Pre-Seed to Seed Playbook, Volume 1

Jeff Erickson

Director of Strategic Partnerships

Jeff leads the Partnerships Team at Forecastr, a leading software company that helps make financial modeling easy for founders raising capital.  He currently serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies and is an active angel investor.  Jeff is an experienced entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of a successful consumer goods company that was ranked #138 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.  He is passionate about startups and enjoys working with founders and mentoring entrepreneurs.

Christian Durfee

Founder & CEO

Christian Durfee is the CEO and founder of InvestLink Social, a curated community and networking platform designed to help top-performing founders and investors connect, collaborate, and grow. A seasoned entrepreneur with over a decade of experience—and an exit from his first startup in college—Christian brings a “person-first” philosophy to everything he builds. Guided by his unique framework of the four P’s (Passion, Patience, Persistence, and Passive-Aggressiveness), he’s passionate about creating meaningful relationships in the startup ecosystem and helping ideas grow from vision to venture.

Taylor Bennett

Startup Consultant

Taylor Bennett is a seasoned Startup Consultant at Amazatic with over a decade of entrepreneurial experience spanning mar-tech, fintech, accounting, and real estate. A serial founder and integrator, Taylor specializes in aligning cross-functional teams, optimizing operations, and accelerating communication flow to drive scalability. His strategic insights and hands-on leadership have supported the growth of early-stage ventures and complex real estate developments alike. From cold storage warehouses to rural housing initiatives, Taylor’s diverse background and passion for underserved markets make him a dynamic force in both the startup and real estate ecosystems.