01 · Why We Exist
Success is rarely the result of a single opportunity.
The Mission
We expand access to entrepreneurship, education, technology, mentorship, and career exploration — for the people who most need a door opened.
— Founder Series Foundation
02 · What We Do · Six Acts
Education. Mentorship. Real conversations with the people we serve.
Workshops, mentoring, founder stories, and practical learning — including the Foundation's open-source Build With Me curriculum.
Learn more →Increasing awareness and access to technology skills, digital literacy, and responsible AI education.
Learn more →Connecting individuals with professionals, employers, educators, and community leaders who can provide insight into potential career paths.
Learn more →Creating opportunities for individuals to learn from experienced professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, and community leaders.
Learn more →Supporting personal and professional growth through exposure, coaching, and experiential learning opportunities.
Learn more →Bringing together students, families, educators, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations to expand access to opportunity.
Learn more →03 · What We Are Not
This part matters.
Defining what we are not is as important as defining what we are. Founder Series Foundation is not —
- A staffing agency
- A recruiting company
- A workforce intermediary
- A training provider
- A job placement organization
These activities may be supported through partnerships, but they are not the Foundation's primary purpose. Our work is about access and exposure — to opportunity, to people, to possibility.
04 · Flagship Program
Build With Me — a real founder journey, walked together.
Build With Me is an open community of practice for students, aspiring entrepreneurs, and career explorers — drawn from the lived experience of building KinTrades from a late-October PRD through a four-month nightly build to launch.
It starts with one session. Attend a kickoff, and you're part of Build With Me. Three cohorts have been delivered to date — two to adult founders, and one to high school students. From there, the cohort gathers quarterly to share progress, work through blockers, and learn together. The full curriculum and Stories archive stay open between gatherings.
Every decision, cost, mistake, and shortcut is documented as teaching material. The material is free. The story is honest. The goal is to make the path more visible for the next person walking it.
05 · Impact
A learner became the instructor.
In July 2026, a high school intern completed six weeks of mentorship, helped adapt the Build With Me curriculum for a student audience, then taught four sections of it to eight of her peers — and published a live website to the public internet in front of the cohort, using the same tools practicing engineers use.
9
Students served this cycle
3
Cohorts delivered
4
Sections led by a student
$0
Cost to participants
06 · Leadership
The people accountable for this work.
Shanell Guardo
Founder & Board Chair
Shanell brings together technology, entrepreneurship, workforce innovation, strategy, and partnerships — and a lived conviction that opportunity should not depend on where someone starts.
Founder Series Foundation was started to make the kinds of experiences that change a person's trajectory — a mentor, a workshop, a real conversation about what's possible — available to people who would otherwise never be in the room.
Konieka Davis
Board Member
Konieka brings more than 15 years of experience in banking, finance, and leadership — a career dedicated to helping individuals, families, and businesses reach their financial goals while leading with integrity and compassion.
Deeply family-oriented, Konieka understands firsthand that life's challenges don't define us — they help shape us. Having overcome obstacles of her own, she knows the value of resilience, encouragement, and having someone believe in your potential.
She joined the Foundation to help create opportunities that empower others through education, entrepreneurship, technology, mentorship, and career exploration — grounded in the belief that every person deserves access to the resources and relationships that can change the course of their future.
Changing lives begins with creating opportunities — and every opportunity has the power to become someone's success story.
Elizabeth G. Faust, MD
Board Member
Dr. Faust is a board-certified psychiatrist and the founder of Living Well Integrative Health in Johnston, Iowa, a practice built around integrative psychiatry and lifestyle medicine.
Dr. Faust's career began as a U.S. Navy flight surgeon and continued through nearly six years with the Department of Veterans Affairs Women's Clinic, specializing in PTSD and leading a multidisciplinary team serving female veterans. There, Dr. Faust created a Veterans Parenting Class — an eight-week program based on the evidence-based Circle of Security model — to help combat veterans build secure bonds with their children and interrupt the effects of intergenerational trauma.
As an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine, Dr. Faust taught and mentored residents, medical students, and nurse practitioners — including four of five consecutive residents. Earlier roles include chief psychiatrist at Group Health Cooperative (now Kaiser). Dr. Faust earned an MD at Texas A&M Health Science Center, completed psychiatry training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Additional board members and advisors are joining as the Foundation completes its incorporation and 501(c)(3) determination.
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