Colton Kaplan

Host of Change with Colton🎙 Podcast | Operations | Strategy | Lean Six Sigma | Supply Chain | Eliminating loneliness on the founder journey | Growing Founder Social Club Community

I am the founder of Founder Social Club, a community built to eliminate loneliness for founders by bringing them together with mentors, investors, and peers through intentional events, content, and conversation.

Over the past year, I have hosted 60 plus events and grown the community to over 26k founders, investors, and operators.

Founder Social Club is focused on signal over noise, real relationships, and creating environments where trust and long term thinking can compound.

I also host the Founder Social Club Podcast, where I sit down with founders and operators to talk candidly about product, growth, hiring, fundraising, failure, and what it actually takes to build.

My background spans operations, supply chain, and scaling teams at high velocity. I previously helped launch next generation automated fulfillment centers at Walmart eCommerce and have worked closely with cross functional teams to drive execution at scale.

Today, my focus is on building Founder Social Club into a multi city ecosystem across events, media, and membership while partnering with aligned sponsors and investors who care about founders and long term impact.

Always open to thoughtful conversations and partnerships.

In my free time, I enjoy reading, listening to podcasts, spending time with my wife, and playing with my Shih Tzu Mila.

Founder and Product Manager

• Developed UI/UX interface and integrated software automating and optimizing efficiency for the customer
• Created process flow and built product roadmap launching 5 products in six months increasing revenue by 50%
• Identified pain points of target market, conducted market research and launched MVP going from 0 to 1
• Implemented agile and scrum methodologies executing sprints resulting in 30% response rate for outreach
• Prioritizing tasks of managing CRM, sales cycle, product marketing, and product and business development
• Executed data-driven analysis of competitor landscape resulting in iterating pricing models and monetization strategies

Had a fantastic time hosting a Founder & Investor Happy Hour with ImagineArt last week!

Good food, real conversations, and a thoughtful group of founders & investors.

Thanks to Ahmed Abubakar and Shawal Fida for co-hosting and partnering.

Looking forward to the ImagineArt launch party this Friday in SF.

RSVP link in the comments.

#LaunchParty #SF #content

Founder Social Club

Podcast Host 🎙️| Founder Social Club | Eliminating loneliness for founders | VC Scout @ Headline

Building a company in the United States often brings immigration decisions into company structure, fundraising timing, and hiring earlier than expected.

Next week we are hosting Startup Immigration Playbook with Manifest Law covering visa options founders and startup teams often work through:
O-1, H-1B, EB-1A, EB-2

Some are temporary work visas while others are permanent residency paths. We will walk through when each is typically used, common approval mistakes, and what founders should start preparing early based on traction. There will be time for live questions as well.

Useful for founders, future founders planning a move, and teams working with global cofounders or hires.

Founder Social Club

#ManifestLaw #foundervisas #o1 #h1b #eb1a #eb2 #startups #immigration

When the right people are in the room, good things tend to happen.

Tomorrow Founder Social Club is co-hosting the Tech Career Showcase in SF at SVB with manny duenas 🛳️ (Intern Ship), and Steph Minaya & Jhillika Kumar (Mentra)!

Here are the teams joining us:

Trillboards, CEO - Sneh Dhruv
Building interactive real-world advertising experiences that connect physical spaces with digital engagement.

Currently Hiring:
• Account Executive
• Software Engineering Intern
​
SUN (a16z Speedrun), Co-founder & CEO - Artin Bogdanov
AI-powered audio learning app. AI podcasts and book summaries from a single prompt.

Currently Hiring:
• Founding Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (Flutter/Dart)
• Founding Back-End Engineer (Python, AWS, Supabase, LLMs)
• Social Media Content Creator

JigsawStack - Founder - Yoeven D Khemlani
Developer platform helping teams integrate AI workflows and automation into real products faster.

