co-founder as a service

The garage at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, California, is where William Hewlett and David Packard built their first oscilloscope. A plaque proclaims the garage as The Birthplace of the Silicon Valley. There’s also a plaque with a joint quote from Hewlett and Packard: Believe in each other. It says it all about co-founders that needs to be said in just four words.

I see so many startup ventures, with solo or two/three co-founders launch, but then lose their way as the reality of its graft not glamour kicks into their startup life. There are many reasons for this, but in my experience, there are two dominant factors:

• The founder mindsets become cloudy, they lose sight of their purpose amidst the fuzzy haze and noise of jobs to be done. They lose their mojo.

• They get dragged into operational stuff, focus too much on the business of today, and drop their view of the horizon as to what they set out to achieve.

That’s where ‘Co-founder as a Service’ comes in. Either from the outset where I can help you make a start and sit alongside you as part of the founding team, or when you’re in-flight and need to adjust your thinking and doing. In both scenarios I build an emotional connection with you as ‘co-founder’, nurture your mindset and help reshape, realign, and navigate your journey.

I am all about thinking ahead, providing thought provoking growth advice and guidance to help you escape business as usual and achieve breakthroughs. I fuse creative thinking with my practical experience to stimulate and take care of founder mindsets on how to reach beyond your expectations. I am always thinking about your tomorrow, sat alongside you.

founder mindset

Almost all human endeavours start with a person who is willing to challenge the status quo, questioning prevailing wisdom on what is possible, and seek to make a difference. Startup founders are of this breed, they notice problems and can see a potential solution that improves the lives of those around them. It’s an extraordinarily attractive proposition to so many, yet so few people are successful in accomplishing this goal.

For me, founder mindset ultimately consists of initiating, adapting, learning, and coming out ahead. If this pattern continues and you can build a team, it is likely that you will be successful. I’ll share with you the mindset and ethos from early innovators at Lockheed’s Skunk works and Thomas Edison’s lab at Menlo Park, to C20th tech innovators like Apple, Dyson and Rightmove, and breakout thinking, and insight from inspiring individuals like Ed Catmull (Pixar), Ann Boden (Starling Bank), Grace Hopper (NASA), Will Shu (Deliveroo) and Jony Ive (iPhone designer at Apple).

My experience and research suggest that successful startups consistently exhibit five characteristics that enable high growth and sustainable futures. I build these pillars into everything we will do together:

• Hold a Moonshot ambition: We have all seen how companies like Apple and Tesla innovate at an almost unimaginable pace.  Their amazing inventions are what we call moonshots – the term derived from the Apollo XI spaceflight, which as we all know landed the first human on the moon back in 1969. What’s your audacious moonshot ambition?

• Focus on fresh thinking: Innovation is all about fresh perspectives and new directions. Your main point of differentiation is you, and your imagination. I collaborate with founders to build innovation strategies with foresight, and drive success from implementing new ideas.
• Think like a customer What’s the problem you’re solving, and for whom? The best way to minimise risk and succeed is to think like a customer, so sit their side of the table, and be the quickest to do new things for them.
• Curate an abundance mindset it’s about being bold. The next move is always yours. Your boundaries are where you set them. I  help create and nurture your founder mindset that embeds passion and unleashes your thinking to imagine a host of possibilities and opportunities. Why not?
• Fixate on your North Star metric: Nothing to do with astronomy, your North Star metric represents the clear definition of success as you envision your future. It’s about understanding the one thing you’re trying to achieve so that you won’t be distracted. What does success mean for you?

my approach

I have a three-stage approach to fostering, nurturing, and embedding my relationships with you as a founder, sat alongside you for a minimum of nine months collaboration. I don’t do projects, I build founder mindsets, with a bootstrapping mentality. Ones that are future ready. Ones that are one-step ahead. Ones that are nimble, looking around the next corner, based on foresight, not hindsight.

• Discover – three months: six bi-weekly consulting sessions to shape and develop the thinking using tools such as mind mapping, business model canvas and my own ‘founder journey’ methodology.

• Nurture – three months: 13 weekly mentoring sessions, collaborating on guiding initial implementation, building momentum and confidence, growth in the venture, personal learning, and development.

• Accelerate – three months: 13 weekly coaching sessions. I helping you discover answers for yourself on the growth journey by a process of self-discovery and self-awareness. I set you up to fly.

This is why my business is called dna people. I share the experience, knowledge, and insights from own hands-on venturing, reflecting the characteristics and mindset of successful entrepreneurs to build into your own startup founder journey.