Founder, Surety Bond Automation

Forum's Venture Studio is a leading early-stage fund and program for B2B SaaS startups. Starting a company is demanding, complex, and psychologically challenging. As former founders and early-stage operators, we understand firsthand that Founders need support, honest feedback, and someone who truly cares in their corner.

Our mission is to make the journey easier and more successful for Founders, and we've achieved this by making over 350+ seed investments that have raised $600M+ in follow-on funding. Forum founders have gone on to raise from funds like Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, SV Angel, and more.

We’re looking for a Founder/CEO to lead a venture focused on modernizing the surety bond industry. Manual underwriting, lengthy approvals, and excessive paperwork create inefficiencies that slow down contractors and insurers alike. This platform will leverage AI-driven risk assessment, third-party data integration, and automated underwriting to enable instant bond approvals, streamline compliance, and enhance broker efficiency. With insurers prioritizing digital transformation and the market ripe for disruption, this is a unique opportunity to build the future of surety bonds.

What are we exploring?
The surety bond industry remains outdated, with manual underwriting slowing approvals and increasing costs for small contractors. Lengthy application reviews, inconsistent decisions, and excessive paperwork create cash flow challenges and project delays. While some large providers have embraced automation, the market remains fragmented, leaving a major opportunity for efficiency gains.

By leveraging AI-driven risk assessment, third-party data integration, and automated underwriting, a new platform can enable instant bond approvals, streamlining issuance and compliance. Seamless API integrations would embed digital surety solutions into insurers’ workflows, while a white-labeled agent portal could enhance broker efficiency. With insurers prioritizing digital transformation and investor interest growing, now is the time to modernize this $18B industry.

Forum derisks and accelerates the Founder path by:

• A $250K USD investment, and an end-to-end fundraising playbook and network to raise your seed and Series A

• A validation partner with proven playbooks, networks, and the systems to validate, unlock your ICP, ignite your sales pipeline, and beyond

• The support of our experienced operating team - from business design, product development, growth, recruitment, legal and more

• Executing a winning GTM strategy to get to $50-100K ARR, and the right MVP to ensure early traction

• A community full of mentors, peers, and leaders

• $100K worth of business perks

What you bring:

• Deep expertise in insurance, fintech, or risk assessment, with a strong understanding of underwriting, compliance, and surety bonds.

• Experience in product development or engineering leadership, ideally within insurtech, AI-driven automation, or financial services.

• A track record of driving innovation in regulated or high-stakes industries, such as insurance, financial services, or enterprise technology.

Please note, this is not an employment opportunity with Forum Ventures.

About Forum Ventures
Forum Ventures® is the leading early-stage fund, program, and community for B2B SaaS startups based in New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and remote. Founded in 2014, we’re on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible, and more successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding. We provide high-touch 1:1 support, programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community to support you through every step of your building journey.

Starting a company is demanding, complex, and psychologically challenging. As former founders and early-stage operators, we understand firsthand that Founders need support, honest feedback, and someone who truly cares in their corner. Our mission is to make the journey easier and more successful for Founders, and we've achieved this by making over 350+ investments that have raised $1Bn+ in follow-on funding. Forum founders have gone on to raise from funds like Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, SV Angel, and more.