The room where Ismaili founders compound.
200 founders. 50 mentors. A curated weekend for founders who've already taken the leap, or are standing at the edge of it, building startups, services businesses, and bootstrapped companies. And the community behind their momentum.
Built for builders and entrepreneurs, not just the VC track.
Entrepreneurship in the community looks like more than venture-backed startups. Momentum is for founders building real businesses across four paths, from the edge of launch through early scale.
Scalable startups
The traditional venture path: software and high-growth companies chasing product-market fit and their first real customers.
VC trackLifestyle & bootstrapped
Profitable, founder-owned businesses built without outside capital. Growth on your own terms, funded by revenue.
BootstrapServices businesses
Agencies, practices, and operators, often funded through SBA loans rather than equity, building durable cash-flow companies.
SBA / cash-flowFranchises & ownership
Founders franchising or buying into existing businesses: proven models, operated and grown within the community.
Acquire / franchiseSee yourself in one of these paths?
Apply to attendA curated room.
Every seat is reviewed so the matches mean something. We're bringing together founders and entrepreneurs from across all seven regions, different industries, different paths, different stages, because the best rooms reflect the full breadth of the community.
This is for you if
- You've launched something real: an MVP, early customers, or an operating business
- You're post-zero and pre-scale, navigating first hires and key product calls
- You're a high-intent professional with a clear idea you're ready to execute
- You want first customers and warm introductions, not a pitch-day handshake
- You haven't launched yet but have a clear idea, a plan, and you're ready to move
Probably not yet if
- You're still at the pure idea stage with nothing built or tested
- You're a Series B+ company past roughly $5M in revenue, well beyond this stage
- You're looking for a place to raise institutional capital this weekend
Think you're a fit for the room?
Apply to attendThe edge isn't capital. It's a community excited to share its time and resources with you.
Most programs hand you advice. Momentum makes you part of the community.
Tell us what you need
Applications go beyond your idea. We ask who you're building for so we can shape the room around what founders in it actually need.
We match by need, not title
Mentors are curated and paired to your stage and your goals, roughly one mentor for every three founders, so the fit is real.
Relationships that compound
It's a warm introduction to your first client from within the community, and relationships that compound long after the weekend ends.
This is the part most programs skip.
Apply to attendThree days, built around relationships.
Structured enough to deliver, with room for the connections that actually compound to form on their own.
- Idea-generation bootcampA one-day intensive for pre-idea founders who want to go deep before the weekend begins.
- Fireside chatOpen to all attendees.
- Welcome mixer
- How to talk to users
- Sales for founders who hate selling
- Finding your first customers
- Buying vs. building
- The builder's mindset
- Mental health and the emotional weight of building
- AI as a coworker
- Launching while in school
- Office hours
- Peer working groups
- The Founder ShowcaseThe pitch competition, broadcast live, over dinner.
- Buying vs. building
- The builder's mindset
- Mental health and the emotional weight of building
- Launching while in school
- Building embedded within our values
- Continued office hours
Final schedule subject to change.
Want a seat for the weekend?
Apply to attendThe Founder Showcase.
Saturday night, on stage and broadcast to the community: selected founders pitch a panel of accomplished Ismaili founders and investors over dinner. The prize is non-dilutive fuel: no equity, no fundraise.
Kabir Barday
Built OneTrust into the #1 Inc. 5000 company and a unicorn. EY National Entrepreneur of the Year. Aspen Crown Fellow.
Suneera Madhani
Took Stax from a $50K friends-and-family round to a billion-dollar fintech. First minority female founder to lead a unicorn out of Florida.
Arif Janmohamed
At Lightspeed since 2008, focused on enterprise cloud, SaaS, and mobile. Multiple portfolio exits to acquisition and IPO.
Alykhan Rehmatullah
Serial founder behind Altru, acquired by iCIMS, and now building Kalpa. Former Goldman Sachs. UT Austin alum.
Open to the wider community. Spectator tickets to the Saturday-night showcase, with dinner and a live broadcast, are sold separately from founder and mentor seats.
Ready to take the stage?
Apply to attendHeld at the center of gravity.
Not a hotel ballroom. Capital Factory, the self-described center of gravity for entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley.
Austin, Texas
Three floors and 55,000 square feet in the middle of downtown, hosting hundreds of startup events a month. According to PitchBook, the most active investor in Texas since 2010.
Texas is home to roughly half the U.S. Ismaili community, with about 5,000 members in greater Austin. Central, accessible, and thriving across AI, fintech, biotech, defense, and clean energy.
We'll see you in Austin.
Apply to attendAmerican Ismailis have flourished here, creating businesses, stimulating innovation, contributing to scientific discovery.Opening of the Ismaili Center, Houston
Momentum exists to carry that legacy forward.
Find your seat.
Founder and mentor seats are reviewed by application on rolling waves through September 15, 2026. Showcase spectator tickets are open to the wider community.
- Full weekend access
- Mentor matching
- Cohort group & post-event check-ins
- Showcase eligibility
- Everything in Student, plus
- Priority mentor pairing
- Breakouts & working groups
- Saturday dinner & social
- Curated founder matches
- Showcase judging access
- All sessions & socials
- Ongoing cohort involvement
Watch the Saturday-night showcase
Dinner and a live broadcast of the pitch competition, open to the wider community. No application required, and sold separately from founder and mentor seats.
You took the leap. Now find the people who take you further.
200 founders. 50 mentors. One weekend built to keep working long after you fly home.
Apply to attend