We are Founders investing in Founders. We started Seed Round Capital because we recognized a need in the market to help early-stage startups secure funding by providing them with fundraising guidance. Our mentors are all seasoned entrepreneurs who are passionate about helping you grow your company.
All mentors are current or former members of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, a prestigious international association where entrepreneurs of seven to nine-figure businesses share business practices and hone their skills. Our seasoned mentors have successfully founded and managed multiple businesses, most with over 25 years of experience.
Brad Jenkins, Co-Founder and CEO
Brad is a serial entrepreneur turned startup advisor and angel investor, having founded over half a dozen companies over the last 25 years and selling four of those. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Brad worked at a fast-growing tech startup that went public, and successfully paid his way through college operating a couple of small businesses. He has personally invested in over a dozen startups and is an active early-stage investor. Brad serves as a mentor for a number of Houston area incubator and accelerator programs and served on the Houston board of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, a peer-to-peer global network exclusively for entrepreneurs of seven figure plus businesses. He is a graduate of Texas A&M and holds a BBA in Marketing with extensive coursework in computer science. LinkedIn
Austin Hill, Co-Founder and Managing Director
Austin is a serial entrepreneur that has started companies in distribution, contracting, real estate, and consumer packaged goods. Prior to his entrepreneurial endeavors, he deployed to Iraq as an Army officer, and later worked as an outside sales engineer at a fortune 50 company. Austin was one of the winners of Rice’s inaugural Veterans Business Battle business plan competition and is now an active investor in the competition through Beachhead investments and helps facilitate the Houston Entrepreneurs’ Organization accelerator program. Austin holds an MBA with honors from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and an engineering degree with honors from the United States Military Academy at West Point. LinkedIn
Warren Barhorst – CEO, Iscential
Warren has grown Iscential from a start-up to a 100-million-dollar firm. Iscential, was listed on the Inc. 5000 list from 2008 to 2011 as well as the Houston Business Journal Fast 100 from 2008 to 2010. Iscential is frequently ranked as a best place to work by the Houston Business Journal, Best and Brightest Companies as well as Texas Monthly Magazine. Warren is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner. In addition to his executive career, Warren serves on several advisory boards and boards of directors. He is the Chairman of Legacy One Reinsurance Co. Ltd and donates his time as a member of the Rapport Society for the Texas A&M Medical School and a member of the Texas A&M Mays Business School Advisory board as well as an advisor, investor and mentor to the University of Houston Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship. Warren obtained his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Distribution from Texas A&M University as well as an honorary diploma from the University of Houston for Excellence in Mentoring. LinkedIn
Mark Henderson Leary – Certified EOS Implementer
Mark is an expert growth strategist, focusing on purpose, culture, and process. A lifelong entrepreneur, he now spends his time helping people get what they want from their businesses. He is a Certified EOS Implementor, an executive coach, and he hosts a weekly podcast called "You're Doing It Wrong" that helps entrepreneurial leaders break through their barriers to personal and business growth. LinkedIn
Chris McGraw – Founder, ExecFire
Chris is a serial entrepreneur and strategic advisor, with a passion for steering business founders and executives through the complexities of business. He fosters the rigorous customer-centricity, traction-first mentality, and accountability it takes for companies to launch, grow, and scale successfully in today’s crowded markets. Chris helps founders shift from a product-mindset to one of creating connections, experiences, and clarity for customers and stakeholders. Companies who’ve worked with ExecFire have exponentially grown revenue, launched new business lines, and successfully pivoted their business models to meet changing industry trends and customer demands. As a founder and a strategic advisor, Chris' direct expertise has been built by and applied to business endeavors in a wide array of industries and business models: B2B services, med-tech & med-device, high-tech, blockchain, ecommerce, accounting, and more. Website
Andrea Spirov – Principal, ‘spired Marketing
