Ecosystem at a GlanceNovember 2026Published by Openfor.co, from Tokyo

The people behind the work.

Investors, founders, mentors and members we work with every week. Each conversation becomes a feature you can read, with the video beside it.

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Hosted by Erdinc Ekinci and Yu Li Shein

Features

One conversation. One feature. Read it, then watch it.

Each guest sat down with Erdinc. We turned the recording into an editorial with the main ideas, the best lines and the video.

More conversations

Coming soonRecorded. The feature and the video are on the way.

In their words

Nine members. Press play and hear them.

We did not write these. Each member recorded what changed for them.

Members at work

Members who now teach, sell and speak inside the network.

Each of them has a page in the network. This is what they do with it today.

More members on the wallA few of the people building next to them.

Mentors and investors

The people who sit across the table every week.

250+ mentors in 30 countries. More than 80% of them are investors. These are some of the faces members met this year.

It works both ways. We feature our mentors and share their work, as our thanks.See everyone on the Atlas →

Organisations

The organisations around the table.

Partners we run things with, and the firms our mentors come from.

Partners

Organisations we work with on events, programmes and content.

Where our mentors work

Funds and firms behind the people in this issue.

Names identify where people work. They do not indicate a partnership with, or endorsement of, Openfor.co.

Open calls

What members are asking for right now.

A collab call says what someone needs and what they give back. Anyone can read them. Members reply.

From the Atlas

The reports behind the people.

The Atlas is our open database of who supports founders, country by country. These reports come out of it.

8,742 entries in 62 countries. Open, and corrected by anyone.Investors, mentors, programmes, media, corporates, venues and partner programmes.

Open the Atlas →

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Write your pageWho you are, what you are building and what you are open to. Your words, your photo.
We check it onceA quick review. After that you edit it whenever you like.
Post a collab callSay what you need and what you give back. Members reply.
We feature what stands outOn this page, in our sessions and on our channels. We cannot promise views, leads or customers.

Ecosystem at a Glance

Panel · 53 min · Programmes · Fundraising

Are accelerators worth it? Founders answer

Two founders who have been through several programmes compare notes: which programme fits which stage, what a pitch is really for, and how to judge if the fee is worth paying.

Evan BurkoskyChief Revenue Officer, KimaterProfile ↗

Xiaoxi GuoCOO and Co-Founder, I.W.G Inc.Profile ↗

Erdinc EkinciHostProfile ↗

Watch the conversation

4 minutesthe pitch length one programme trains for

Severalprogrammes each founder joined

Day zerothe stage the earliest programmes are built for

01Different programmes for different stages

Xiaoxi Guo has joined several programmes, including general ones and ones for a single field such as healthcare AI. The summary from that experience: some are for day zero, when a founder does not yet know what the startup should be. Others are about investment and progress. Field-specific programmes come later, when you need access to one industry.

Being grouped with people at your own level mattered to her. Experienced founders share problems that beginners have not met yet.

02Is the fee worth it?

Evan Burkosky works on sales and marketing at an early stage startup and also mentors founders. People often ask him if a programme fee is worth it. His answer is that the value is in the feedback from people with real experience, and mentors work to make that feedback good.

He gave an example of advice that stuck: a story about a dentist still using a very old computer system, and what it means for how you build for that customer.

03What the pitch is for

One programme calls the short pitch a movie trailer. In four minutes you do not explain everything. You make an investor want to see the whole film, which means booking a meeting. In another programme, the final pitch is ten minutes in front of an investment committee that decides on funding. Know which kind of pitch you are preparing.

“You should inspire people to want to come and watch the whole movie.”
From the conversationHear it at 37:10

What to take with you

Match the programme to your stage.
Peers at your own level are part of the value.
Judge a fee by the quality of feedback you will get.
A short pitch has one job: the next meeting.

This feature is an editorial summary of a public conversation hosted by Erdinc Ekinci. Quotes come from the recording and are lightly trimmed. Figures are the speaker's own. Nothing here is investment advice.