#0084 - Jesse Middleton From The Community Fund and Flybridge Talks About Building a Brand and Community

In this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear a conversation between Jesse Middleton, who is the General Partner at Flybridge and Co-Founder at The Community Fund and Matt Hunckler of Powderkeg, which is a long time partner of Established and Startup of the Year. Flybridge is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on supporting ambitious founders leveraging the power of community. They have over $700M under management across five funds and five pre-seed funds…so Jesse definitely knows a thing or two about investing and supporting their portfolio companies. The Community Fund is a $5 million early-stage fund that invests in community-driven companies through an investment partner team. They believe that companies with community at the center of all that they do will become unicorns and produce outsized returns. We live streamed our Summit, so if you were not able to attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join  Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.