# Founders Draw

> Founders Draw is a free weekly newsletter for startup founders. Every week, 10 member startups are picked completely at random, weighted by entries (tickets), and sent to every founder on the list. Add your startup and you're in. Entries are earned by participating: reading the weekly email, opening the featured startups, and inviting other founders. The more you participate, the better your chance of getting picked. The premise: "Building is solved. Distribution isn't."

Founders Draw turns startup distribution into a newsletter with a recurring, fair, free draw. A founder joins with just an email (passwordless, one-time-code sign-in), earns entries through a few simple actions, and adds a startup that competes in the weekly draw. More entries mean better chances. Entries live on the founder's account, not on a single idea, so they carry across projects: if one startup doesn't get drawn, the entries roll forward to the next.

## How it works

- **Join**: Sign up with your email. We email a 6-digit code to sign you in; there are no passwords. Disposable/throwaway email addresses are rejected.
- **Earn entries (tickets)**:
  - Early-bird bonus for joining early (the bonus steps down as more founders join, so earlier is better).
  - +100 entries for each active founder you invite who joins through your referral link.
  - +10 for sharing Founders Draw on X.
  - +1 for each featured startup you open in the weekly email (up to +10 per week).
- **Add a startup**: Each founder can save multiple startups but keeps one *active* at a time — the active one rides your entries into the weekly draw. Adding a startup requires accepting the Terms.
- **The weekly draw**: Each week, 10 startups are pulled from the pool, weighted by entries, and featured to the whole founder mailing list. A startup that gets drawn sits out a short cooldown so the spotlight keeps moving and everyone gets a real shot.
- **Draw odds**: Your chance of being drawn is your entries divided by the total tickets issued, across the next few weekly draws. You need an active startup to actually enter.

## Key pages

- [Home / join the waitlist](https://foundersdraw.com/): the landing page, live founder counter, and email sign-up.
- [Invite link format](https://foundersdraw.com/invite/CODE): referral links that credit the inviting founder when someone joins.
- [Terms & Conditions](https://foundersdraw.com/terms): usage rules — including Founders Draw's right to exclude any project deemed unethical, deceptive, harmful, illegal, adult/NSFW, hateful, or otherwise ineligible from the draw.
- [Privacy Policy](https://foundersdraw.com/privacy): what data is collected (email, startup details, referrals, optional Gravatar) and how it's used.

## Good to know

- The weekly draw is **always free to enter — no purchase necessary**. Entries are earned through participation only; they cannot be bought, and no payment improves your odds.
- Monetization comes from **sponsored placements**: paid, clearly-labelled slots that feature a startup in the newsletter. Sponsored placements are advertising, kept separate from the free draw, and do not affect anyone's draw odds.
- Entries have no cash value and are non-transferable.
- Draws are probabilistic — more entries improve your odds but never guarantee selection.
- The product is built with Laravel, Livewire, and Flux UI.
- Contact / sponsorship enquiries: hello@foundersdraw.com