Currently Hiring:
• Founding Growth
• GTM Engineer

Azentic AI - Pradeep Padala & Aashish Parikh
Building AI agents that automate sales execution across CRM, meetings, and workflows.

Currently Hiring:
• Software Engineer
• AI/ML Engineer

​FUSE HEALTH INC 
Currently Hiring:
• CTO / Founding Engineer

Mentra
A San Francisco–based neurodivergent hiring platform and network. Mentra is building a future where neurodivergent talent is valued, supported, and matched with workplaces that truly understand ND needs.

Hiring for Microsoft roles: 
• Data Center Technician
• Critical Data Technician

GitHired - Krishna Oza
Sourcing early engineers and builders for high signal startups working on frontier AI and developer tools.

​Currently Hiring For Roam, Caddy, and The Token Company

Roam – Applied AI lab building world models for real time 3D environments (SF)
• Member of Technical Staff — Agents & Diffusion
• Applied AI/ML Developer

​Caddy (YC F25) – Agentic productivity platform working directly with founders (NYC, in person)
• Software Engineer — Core Systems

The Token Company (YC W26) – ML lab focused on state of the art LLM input optimization (SF, pre seed)
• ML Engineer — Early Team

See you tomorrow.

Let’s get people hired 🚀

Founder Social Club is launching a new series called The Reserve on Wednesday 2/25!

Excited to partner with HubSpot (Mahir Kumar Singh) & Azentic AI (Pradeep Padala & Aashish Parikh), this is a small, curated room for 20–25 founders & investors.

The goal is simple: create a space where people can slow down and actually get to know the people in the room.

Every guest is intentionally selected so the conversations feel natural.

This first edition includes a margarita making class and live cooking demo. Shared experiences just make conversations easier.

For founders doing $500K+ ARR or $500K+ raised, and investors actively backing companies.

Approval required. Location shared after acceptance. 21+.

If this sounds like your kind of room, message me.

#FSC #HubspotForStartups #Azentic

Another fun week ahead at Founder Social Club.

Tomorrow we are hosting a Co-working & Lunch at SVB from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm. Come get work done, meet great people, and have real conversations.

Thank you Baargav Duggirala from Chargebee and Viet Andy Nguyen from SVB for partnering with us on this one.

Also, excited to co-host the Tech Career Showcase on Thursday 2/19 with my friends manny duenas 🛳️ from Intern Ship and Steph Minaya from Mentra.

We have strong talent across engineering, GTM, product, design, and other functions exploring their next role.

We have a few hiring table spots left for startups actively hiring full-time roles.
If you are hiring full time, DM me.

RSVP links in the comments.

#Startups #coworking #hiring #events #sf

Excited to bring together founders and investors tomorrow in San Francisco for the Global Founder & Investor Summit.

Founder Social Club and Venture Bridge Hub are gathering ecosystem leaders from Africa, London, Europe, and Silicon Valley for an evening focused on cross-border connections, startup pitches, and real conversations.

Featured Speakers
• Marsha Wulff — Co-Founder LoftyInc Capital
 • David Hubert — VP of External Relations EuroCham - Association of American European Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations
 • Borja Palma Huarte — Business Development Manager @ London & Partners
 • Alfredo Coppola — Co-CEO @ US Market Access Center

Startup Judges
• Evan Buhler — Founder + General Partner @ Talok Capital
• Ulvi Rashid — Founding Partner @ Traction Fund
• Pasquale Zaccarella — Shareholder & Investor @ Eden ventures

Grateful to Daniel Fidanque and the team at Manifest Law for partnering on the event and supporting founders building across borders and to Bryan & Viet Andy Nguyen at SVB for hosting us.

Should be a great room of founders and investors building across borders.

Should be a great room.
See you tomorrow in San Francisco.

Excited to bring 4 more companies hiring!!! Join us later today at SVB.

