Bold VC
Bold Founder Summit
We sponsor the Bold Founder Summit because the room is full of the people we have spent our entire history building for — early-stage founders about to make their first serious technology decisions.
We Sponsor the Ecosystem We Came Out Of
QStart Labs started in 2008 as a venture firm's in-house engineering team. Nearly two decades later we still spend our time in the same rooms — backing the founder summits, angel groups, and capital-access programs that decide which Ohio companies get built.
Why We Show Up
For our first eight years, QStart Labs had exactly one client: NCT Ventures' portfolio. Every project came through an investor, every deadline was somebody's runway, and every technical decision eventually got read by an acquirer. That is an unusual way to learn to build software, and it left us with a permanent bias toward the earliest, least funded end of the market.
We bought out NCT Ventures in 2016 and have been independent since. What did not change is where we spend our time. The founder summits, angel dinners, and capital-access programs below are where Ohio companies find their first investor, their first customer, and often their first engineer.
We sponsor a deliberately short list. We would rather fund three things at a level that actually matters to the organizers than appear in nine logo strips.
Born inside a VC. Founded in 2008 by Jeff Lamb as NCT Ventures' in-house technology team. Independent since 2016. Over 100 startups launched, more than $50M raised by partner companies, and five exits.
Read the full storyWhat We Sponsor
Programs QStart Labs supports with monetary and in-kind contribution.
Accelerating Angels
FundHER Biz
We sponsor FundHER Biz to help capital reach women founders. For most of the companies in that room, engineering is not the hard part — access is.
Ohio Angel Collective
Annual Holiday Party
We sponsor the Ohio Angel Collective's holiday party every year. Angel investors write the first check for most Ohio companies, and this is the night that community actually gets in one place.
Three Ways to Work With Us in the Ecosystem
Whether you run a program, a fund, or an accelerator cohort.
Ask us to sponsor
If you run a founder, angel, or technology program in Ohio, tell us about it. We support a small number of things properly rather than a long list at the minimum tier, and we say yes and no quickly.
Add us as a vetted provider
We work with VCs, accelerators, and economic development organizations as a screened technology partner their companies can be referred to with confidence.
Use us for diligence
Investor groups bring us in to read the code, architecture, and infrastructure behind a deal before the check clears — and to sanity-check a portfolio company that has gone quiet.
Community & Sponsorship — FAQ
Yes. QStart Labs is a sponsor of Bold VC's Bold Founder Summit, Accelerating Angels' FundHER Biz event, and the Ohio Angel Collective's annual holiday party. Support takes the form of monetary sponsorship and in-kind contribution depending on the program. We concentrate on the Ohio founder and angel investor community rather than sponsoring broadly.
Because that is where the firm came from. QStart Labs was founded in 2008 as the in-house technology team for NCT Ventures, a Columbus venture capital firm, and spent its first eight years building exclusively for that portfolio. The founder and investor community is not a marketing channel for us — it is our origin, and sponsoring it is how we keep putting something back into it.
Possibly — send us the details through our contact page. We prefer to support a small number of programs meaningfully over a long list of logo placements, and we weight toward Ohio founder, angel, and technology-workforce programs. We will give you a clear yes or no rather than leaving you waiting on a maybe.
Yes. We work with venture firms, accelerators, and economic development organizations that maintain a screened list of service providers for their founders. QStart Labs brings a senior US-based engineering team, a track record of building for venture-backed companies since 2008, five portfolio exits, and AWS Select Tier partner status. Details of how those partnerships work are on our investor partnership page.
QStart Labs is headquartered at 6233 Riverside Drive, Suite 2S in Dublin, Ohio, in the Columbus metro area. Our team is entirely US-based, and our community work is concentrated in the Columbus, Cleveland, and Dayton startup ecosystems.
Running a Program We Should Know About?
Sponsorship requests, provider partnerships, and diligence work all start the same way — tell us what you're working on.
Prefer to reach out directly?
Rather skip the form? Grab a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll talk it through together.
hello@qstartlabs.com(614) 768-3887
6233 Riverside Drive, Suite 2S, Dublin, OH 43017 (Columbus metro) · serving clients nationwide
We reply within one business day.