Snowball
Prepared ForSilvia Lupu · Founders Square
DocumentEvent Strategy · Confidential
DateApril 2026
Working Draft · v1.0

Founder
Index 2026

The full strategy for NYC's year-end founder recognition gala. The event arc, the nine-month campaign, the sponsor architecture, and where our pricing lands against the leading comparables in the market.

$500–750K
Stretch Raise
26
Founders of 2026
400
Invited Guests
37
Sponsor Slots
The Thesis

One line. No hedging. Every downstream choice traces back to this.

Founder Index 2026 is NYC's year-end founder recognition gala. Free for founders and investors. Paid for by sponsors. The climax of a nine-month narrative that ends with the 26 Founders of 2026 announced on stage.
§ 01 / The Event

What it is — and what it is not.

The format

A full-day ceremony on a December day in 2026, held in a Cipriani-tier Manhattan landmark. Ten in the morning to five in the afternoon, followed by a seated gala dinner and an after-party. Winners announced live from stage in the final hour.

The 26 Founders of 2026 are pulled from 78 finalists. Those 78 come from roughly 3,000 applications that flow in across a year of quarterly nominations through 10 partner founder communities. By the time the trophies are handed out, every winner has been featured in three published brochures, covered on a podcast series, and amplified across a social campaign that reaches 239,000+ founders.

What it is not

Not a networking conference. Not an accelerator pitch day. Not a community meetup. Not a hybrid summit with workshops and exhibitor booths. Not a fiesta designed for attendee selfies.

Founder Index is a recognition ceremony in the shape of the Forbes 30 Under 30 gala — invite-only, curated, editorial, and built to turn a year of founder storytelling into a single marquee evening. Sponsors fund it because a curated room of 400 pre-vetted founders, investors, and family offices is the highest-signal audience in NYC tech.

3,000+ applications
78 finalists
Top 30 dinner
26
  1. 3,000+Applications across the yearNominated through 10 partner founder communities. Vetted by Silvia and the community leads.
  2. 78Finalists across four quarters26 per quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3) published in three quarterly brochures. The narrative runs for nine months.
  3. 30Finalists at the private dinnerHosted by the Title Partners the night before the gala. The 26 winners are among the 30, but nobody knows who.
  4. 26Founders of 2026Announced live on stage by the Gold Partners. One category at a time. No pre-announcements.
§ 02 / The Day

Ten in the morning to the after-party.

§ 03 / The Awards

Six categories. Ten Gold Partners. Twenty-six founders. One gala.

The 26 Founders of 2026 are split across six industry categories. Each category is presented on stage by a Gold Partner. Their executive walks on, announces the winners, hands them their trophies. Every winner's LinkedIn photo from that moment carries the Gold Partner's brand next to their own name.

§ 04 / The Year

Nine months. Four drops. One gala.

The event is the climax. The year is the product. Every month from April 2026 through January 2027 adds another layer to the brand — so that when December arrives, sponsors have already seen their logos compound across four brochures, twelve podcast episodes, and every public moment in between.

§ 05 / The Commercial Architecture

Thirty-seven slots. Six tiers. One sold-out event.

The sponsor architecture sits on one rule: every tier is tied to a specific moment. Title Partners hold the event naming rights. Presenting Partners introduce the keynotes. Platinum Partners run the breakouts. Gold Partners present the award categories. Category Partners brand the experiential touchpoints. Online Partners appear across the year-long digital footprint.

Category exclusivity is enforced at every tier. Two banks can be Title Partners (category-locked). Four Presenting Partner slots, each locked to a distinct category. Eight Platinum Partners, each category-exclusive within their lane. This is the lever that justifies premium pricing — and the one thing that $5K spread across twenty community meetups cannot buy.

TierRaise
Title Partners2 × $100,000$200,000
Presenting Partners4 × $50,000$200,000
Platinum Partners8 × $25,000$200,000
Gold Partners10 × $15,000$150,000
Category Partners8 × $5,000$40,000
Online Partners20 × $2,500$50,000
Stretch Raise (100%)$840,000
Target
$750K
Stretch raise. Achievable at 84% sell-through across the full sponsor architecture.
Spendable (85%)
$637K
Silvia's event budget after Snowball's 15% commission. Covers the full Cipriani-tier gala.
Floor
$500K
Survival budget at 67% sell-through. Smaller venue, leaner production, same ceremony.
§ 06 / The Sponsor Tiers

What each sponsor pays — and what they get for it.

