The Startupfest founder panel: Real Founders, Real Disasters, Real Lessons

Join Neil Grunberg as he moderates the beloved Startupfest Founder panel. We ditch the glossy pitch decks and share what building a startup actually looks like—the midnight meltdowns, the money mistakes, the co-founder breakups, and the pivots born from desperation rather than strategy.

While other panels showcase the highlight reel, ours is the blooper reel. Our battle-tested founders will share the disasters that almost killed their companies: the toxic hires they should have fired months earlier, the product launches that flopped spectacularly, the fundraising rejections that stung for weeks, and the personal sacrifices that nobody warns you about. No rehearsed narratives, no humble-bragging, no "we saw it coming" revisionist history.

Our panelists have been there, done that, and somehow lived to tell about it. If they survived their worst moments, maybe you can survive yours.