Founder First - What & Why?

From our research and past experience we have come to realize that amongst everything that Startup founders have five critical areas of support. These can drastically reduce risk and assist them in accelerating their progress through the early stage startup journeyThese areas can be bucketed into Funding, Talent, Advice, Education, and Resources.

For economic development organizations to provide the support needed for startups to compete globally, it is crucial to adopt a founder-centric model. In this model, each organization works openly and collaboratively with partners to create and deliver a holistic level of support that maximizes the impact Volta aim to provide. Additionally, we must actively and aggressively invest in recruitment initiatives to ensure that we improve not only the quantity but also the quality of founders within our region. This approach will enable us to create a thriving ecosystem that fosters innovation and success for all.

The underlying reason for this need is that no two startups are the same. Their backgrounds, experiences, domain expertise, and access to talent and resources make their needs unique.

As an example, below is a visualization of the support needed by two different tech startups, both at the same stage of development.

⁠

Startup A and B represent two different Tech companies targeting different segments of a B2B market. Startup A is working on a SaaS solution, requiring access to Funding, Talent, Education and Advice as well as dedicated office space. Startup B is working on an ocean tech product that has both software and hardware. They also require support in the form of funding, talent, education and advice and resources but of a very different nature.

In this hypothetical scenario, the founders of both startups require the support of multiple organizations in the community they are a part of to gain the best possible support needed to accelerate their growth.

In reality, today founders are often left on their own to conduct the extensive research needed to find and navigate the organizations that are in a position to help. When they are successful, they are often presented with programs. These programs are designed to be delivered using a one-to-many model and lack the specificity needed to address their challenges

If support organizations focus on connections to the benefit of founders in their community, we will not only improve the efficiency of our support but also drastically enhance the efficacy of the support we provide. By fostering cross collaborations, we can create a powerful network that enables startups to thrive and succeed. This collaborative approach will lead to a stronger ecosystem that nurtures innovation holistically and drives economic prosperity for our entire community.

What does this look like?

The coaching approach within our founder-first framework focuses on three core pillars throughout:

Founder: The founder is considered the bedrock of any startup, and their mindset, emotional wellness, and development as leaders are vital for the trajectory of the venture. This pillar includes techniques for managing stress and burnout, building resilience, developing leadership skills, and refining the company's vision, mission, and core values.

Business: Transforming a vision into a sustainable business requires meticulous planning, market understanding, and constant feedback. This pillar involves market research and customer discovery techniques, establishing a feedback loop for iterative development, refining problem hypotheses and ideal customer profiles, and transitioning from problem-solution fit to product-market fit.

Product: Developing a product that resonates with the target market requires a structured approach. This pillar focuses on product strategy, including aligning the product's direction with company objectives, defining the target audience, and analyzing the market landscape. It also involves creating a product roadmap, prioritizing features, setting milestones, and aligning stakeholders. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of aligning market feedback with product development through active feedback collection, analysis, and iterative development.

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.