Every tier below is priced against the real public and inferred numbers from NYC's leading premium events — Forbes 30 Under 30, TechCrunch Disrupt, SaaStr Annual, TiE NYC, and Andy Yeung's OOO Summit. Founder Index sits inside the market range with a different commercial shape: nine months of compounding visibility instead of a single day.

Tier I
Title Partner
[Brand] presents
Founder Index 2026
1 slot · whole-event category lockout
$100,000per slot · 2 slots
Slots available1
Category lockoutFull event
Visibility window9 months
Raise from tier$200,000
You do not sponsor the event. You are the event — the co-host of NYC's highest-curated founder ceremony of 2026.
Visibility and association
  • Event naming rights for the full nine-month campaign. Every brochure, press release, social post, podcast episode, stage moment.
  • Joint press release with Founder Index at launch — co-bylined announcement.
  • Dedicated Title Partner section in all four quarterly brochures.
  • Title Partner Spotlight — a solo episode on the Founder Index Podcast Series.
  • Logo lockup next to Silvia Lupu's personal brand across every channel.
Event day
  • Five-minute welcome remarks at the opening ceremony — first voice after Silvia.
  • Introduction of Keynote II (State of the Ecosystem). On-stage moment.
  • Naming rights on every surface: stage backdrop, award trophies, step-and-repeat, screens, printed program.
  • Title Partner branding on every professional photo delivered to the 26 winners.
  • 20-person VIP front-row table at the gala dinner.
  • Co-host of the after-party with venue-wide branding.
Pre-event access
  • Host "The Finalists Dinner" — an intimate seated dinner the night before with the Top 30 finalists. The 26 winners are among them, unannounced. The single most valuable access play of the year.
  • Full access to the 3,000+ applicant database under a data processing agreement.
  • Up to 10 Silvia-hosted warm introductions to any finalists post-gala.
Post-event value
  • Featured placement in the Founder Index 2026 Retrospective Report reaching 239,000+ founders.
  • Highlighted in the 72-hour highlight video across every channel.
  • 12 months of full event video rights for use in marketing.
  • Published ROI case study — template and data provided.
Title tier · market benchmarks
Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit$250K+
TechCrunch Disrupt Title$150—500K
Web Summit Title$250K—1M+
OOO Summit · Carry co-host$150—250K
SaaStr Annual Mega$200K+
Founder Index 2026 Title$100K × 2
Most Title-tier pricing is intentionally private. Inferred from industry frameworks (Reitx, PCMA, TicketFairy) and confirmed sponsor counts.
Tier II
Presenting Partners
Featuring
[Brand]
2 slots · full category lockout per lane
$50,000per slot · 4 slots
Slots available2
Category lockoutFull lane
Visibility window9 months
Raise from tier$200,000
You are the secondary face of the event. Visually inseparable from Founder Index 2026 for every founder, investor, and journalist who sees the program.
Visibility and association
  • "Featuring [Brand]" credit across all Founder Index materials, sitting just below Title Partner.
  • Prominent logo placement in all four quarterly brochures.
  • Dedicated Presenting Partner episode on the Founder Index Podcast Series.
  • Mentioned in every press release and media partner announcement.
Event day
  • Introduces Keynote I (The Founder's Journey) or Panel I (The Investor's Lens). 30 seconds on stage, logo behind.
  • Premium logo placement on the main stage backdrop.
  • "Brought to you by" slot on screen during your associated session.
  • 10-person VIP table at the gala dinner.
  • Shared sponsor room with pre-scheduled 1-on-1 meetings.
  • Six individual gala tickets.
Database and pre-event access
  • Full 78-finalist curated database: vetted, industry-tagged, stage-tagged.
  • Executives invited to the Finalists Dinner the night before (attending, not hosting).
  • Five post-event warm introductions through Silvia.
  • Published ROI case study within 30 days.
Presenting tier · market benchmarks
TechCrunch Disrupt Silver/Gold$50—150K
SaaStr Annual Diamond$100K+
OOO Summit Platinum$75—150K
Web Summit Premier$150K+
TiE NYC Visionary$75—125K
Founder Index 2026 Presenting$50K × 4
Triangulated from TicketFairy's 2026 Conference Sponsorship Blueprint, SponsorCX tier analysis, and confirmed public pricing.
Tier III
Platinum Partners
Powered by
[Brand]
4 slots · industry sub-category lockout
$25,000per slot · 8 slots
Slots available4
Category lockoutSub-category
Visibility window9 months
Raise from tier$200,000
You do not just have a logo on a wall. You host a 60-minute breakout session. You own the content, the audience, the room.
The signature moment
  • Host a 60-minute breakout session during the 1:30 to 2:30 slot. One of eight parallel Platinum tracks.
  • Choose the topic, provide the speaker, own the branding.
  • Formats to pick from: The Fundraising Masterclass, Building with AI, The Operator's Playbook, Legal and Capital.
  • Curated lunch table with 8 founders matched by interest.
