The company behind
the company.

Hey, I’m Karthik.

I’m building CueCloud, focused on revolutionizing on-prem AI. It’s the biggest bet I’ve ever taken. I’ve put every penny of my savings into it.

When you’re that all-in, the people around you matter. The biggest strides I’ve made have come from working with other founders who were all-in too—and from people who helped me when they had no reason to.

I want to create a better ecosystem for that kind of support while I build. That’s where CueFounder comes from.

I’m building CueFounder because, honestly, getting help as a founder has been harder than I think it should be.

It’s hard to meet other founders. And even when you do, meeting someone isn’t the same as finding someone who will go to bat for you.

In San Francisco, you hear a lot about the ecosystem: founders helping founders, a network that opens doors, people building together. My experience hasn’t always matched that promise. Too often, the useful connections feel closed off, and the support feels like something you’re supposed to already know how to find.

I don’t want to build another room that makes people feel like they’re on the outside looking in.

The edge is people who will back you.

Some of the biggest help I’ve received has come from other founders. People who pushed me, nudged me, or gave me support when I was stuck and didn’t know what to do next.

That kind of support changes things. Someone takes a chance on your product. Someone makes the introduction. Someone looks at what you’re doing and tells you the thing you need to hear.

I want founders who will go to bat for each other. And I want that to be the expectation, not the exception.

Open the network. Lift each other up.

I want us to be less protective of the help we can give. That doesn’t mean handing out someone else’s contact details or making introductions without permission. It means being willing to ask, to connect, and to use what we know to help another founder move forward.

A tight network can give people an extraordinary advantage. I want to create one around a shared willingness to support each other’s businesses, rather than around who already has access.

Find someone a customer. Be their customer. Introduce them to talent. Help them think through sales. Make a thoughtful investor introduction. Or make time for the conversation they need to have.

Generosity, with a commitment behind it.

I sometimes think of the idea as enforced altruism: a community where helping someone else is part of why you’re here.

If everyone shows up to help, everyone has a better chance of finding help when they need it. That’s the rising-tide idea I believe in.

So the starting commitment is explicit: at least three meetings with other founders in the community and one meaningful act of support for another founder, every week. Members who don’t meet those requirements are removed by community operators.

This isn’t about collecting contacts or counting a performative favor. It’s about making time for another person and doing something useful.

For founders who have already taken the leap.

We’re not opening membership to everyone. I want to bring together founders who are full-time, have no other job or gig, and have been doing this for at least six months. You need a live product and at least one real user other than yourself. That user doesn’t have to pay.

Six months matters to me because building full-time changes your perspective. You’ve had to live with the uncertainty, the hard weeks, and the weight of your own bet. That experience can make you more empathetic to another founder—and more aware of what their support means.

Pivots happen. You may return to zero users after joining. For entry, we need to see that you reached at least one real user, including evidence from before a pivot where relevant.

A little skin in the game. No equity.

Membership is $25 a year. The point is to give each of us a little skin in the game: a small, tangible commitment to showing up for each other.

That money also helps cover the servers that run the website and community, and helps fund events. We’ll aim to host several opportunities for founders to get together.

I have zero desire to make a penny personally from this community. I’m building it for the support we can give each other. We take no equity in your company.

If $25 a year is genuinely too difficult a commitment right now, please reach out. I’m happy to discuss it individually. You can message me on LinkedIn.

We review applications to understand who’s joining, what they’re building, and how they want to contribute. The aim is a real, useful community—not another status symbol.

Good people. In your corner.

I want CueFounder to be a support system for the founder who’s doing well and has something to offer, and for the founder who’s stuck and needs someone to help them see a next step.

We’re also building a resource library and a journal: useful templates, ideas, and thoughts we can share openly. You don’t have to be a member to get value from those.

The help I’ve received from other founders has mattered to me. I want more founders to have that kind of support—and to be that person for someone else.

If that’s the kind of community you want too, come build it with us.

Karthik

Connect with me on LinkedIn ↗ · See what I’m building at CueCloud ↗