Andrea Spirov is a strategic communications professional with 20 years of experience in marketing and media. Throughout her international career she was worked across a variety of industries, including consumer packaged goods, retail, energy, hospitality, travel and the news media, with clients like Target, Tetley, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Chevron, and Coca-Cola. Ms. Spirov became a StoryBrand Certified Guide in 2019 and holds a Master of Arts degree in Media & Communications. LinkedIn
Ada Ryland – Early-stage Startup Strategist
Ada is an award-winning startup founder trainer and coach. Her unique approach weaves customer development, business modeling, effective market strategy, systems thinking and advanced lean methodology into a framework that organizes the complexity, locates the team in a specific stage, and brings clarity to the action plan for fundraising, Product-Market Fit, and, ultimately, growth and scale. Ada is a mechanical engineer with corporate engineering and manufacturing experience at Fortune 500 companies and a former IBM Global Services consultant and program manager. She has been a startup strategy consultant since 2014 and has worked hands on with over 200 founders in their early stage. She was given the Top Expert award by MassChallenge in 2019 and teaches at several accelerator programs. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University. LinkedIn
Feras Mousilli – Startup Law, Technology Transactions, and Intellectual Property
Feras Mousilli is a partner of Lloyd & Mousilli and advises businesses on law issues. He specializes in counseling technology companies, with clients from start-ups through Amazon. Mr. Mousilli served as Senior Counsel to both Apple and Dell and was an Associate with DLA Piper as a registered U.S. Patent Attorney. He is a Guest Lecturer at the University of Texas and U.C. Berkeley schools of law. He holds degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science, a Masters in Computer Science Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law. LinkedIn
David Kelly – Growth Hacking and Email Marketing Expert
David Kelly is an award-winning startup entrepreneur, marketer, and growth expert. From managing a $50,000 per month Google AdWords & Facebook Ads budget for News Corp. to being the first full-time marketer for Student Loan Hero (sold to LendingTree for $60 million cash), David is an expert in proven marketing and growth strategies. Currently, David is the General Manager of SendFox & KingSumo — which he helped grow from $0 to $100,000 in monthly revenue with a zero-dollar ad budget. He's also been a growth consultant for Sumo.com, Sticker Mule, NextVacay, and dozens of other fast-growing startups. LinkedIn
Stacie Shaw – Founder, Pitch Deck Fire
Stacie is a startup storyteller. Founder of Pitch Deck Fire, an early-stage pitch strategy and design agency that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs across the world and in varied industries to better tell their story through professional, compelling, and effective pitch decks. Punchy copy, narrative-driven structure, and memorable design are imperative for early-stage marketing collateral. Stacie’s expert pitch coaching, helps founders perfect and fine-tune their deck content, story, and design. Large companies like Google's Area 120 internal incubator and first-time founders alike trust Stacie to provide immense, actionable insights in one-on-one pitch strategy sessions. Armed with better pitches, her founder-clients confidently raise angel, seed and Series A funding, win pitch competitions, and gain critical early customer traction. Website
Melanie Bell – Co-Founder, Strategic Piece
Melanie is a Co-Founder of Strategic Piece. Strategic Piece helps B2B companies deliver exceptional revenue growth by uniting marketing, sales, and service teams around an information-driven customer experience built on the HubSpot platform. She is an active angel investor and mentor at Rice University’s OwlSpark and University of Houston’s RED Labs student accelerator programs. Prior to Strategic Piece, Melanie was President of Marketing Interface, which she founded in 2014, after serving as Director of Marketing at SURGE Accelerator/SURGE Ventures. Melanie earned a BA in International Development from McGill University, Montreal and an MBA from Rice University, Houston. LinkedIn
Alex Tkacovs - Digital Strategy & Growth Guru
Alex's bread and butter is digital strategy with a focus on paid performance marketing. Annually, he’s managed 8-figure marketing budgets that generated 9-figure returns for clients globally. During that time, Alex and his team won numerous digital marketing awards by building a handful of innovative marketing technologies for search, display & social channels. He now runs a multi-award winning team at Lockstep that helps businesses in the US, UK, Europe and Canada reach new heights and gain extraordinary returns from their online initiatives. LinkedIn