Campaign and visibility
  • Logo on all four quarterly brochures.
  • Dedicated Platinum Partners section in each brochure.
  • Sponsor reads on Founder Index Podcast episodes throughout the season.
  • Host one sponsor webinar during the pre-gala campaign (July to October). We bring the audience. You provide the content.
  • Logo presence at the Q1 or Q2 Brochure launch event.
Event day and data
  • Branded welcome swag in attendee registration bags.
  • Six gala tickets plus sponsor room access.
  • Full 78-finalist database.
  • Three post-event warm introductions through Silvia.
  • Published ROI case study.
Platinum / mid-tier · benchmarks
TechCrunch Disrupt Exhibit+$25—75K
AWS re:Invent booth + activation$30K+
SaaStr Annual Gold$60—100K
OOO Summit Gold$25—75K
Collision Partner$40K+
Founder Index 2026 Platinum$25K
Market framework from PCMA and TicketFairy benchmarks. Activation-inclusive slots at 300 to 400 person premium events typically land in this range.
Tier IV
Gold Partners
Category Presenter
[Award Category]
6 slots · one per award category
$15,000per slot · 10 slots
Slots available6
Category lockoutAward category
Visibility window9 months + permanent
Raise from tier$150,000
You do not sponsor the event. You present a category. Your brand is permanently attached to the [Category] Founder of 2026 in every piece of press that follows.
The signature moment
  • Present one of the six award categories (or host a dedicated stage moment) live on stage during the 4:00 to 5:00 PM ceremony.
  • Your executive walks on stage, announces the category winners, hands each winner the trophy.
  • Your logo sits on the screen behind, on the trophy itself, and in every professional photograph delivered.
  • Each winner posts their trophy photo on LinkedIn. Your brand compounds across 4 to 5 guaranteed viral moments per category.
Campaign and visibility
  • Logo on all four quarterly brochures.
  • Sponsor reads on Founder Index Podcast episodes.
  • Social media tags throughout the campaign.
  • Shared sponsor table at the gala dinner (4 to 6 seats).
  • Four gala tickets.
Post-event value
  • Access to the Top 26 Winners list, industry-tagged.
  • One post-event warm introduction through Silvia.
  • Logo in the Founder Index 2026 Retrospective Report.
  • Credit in the 72-hour highlight video.
  • Permanent association with your category winner in every subsequent press mention.
Gold tier · benchmarks
TechCrunch Disrupt Exhibitor$10K
OOO Summit Silver$15—40K
SaaStr Annual Silver$25—50K
TiE NYC Innovation$20—40K
Category sponsors (avg)$25—50K
Founder Index 2026 Gold$15K
Derived from public exhibitor pricing, SponsorCX framework, and Fibe's $1.1M ARR / 50+ partner economics.
Tier V
Category Partners
[Moment]
by [Brand]
4 slots · one per experiential moment
$5,000per slot · 8 slots
Slots available4
Category lockoutActivation lockout
Visibility windowEvent day
Raise from tier$40,000
You own one experiential moment that every attendee touches directly — the coffee, the bar, the Wi-Fi, the charging lounge.
The four slots
  • Coffee. Registration and pre-event coffee station branded as "Coffee by [Brand]."
  • Bar. Cocktail hour open bar with a custom cocktail named after the brand.
  • Wi-Fi. "Wi-Fi by [Brand]" on screen between sessions. Network name is the brand.
  • Charging Lounge. Branded device-charging lounge in a prominent ground-floor spot.
Included in all four
  • On-stage verbal announcement of the activation.
  • Logo in the brochure and printed program.
  • Two gala tickets per slot.
Category / activation · benchmarks
SaaStr Annual coffee partner$15—25K
OOO Summit hotel partner~$10K
Bar activations (startup events)$8—15K
Wi-Fi sponsorship (premium)$10—20K
Founder Index 2026 Category$5K
Inferred from OOO Summit 2025 confirmed sponsor list and activation-sponsor norms at 300 to 500 person events.
Tier VI
Online Partners
Campaign Partner
[Brand]
20 slots · year-long digital presence
$2,500per slot · 20 slots
Slots available20
Category lockoutNone
Visibility window9 months
Raise from tier$50,000
Two cents per founder impression across nine months. A growth team cannot match this CAC on LinkedIn Ads if they tried.
What's included
  • Logo on all four quarterly brochures — Q1, Q2, Q3, and Year-End.
  • Logo in the Founder Index 2026 Retrospective Report sent to 239,000+ founders.
  • Logo on the official Founder Index 2026 website for the full year.
  • Distribution across all 10 partner community newsletters. 239,000+ founder reach.
  • Inclusion in campaign banners and digital assets.
What it is not
  • No gala admission or on-site presence.
  • No category exclusivity.
  • Pure digital and print visibility. The right tier for brands that want cheap association without event-day complexity.
Digital-only / bronze · benchmarks
Startup World Cup (regional)$2.5—5K
Small-community newsletters$2—8K
Industry newsletters (sponsor slot)$3—10K
Community podcast sponsor reads$1—5K/ep
Founder Index 2026 Online$2.5K
Sources: Artience Group, Reitx B2B event sponsorship frameworks, community newsletter rate cards.
§ 07 / The Positioning