Trainsit - The AI-first platform to allow businesses to optimize and convert their supply chain towards rail, the better option for the environment and wallet. 
• 2 Founding Engineers

SigIQ.ai - Democratizing Personalized 1:1 Learning for Everyone
• Senior Product Designer
• Senior Full Stack Engineer

NexDiscovery - Agentic AI that monitors enterprise data, uncovers hidden insights, and takes action before teams even know to ask.
• Founding Enterprise AE
• FDE / Solutions Architect
• Pilot Program Lead
• Chief of Staff
• Partner Channel Sales

​Regulis AI - Developing AI products for the transportation industry. 
• Software Engineer
• AI/ML Engineer

RSVP here: https://luma.com/s396by7m

If you’re a new grad or early career right now, you know jobs are hard to get.

That’s why I’m co hosting my third hiring experience with Colton Kaplan - Founder Social Club, Steph Minaya and Jhillika Kumar - Mentra to help people find opportunities. (Link to register in the comments)

This isn’t a traditional job fair.
Smaller room.
Founders introducing themselves.
Human conversations.

And I’ll say it clearly:

Startups are one of the most powerful pathways into a career right now.

When you join early, you get proximity, ownership, speed, and real reps.

Here are the teams pitching and hiring today:

🚀 Trillboards  
CEO: Sneh Dhruv 
Building interactive real-world advertising experiences that connect physical spaces with digital engagement.

Currently Hiring:
• Account Executive
• Software Engineering Intern

🎧 SUN (a16z Speedrun)

Co-founder & CEO: Artin Bogdanov
AI-powered audio learning app. AI podcasts and book summaries from a single prompt.

Currently Hiring:
• Founding Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (Flutter/Dart)
• Founding Back-End Engineer (Python, AWS, Supabase, LLMs)
• Social Media Content Creator

🧩 JigsawStack 

Founder: Yoeven D Khemlani
Developer platform helping teams integrate AI workflows and automation into real products faster.

Currently Hiring:
• Founding Growth
• GTM Engineer

🤖 Azentic AI

Pradeep Padala & Aashish Parikh  
Building AI agents that automate sales execution across CRM, meetings, and workflows.

Currently Hiring:
• Software Engineer
• AI/ML Engineer

🏥 FUSE HEALTH INC  
Currently Hiring:
• CTO / Founding Engineer

🧠 Mentra  
A San Francisco–based neurodivergent hiring platform and network building a future where neurodivergent talent is valued and supported.

Hiring for Microsoft roles:
• Data Center Technician
• Critical Data Technician

🔎 GitHired – Krishna Oza 
Sourcing early engineers and builders for high-signal startups working on frontier AI and developer tools.

Currently Hiring For Roam, Caddy, and The Token Company:

Roam – Applied AI lab building world models for real time 3D environments (SF)
• Member of Technical Staff — Agents & Diffusion
• Applied AI/ML Developer

​Caddy (YC F25) – Agentic productivity platform working directly with founders (NYC, in person)
• Software Engineer — Core Systems

The Token Company (YC W26) – ML lab focused on state of the art LLM input optimization (SF, pre seed)
• ML Engineer — Early Team

(See the rest of the companies hiring in the comments.)

Smaller sessions.
Deeper conversations.
Space to engage at your pace.

We’re creating human first hirng experiences.

Let’s get people hired 🚀

Join manny duenas 🛳️ and the Intern Ship talent network. Things are coming. 👀

#talentnetwork

I’m super happy to announce…



I’ve decided to launch the best talent community the world has ever seen!

Welcome to the 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤!

Join to get access to a hidden job market and more human first IRL hiring experiences.

This is personal for me.

When I started the Intern Ship, I was a University Recruiter at Intuit helping students land jobs there.

Which meant every time someone walked up to me at one of my Intern Ship events asking me to help them find a job - I had to tell them

“Oh sorry I can only hire for Intuit.” Which often times wasn’t even hiring yet.

That happened A LOT. It was literally one of the biggest reasons people kept coming to my events - they wanted to meet recruiters.

I heard them loud and clear. I just couldn’t do anything about it.

