennelle Yopchick’s Big Change of Heart
Providing support, guidance, and advice on matters of the heart that matter the most Whether it’s moving to a new city, having a baby, or mourning the death of a loved one, dealing with major life transitions can be an unsettling … READ MORE
Merritt Baer’s Got the Golden Tickets
When they first met at a New York theatre camp, 12 year-old Merritt Baer and Brian Fenty dreamed of setting the theatre world on its ear. 18 years later, they have. Not as stars on Broadway, but as the co-founders of TodayTix … READ MORE
Jennifer Brown – How Jennifer Found Her Voice

On September 8, 2012, Jennifer Brown took the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts stage. Although she entered to strains of opera music, the classically trained opera singer was not there to sing. A series of vocal injuries had long since dashed that dream. … READ MORE

Michael Belkin – Connecting LGBT Youth
Michael Belkin first came out to a couple of friends, and to himself, in 2006 as a 19 year-old undergraduate at Cornell University. “On that day I was instantly part of this new community and movement,” he says. … READ MORE
Sean Howell – Building a Better Hornet
When Sean Howell was a college student at Pacific Lutheran University in Seattle, he had no gay peers or role models. But he did find gay.com. “The chat rooms were a way to talk to people about anything,” he says. “I made my first 20 gay friends online.”  … READ MORE
Bonnie Lai – The Space Saver

People who live in cities have a lot of stuff – but not always enough space to store or park it all. That’s why Bonnie Lai (who goes by “Bon”) and her business partner Jonathan Gillon co-founded roost.com in March 2014. … READ MORE

Lee Edwards – Living the Dream
Many kids grew up dreaming of building robots, starting companies, and becoming successful by 30. Lee Edwards has done all of these. Today, at 29, he’s an Engineering Manager in Product Development at local commerce giant Groupon. … READ MORE
Arun Apte – How Coming Out Changed the Course of His Business
Arun Apte was born in the Bay Area in a typical Indian family. And like most expectations coming from Indian parents, according to Apte, he was expected to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer. But Apte had different career goals for himself, … READ MORE
Nick Hodulik – Marriage of the Minds
Nick Hodulik has had two happy marriages. His husband of five years, Jonathan Taylor (“JT”), joined him as VP then COO of General Things, the web and mobile applications company that he founded in 2004. … READ MORE

Tweets by StartOut

Volunteer Programming Board

Cristian Fournies
Chapter Leader

Cristian is a strategic thinker, business advisor, and entrepreneur, working at Salesforce in Global Business Planning and Strategy.  He is a Civil Engineer & Life Coach with an MBA from Hult International Business School. He is passionate about technology and human behavior.

Alan Masarsky

Alan is a marketing athlete with over 8 years of experience driving communications and demand generation programs for consumer and enterprise products. He co-founded two startups, and has driven over 1 million app installs per day for leading app developers.

Brian Tran

Brian is a first-generation Vietnamese-American from Houston, Texas. In 2015, he joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers as their first Designer in Residence. He’s currently hosted by Edge, KPCB’s seed stage fund, focusing on shipping products for portfolio entrepreneurs.

Chris Sinton

Chris is an Internet and philanthropic trailblazer. In 1994, at Cisco Systems, he pioneered the B2B Internet with cisco.com identifying, articulating and helping create a new business paradigm, the Global Networked Business. In 2000, as an early driver of digital philanthropy, he saw that as the Internet changed the way business was done, it had could change the way people helped each other.

Using the power of the Internet for good, Chris Co-Founded NetAid innovating with online volunteering and the first mobile app for donations on the Palm VII. Chris was a founding board member of the ePhilanthropy Foundation, founded Cisco’s ePhilanthropy office, and was Co-Founder and Founding President & CEO of Network for Good raising $1B for nonprofits.

He’s served on boards with local nonprofits, Internet startups, and produced a documentary. While Board Chair at StartOut he helped professionalize and scale the organization to 12,000 members, opening chapters in Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Dave Schreiber

Dave Schreiber is a mobile developer and startup entrepreneur. A veteran of several startups, including the Y Combinator-backed Loopt, he is currently doing freelance full-stack mobile development and working on a new startup. Dave lives in Mountain View.

Jesse Eller

Jesse Lee Eller, CEO & Founder at Studio 5 Consulting, a creative design firm based in San Francisco that specializes in learning and development. The international firm is recognized for their innovation and positive disruption of the learning and development industry. 

Joe DiPasquale

Joe is a co-founder and Director of StartOut and founder and CEO of Regroup. In 2006, Joe founded Regroup, the leading mass messaging solution for large organizations. Regroup provides mass messaging for cities, companies, and schools, such as San Francisco, Hitachi, and Stanford.

Joe completed his BA at Harvard and MBA at Stanford. In a former life, Joe was a competitive figure skater and official for US Figure Skating.

Martin Klotzman

Martin is the Marketing and Business Operations Manager at Ivory Consulting Corporation. Prior to joining Ivory, he was CFO and co-founder the concert production company Our House Records. He received an MBA and BS in Finance from SFSU.

Matt Davis
Matt Shapiro

Matt’s the Founder / CEO of a FinTech startup, siyea. He’s dedicated to fostering a professional, supportive, & inclusive LGBT entrepreneur community in San Francisco / Silicon Valley.  When he’s not working or triathlon training, he’s at the park with his pup.

Michael Belkin

Michael Belkin is the Founder and CEO of Distinc.tt, the world’s largest and most active network of LGBT youth. In 2016 he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Belkin holds an MBA Harvard and a BA from Cornell.

Simma Lieberman

Simma Lieberman, “The Inclusionist,” is a internationally recognized authority on diversity and inclusion culture strategy in organizations. She is the co-founder of the new video project, “Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People.” Simma has authored three books on diversity and one on personal resilience.

Tom Sheahan

Tom has twenty-three years of experience in the American and Australian IT/Telecommunications industry. Before co-founding Red Oxygen in 2001, he was the Country Manager for InterVoice in Australia/ New Zealand. Tom holds a BA from SMU, Dallas majoring in marketing and anthropology.