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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.

StartOut Growth Lab

Nixon Peabody LLP, a full-service nationwide law firm, has generously partnered with us, the largest nonprofit organization for LGBTQ entrepreneurs, to run the first-ever diversity orientated accelerator within a major law firm.

 

The first three companies to participate in the program include: Vyrill, a video-centric intelligence and marketing platform; Zeguro, a cybersecurity and insurance platform; and GPSGay, a social network and app for the LGBT community. Stay tuned for updates!

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Success Stories

LGBTQ Connections Beyond Dating Apps – Sidao Li’s Journey to Creating Chippr
A recent business graduate from the University of California, San Diego, Sidao Li was first introduced to the StartOut Community through his submission for the #OutEntrepreneur video contest. … READ MORE
Matthew Cooper – Transforming the Consumer Loan Payment Experience
Although widely known, statistics for student loan debt in the United States are still quite shocking: Americans owe nearly $1.3 trillion in student loan debt … READ MORE
Dr. Jennelle Yopchick’s Big Change of Heart
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 and scary experience. … 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. … 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. … 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 … 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 … 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. … 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. … 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

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Volunteer Programming Board

Cristian Fournies

Programming Board Chair

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Chris Sinton

Chair Emeritus

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.

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.