OOO Summit throws a party. We host a ceremony.

The closest comparable event in NYC is Andy Yeung's OOO Summit — the flagship of Fibe. A 500 to 800 person paid-ticket networking conference generating an estimated $675K to $1.175M in revenue. Founder Index is a different product for a different audience. Here is the map.

DimensionOOO SummitFounder Index 2026
Core purposeNetworking conferenceRecognition ceremony
Audience selectionSelf-selected via ticket purchasePre-vetted through 12 months of nominations
Content arcStandalone event · 7-week runwayYear-long campaign · 9-month buildup
VibeTech summer campFounder Oscars
Admission$99 to $1,499 ticket tiersInvite-only · free for founders & investors
Attendee count500 to 800 self-selected400 invited
Venue typeQueens warehouseCipriani Wall Street (target)
FormatWorkshops, panels, networkingEditorial keynotes, awards, gala
Revenue modelTickets + sponsors (~60/40)Sponsors only (100%)
Brochure programNoneFour quarterly brochures across 9 months
Category exclusivityNot enforcedEnforced at every tier
Post-event ROI dataZero public case studiesRequired in every sponsor contract
TimingSeptember 18, 2026December 2026 · clear calendar, Q4 budgets
The positioning line

Andy Yeung throws the best tech networking party in NYC. We host NYC's most important founder ceremony.

He is Burning Man. We are the Oscars. Both are great. They are not the same thing. Sponsors who want curated audience density, editorial legitimacy, and year-long visibility should sponsor us. Sponsors who want a 500-person networking-first tech festival should sponsor him.

The killer objection — and the answer

"Sponsors would rather spend $5K across twenty small community events than $50K on one flagship."

Right. And they should do both. Distributed sponsorship buys breadth. Flagship sponsorship buys depth, category lockout, and a single permanent association with NYC's highest-signal founder audience of the year. The smart play is to pair them. Founder Index is the flagship that distributed spend orbits around.

What $5K spread across twenty meetups cannot deliver: category lockout, a keynote, a Gold Partner category presentation, attributable leads from 400 vetted founders, and six months of content rights. Buy both. Do not confuse distribution with curation.

§ 08 / The Budget

Where $637,000 of spendable budget goes.

A full-day, Cipriani-tier, 400-person invite-only gala with a pre-event dinner for 60 to 80 finalists, a year-long podcast, and an outsourced event agency. Every line is benchmarked against NYC rates for premium corporate events. Contingency budgeted at 10% of total spend.

