Founder Blog & Notes - Eric Rafat

Founder Blog

Founder Blog is a dedicated space to share my notes while building, growing, and scaling up startups. No sugar coat. Real insights and tips. Check out the latest posts…

FoundersRating Platform Product Reviews

Ventures

Five-Star Experience! FoundersRating is Product Reviews for Startups & Scaleups

by ericrafat.com

November 15, 2025

You’ve built that MVP you spent months on, now it’s time for some customer testimonials. But where should you showcase your product or service? On the big product review sites, your reviews often get lost. FoundersRating is the place for startups and scale-ups to get noticed. Here’s why you should join the community: Curated Products The site focuses on featuring the best of the best, products aiming for five-star reviews or those rising from start-up stage and beyond. Showcase Customer Testimonials This is where your customers can bring you even more customers. Simply ask them to submit a review. Gain More Exposure Create a professional profile that highlights your product and service. Connect with Other Founders Founders need founders. Connect with peers to get support, try out products, and receive valuable feedback. Discuss via Forum A small forum has been...

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FoundersPress in South Korea Media

Blog

How did The FoundersPress end up in South Korean media?

This morning, I opened up LinkedIn, and my notifications were blowing up! I checked to see what was going on and saw The FoundersPress featured in Korean media. It turns out I had covered the Top 40+ Companies at the...

October 20, 2025

Startup Movies for Entrepreneurs

Blog

Movies for Entrepreneurs: The Dumpling Queen and More

This past weekend, I had the chance to watch a movie for entrepreneurs called Dumpling Queen. I wrote about this specifically on The Founders Press. Betting on yourself is the starting point. But what happens after you put your product...

September 7, 2025

Founder Communities

Blog

Most Founders Communities Suck Except This One

When I started my first startup, it was an incredibly isolating experience. Coming out of school and working full-time for a while, and then suddenly shifting to building something with no guarantee it’ll succeed. The reality is, your friends and...

September 7, 2025

Tech Conference Canada

Opinion

One-Day Build in Canada Conference Costs Over $1,100. Say What?

The “Build in Canada” conference meant to showcase innovation, growth, and the promise of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem is costing CA$1,124.33 for a general admission ticket. That’s not support. That’s gatekeeping. This is exactly the kind of systemic barrier that...

September 6, 2025

Distribution Is King for Startups

Blog

Distribution Is King for Startups

You have an idea for an app or a product? You can instantly make it now with AI. With the rise of AI coding platforms like Replit, users are spinning up MVPs in just a few hours. There's an insane...

September 7, 2025

PR Coverage for Bootstrapping Companies

Blog

Zero PR Coverage for Bootstrapping Companies Till Now

If you attend any tech event in Toronto, you’ll notice something striking: not a single bootstrapping founder on stage as a speaker. It highlights just how underrepresented bootstrapping founders are in the ecosystem — despite the fact that we have...

September 7, 2025

Bootstrapping a Startup in Canada

Blog

Bootstrapping a Startup in Canada: The Reality No One Talks About

My recent post on LinkedIn about bootstrapping a startup in Canada went viral and for good reason. Because here’s the truth: bootstrapping and scaling a startup in Canada is absolute hell. Here’s what most founders deal with: Zero Press Coverage...

September 7, 2025

Startup Competitions Guide

Blog

The Complete Startup Competitions Guide 2025

Startup competitions can be a great way to gain exposure and funding for your startup. While every founder should primarily focus on getting customers, competitions can help build momentum and credibility. I remember one of the first competitions I participated...

Blog

Highlights of FoundersBeta Top 100 Companies to Watch in 2025

Every year, we feature some of the most innovative companies in a special coverage called Top 100 Companies to Watch. This year we partnered up with monday dev to bring you this epic list. This year's batch highlights several incredible...

VENTURES

Press Release Distribution & Wire for Startups

Ventures

Founders Sigma: The Press Release Wire for Startups & Growing Companies

When it comes to press release distribution, there's often little engagement or meaningful reach. Most announcements get lost in a sea of pitches, buried under noise, or ignored entirely. The current press release ecosystem is broken—it's expensive, outdated, and rarely...

by ericrafat.com

November 15, 2025

The FoundersPress

Ventures

Founders Press turns two!

As I wrote on my Linkedin, today marks a very special day. The FoundersPress turns two! "A Rare Publication" they call us. It was around 2 years ago we started this little publication as main stream channels were only focusing...

Ventures

Founders Press: Media Platform for Founders

Founders Press is a media platform that spun out of the FoundersBeta community. Let’s face it, current press coverage for early-stage startups is far from ideal. It's 99.9% focused on startup fundraising or layoffs! Any innovative startup doesn’t get covered...

November 15, 2025

FoundersBeta Community

Ventures

Building a Global Founders Community

The best business ideas come from solving your own problems! They call this scratch your own back problems. Looking into solving your own problems first. FoundersBeta started as a little group for founders initially in Canada to get support and...

December 21, 2024

STARTUP STORIES

Dating as a Startup Founder is Another Ball Game

Dating as a Founder

No one often wants to talk about this, but dating as a founder is another ball game. If dating is challenging, for founders and people in tech, it’s a thousand times harder. This is because entrepreneurship is a lifestyle. There’s no “it’s five, I’m off,” no Christmas, no holidays, and certainly no weekends in the traditional sense. Founders often need...

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State of Startup Media in Canada: Why We Need More Tech Leaders to Speak Up

Startup Media Canada

December 21, 2024

I recently had the great opportunity to attend this year's Elevate Conference. There were plenty of talks, workshops, and programs for both startups and corporates. One story that gained significant media attention was the notion of a 'lack of ambition in Canadian tech and startups.' While mainstream channels fueled this narrative by focusing on the perceived shortcomings rather than encouraging...

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The Best MVP is a Startup Newsletter

Startup Newsletter

December 21, 2024

If you're thinking about building a product, consider building an audience first. Previously, I wrote about how, whenever we have an idea, we tend to dive in and start coding immediately. I vividly remember this from our first startup, where we focused on building "yet another killer feature," which led us nowhere. We had to shift our mentality. The best...

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Bye Bye Lean Startup: The Modern Way to Build a Startup

The Modern Way to Build a Startup

December 21, 2024

Times on the internet have changed. Getting a website up and running in the 1990s used to cost thousands of dollars, and you needed a large team to make anything functional. Fast forward to today—with the advancement of CMS and popular platforms like WordPress—getting a website up has become incredibly cheap. There are also no-code platforms that are extremely useful...

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Rethinking Startup Press: Why We need Better Coverage

Press for Early-stage startups

December 21, 2024

Getting press for an early-stage startup is an absolute must, but as many founders will tell you, the chances of getting covered are slim unless you’ve raised a big round. Press plays a key role in the growth of a startup, whether it's for gaining more exposure, helping with recruitment, or providing a boost to SEO. Unfortunately, the current press...

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Top 13 Ways to Fix the Canadian Startup Ecosystem

Canada Startup Ecosystem

December 21, 2024

With so much potential in Canada to build the next big thing, the country is falling short as talent and founders are leaving. Innovation is declining, and the economy is in free fall. Over the past decade, public sector jobs have skyrocketed, while private sector jobs have decreased. We need an ecosystem that fosters early-stage startups into scale-ups and global...

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