UNTIL I LEFT.

Now that I’m free from corporate and any conflicts of interest I’m locked in to helping my community find more opportunities.

Drop a 🛳️ in the comments, like and I'll send you the link to join.

Follow me so I can send you a DM!

Tesla

Global Supply Manager

Banjo Liquid Handling Products

• Developing rapport with 17 suppliers, negotiating lead times, implementing safety stocks, reducing backlog by 4 million dollars
• Communicating with cross-functional stakeholders developing analytical data-driven tools for supply chain visibility, shortages, and purchasing insights resulting in 15k in yearly savings
• Identifying excess inventory and conducting Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) on suppliers displacing 100,274 parts providing 28k in savings
• Utilized Oracle JDE ERP and SIOP systems forecasting demand, managing 60% of total supply chain, and 80% of revenue-generating components 
• Implementing transition of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) to consignment, reducing stockouts, establishing contracts with vendors, and outlining payment terms
• Collaborating with engineering team eliminating obsolete inventory and procuring new components creating an innovative industry-leading product
• Optimizing inventory ordering methods reducing air freight shipments and saving 50k in logistics cost

Senior Buyer

Purdue University Krannert School of Management

•     Facilitate Krannert Executive Forum discussions between high-profile speakers and students
•     Grade students assignments, communicate with students, enforce policies, and maintain class record
•     Provide office hours to address students’ concern

Graduate Assistant

Gerson 

• Led product development evaluating pain points, partnering with executive leadership and key stakeholders
• Prepared detailed framework, technical design documents, and process flow diagram to raise capital 
• Strategically sourced talent and provided expertise maximizing output and creating project KPIs

MBA Consultant- Experiential Learning 

STEM Education Works

• Implemented new inventory system establishing reorder quantities, inventory shortages, and improved process resulting in 50% efficiency increase
• Utilized 5s strategies minimizing waste, fulfilling kanban levels, and improving production process by 20%
• Initiated bidding process for 85 high school districts reaching 90,000 individuals expanding revenue streams

Manufacturing Production Assistant Intern

•	Assist in the management of Krannert affiliated social media channels, publish attractive content and establish connections with target audience
•	Perform data coding and entry for information to be organized and updated in the different platforms used

White Lodging Services

• Supervised rooms operations within the housekeeping department; translated for new hires when necessary and walked them through the on boarding process
• MLR (main line receptionist); in charge of answering incoming calls and radio to smooth the communication between room attendants, housemen, and inspectors
• Inspected rooms and gave points of improvement 
• Operated HOTSOS, PMS, GXI frequently to keep the order of rooms operations and ease the relationship between the front desk and housekeeping department 
• Monitored inventory
•One on one interaction with guests to provide excellent service to the White Lodging standard

Supervisor 

LYFE Kitchen

• Completed inventory for all beverages in the establishment
•Collaborated with kitchen team to aid in food preparation, manage efficient deliveries and minimize customer service issues by verifying meals.
•Improved operational efficiency by using slow periods to restock employee and customer supplies, including ice, condiments, utensils, napkins, trays and delivery bags.

Intern 

HOTEL HEX

• Managed housekeepers to deliver an unforgettable experience for guests
• Assisted in running the daily operations required in front desk area using the OPERA system 
• Completed the inventory from the major hotel operations 
• Promoted the amenities the hotel has to offer to prospective clients

Recent graduate from Purdue University with my STEM MBA with a concentration in Supply Chain Management.

A highly adaptable, people-oriented, and analytical professional with demonstrated experience in implementation, project coordination, and performance management. Leverages forward thinking strategies and strong problem solving skills to create an impact in operations, procurement, and profitability. An intellectual dependable leader who enables an organization to improve their workforce and processes.

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The Battle

Colton Kaplan

Daniella Cobos, MBA

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The Battle

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Daniella Cobos, MBA

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Colton Kaplan's LinkedIn Performance

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