$1,000 helped me start. $3,000 helped me make the leap. So when someone says $2,000 “isn’t a lot” for a founder, I think about my own journey. Early on, I won a pitch competition and received $1,000. It helped cover startup costs. It wasn’t enough to build a company, but it was enough to move. Later, I received $3,000 from an accelerator program. That money helped me hire my first development team. It was the moment I stopped just thinking like a founder and started investing like one. Neither check built my company. But both helped build me as a founder. That’s the part we miss when we judge impact by check size alone. The better question is: what does this unlock? Sometimes it’s not just capital - it’s permission. Permission to start. Permission to take yourself seriously. Permission to take the leap. That’s why I care so much about creating opportunities for founders today. I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of what someone might call a “small” opportun...