Over the last month and a half, I’ve been running a project called Arena. Arena is an online ecosystem where founders can join, attend events, participate in workshops, submit weekly updates, and build their context in the world of tech. The north star is simple: give founders better access to investors and people who can move their journey forward. I believe that to raise money, you need to culturally onboard into the industry. Right now, no one is really helping founders do that.
This all plays out through a leaderboard. Every week, we rank users based on their score (signal + effort + progress), creating a live system of accountability and progress. At the end of August, I picked the top 1% of founders and started advising them. I also invited the top 10% onto my podcast. The filter worked. I was genuinely impressed with the people I met.
The early numbers are encouraging:
257 RSVPs for events
118 progress updates submitted
62 founders on the leaderboard
24 investor introductions made to the Alphas (top 1%)
4 podcast episodes recorded for the top decile (top 10%)
What began as a project is starting to feel like something more. After some reflection, I’ve decided to give it a proper name that stands on its own. As of today, Arena is now Nodestacker.
Why Nodestacker? Because life in tech is about stacking nodes. Node = person. Who are you meeting next? How do you turn one connection into five? Success is often a function of how well you stack nodes. It may sound obvious, but in practice it isn’t. The name is a reminder of what actually drives outcomes.
You might think, “Great, another founder community” or “Another founder–VC matching service.” I get that. But that’s not what this is. What we are building is a new credential.
What’s the innovation here?
Credentialing. Historically, founders were evaluated by background, network, or traction. But that leaves out many leading indicators of success. There could be someone outside the network who is clearly on track to break in within a year. That’s a person I want to bet on. Or a founder in a non-tech hub with an incredible background that simply hasn’t made its way to the Bay yet.
By combining signal, progress, and effort, Nodestacker rewards the right behaviors and creates a new kind of signal for the industry.
Who Relies On This Signal?
For now, me. When I meet a founder and I like what they’re building, I lean in. I get involved, I make introductions, and I often help get their round moving. Nodestacker is how i’m vetting 100% founders I am meeting these days.
Just in the last two months, I’ve helped two companies close their pre-seed rounds—one raised $600k, the other $1.1M. This is the work I’m doing through Mat Capital. Nodestacker is, at the very least, a way to get on my radar and gain access to me.
Of course, that’s very different from actually securing funding. Access to me does not equal a round raised. But over the last six years, I’ve proven that my investor network runs deep, and my risk appetite is broad enough to support a wide variety of founders in raising capital.
My hope is that one day I’m not the only one using this as a credential. While it’s easy to get caught up thinking about the future, for now I’m staying focused on building this as part of my advising efforts. If it continues to work, you may find yourself relying on the leaderboard as a credential one day too.
Founder? Know a founder? Check out Nodestacker below!