Line itemNotesAllocation
Venue & F&B (bundled)Cipriani Wall Street or equivalent. 400-person bundled package including elevated buffet, open bar, basic decor, and a six-hour event window.$220,000
Event organizing agencyOutsourced full-service agency — venue sourcing, vendor management, on-site staffing, day-of execution. Industry norm is 13 to 20% of total budget.$85,000
AV & productionStage design, LED screens, cinema lighting, sound, streaming rig for the keynotes, 25+ technical staff for the full day and the after-party.$75,000
Contingency (10%)Standard industry reserve for late vendor swaps, overtime, and unbudgeted late adds.$65,000
Marketing & PR campaignNine-month multi-channel campaign. Paid social, press relations, brochure production, sponsor collateral, digital assets.$45,000
Speaker feesTwo editorial keynote speakers. Most leveraged through relationships. Honoraria for the rest. No pay-to-stage sponsor slots.$30,000
Podcast productionTwelve episodes of the Founder Index 2026 Podcast Series at $2,500 per episode. Interviews, post-production, distribution across social and community channels.$30,000
Tech & registrationInvite-only registration platform, pre-event matchmaking app, digital badges, post-event highlight video production, livestream capture.$25,000
After-partyBundled within the Cipriani footprint. Additional bar, DJ, lighting, extended staffing for the 7:30 to 10:30 PM window.$25,000
Finalists Dinner (night before)Private seated dinner for 60 to 80 finalists plus Title Partner executives. High-end Manhattan restaurant, full venue buyout, curated seating.$25,000
Photography & videographyEvent day and Finalists Dinner. Professional stills, highlight reel, individual winner photo packages, post-event content delivery.$15,000
Total spendable budget$640,000

At the $750,000 stretch target, Silvia retains 85% after Snowball's 15% commission — $637,500 — which sits one basis point below the $640,000 target budget. Upside from the stretch-to-ceiling gap funds enhanced production. Downside scenarios at 70 to 80% sell-through trim contingency and after-party first.

§ 09 / The Execution Sequence

Outreach starts day one. Everything else is built in parallel.

We do not wait for the venue, the contract, the keynotes, or the media partner before we start pitching. Outreach is the fuel that makes every other lock-in possible. A sponsor conversation is what turns a "Cipriani hold" into a "Cipriani booking." A Title Partner interested call is what makes Forbes return an email. The sequence runs in parallel, on a shifting floor, from the first week.

  1. Day one — sponsor outreach begins

    Title Partner warm intros go out in week one. We pitch with a working-draft deck, a held venue date, and a tier architecture. We do not need a signed contract template to start a conversation. We need one to close it.

  2. Day one — venue on soft hold

    Cipriani Wall Street (or Gotham Hall as alt) on an initial hold for a December date. Soft holds are free and buy us the right to say "yes, it's real" on every sponsor call. Firm contracts follow the first closed sponsor.

  3. Week one — media partner conversation opens

    Forbes, TechCrunch, or Business Insider. Zero cash, full editorial exclusivity on the 78 finalists. A media partner in conversation is itself a sponsor pitch asset — "Forbes is coming in" is a closer.

  4. Week two — agency shortlist in motion

    Emrg Media, Colin Cowie Lifestyle, Van Wyck & Van Wyck, Jung Lee Events. Parallel conversations with two. An event agency engaged signals to sponsors that the production budget is real and the producers are serious.

  5. Week three — contract template ships

    Ready before the first "yes" lands. Includes category exclusivity language, 20% signing deposit terms, the post-event ROI case study clause, and the September 2026 tranche deadline. We do not wait until a sponsor says yes to start writing the contract.

  6. Week four — keynote speaker outreach

    Two marquee editorial speakers. Invites go out with the current sponsor list attached. The list compounds — every closed sponsor makes the next speaker ask easier, and every confirmed speaker makes the next sponsor pitch stronger.

  7. First sponsor close — venue books firm

    The moment Title Partner or first Presenting Partner commits, Cipriani goes from soft hold to signed contract. Deposit flows from sponsor tranche one. The event becomes commercially real.

  8. Continuous — finalists dinner and leak protocol

    Private room at a Manhattan restaurant for 60 to 80 guests, night before the gala. Trophies printed 48 hours out. Verbal-only on winner identities in the final 72 hours. Leak surface: three people maximum. This work happens in the last month, not the first.

  9. Non-negotiable — price architecture signed off today

    The one thing that must be locked before the first email: Silvia approves the $100K / $50K / $25K / $15K / $5K / $2.5K tier structure. Everything else can flex. This cannot.