FounderTech Decoded

> https://www.mountsideventures.com/startup-and-vc-events

> https://airtable.com/shrqhI5iowDahtunb

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast we talk to Ollie Austen the Co-Founder of Startup 2 Standup. A diverse, growing and engaged community of experienced founders who want to help and support each other as they navigate their journey through the startup ecosystem.

The conversation is a window into the current status of the founder conversation, drawing on Ollie's experience of personally talking to up to 100 founders a month, to listen to and understand their current needs, frustrations and the frequent isolation between their current erratic experience contrasted with investors often demanding expectations.

We talk about how if founders are the wealth creators of the future, why the expectation is always on them to have all the answers to prove themselves up front and whether the new emerging alternative modes of funding are a way to break that asymmetric deadlock, by creating more options and early stage paths to startup capital and funding.

We explore how what Olli calls 'resistance points' play a role in this. Those typical barriers and milestones that a founder must cross in order to be on the road to being 'successful' and why engaged communities like Startup 2 Standup are so vital in making founders feel like they're fundamentally not alone in that often lonely journey.

Explore and connect more here:

> https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-austen

> https://www.startup2standup.com/

Linked to this is the effect this integration has on capital distribution and allocation. So venture capital starts off and becomes regionally and demographically unbiased.

Enabled to travel and flow in the direction exceptional founder talent with deep expertise, to further empower investors looking for genuine market innovation and opportunity.

Connect with Oli:

> https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliharris

> https://www.funderbeam.com/ 

Pilot Round is the first FounderTech platform to enable pre-product market fit founders to powerfully align with early stage investors. In order to secure the capital they need to initially have a chance to get their startup off the ground over their next 3-6 months of launch.

Please visit www.PilotRound.com to now learn more, sign up to use the Beta and Launch The Extraordinary!

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast we talk to Christian Arno who has a multifaceted founder’s story that starts with building his own tech-enabled language translation startup to the point where it was engaging with mid-large companies such as Patagonia, Eventbrite and Virgin Pulse and from which he successfully exited from in 2021.

Challenged by his father to then take an active positioning and role in the climate conversation, Christian has recently launched Pawprint to transform any organisation by empowering every employee to contribute towards your sustainability goals. In a nod to his language background, translating micro actions and dialogue into impactful macro narratives. 

Currently in the middle of a round for Pawprint, Christian reflects on the value of networks and a key team in raising capital, even though he is an active angel investor himself in the Scottish ecosystem and a member of investment community Ventures Together. 

The latter a dynamic syndicate of 130 exited founders who review and act on deals weekly using transparency and engagement dynamics, which themselves can be seen to act as a form of FounderTech in the way they tightly frame and agilely funnel the deal flow conversation.

Connect with Christian at:

> www.pawprint.eco

> https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianarno/?originalSubdomain=uk

Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of Pilot Round - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 

Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/

#FounderTechBulletin #PilotRound #FounderTechDecoded

In this episode we talk to Chris Booth CEO of pioneering startup recruiter Findrs. Propelia is excited to be doing a webinar with Chris on 2/3/23 where we’ll explore how FounderTech could start to creep into and apply to start up hiring policies and best practices. In this episode we touch on and open up some of the themes we’ll be discussing and exploring in the Webinar

Why FounderTech is part of a movement towards rewiring the early stage venture ecosystem to that is it is more agile, open and transparent for all. How FounderTech has evolved out of the increasing awareness and implementation of no code / low code methodologies by founders in their startup journeys, in order to develop that first critical market momentum and traction.

Building on this, why top talent that is likely to only be identified and engaged on a freelance basis in the pre-product phase, is likely to see the proper deployment of FounderTech as a sign of operational sophistication and fluidity? That automates unnecessary low level functions and enables them to do their best work and why such top talent should also be expected to bring their own FounderTech to the table. 

Finally we ask, why you might be acting as or recruiting a CFTO (Chief FounderTech Officer!) sooner than you think?!

Book your complimentary place at the Why Leveraging FounderTech is now critical for your team Webinar on 2nd March 2023 at 12.30 here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/why-leveraging-foundertech-is-now-critical-to-building-your-core-team-tickets-542819416487 

Connect with Chris:

• www.findrs.co.uk

Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? 

Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of Pilot Round - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 

Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/

Sign up for the Beta of Pilot Round at www.pilotround.com 

#FounderTechBulletin #PilotRound #FounderTechDecoded

In this episode we have a deep dive into the world of deep tech with Xavier Parkhouse-Parker COO and Co-Founder of Cambridge Future Tech. It’s also a chance to listen and gain insight into the framework of a Venture Builder model.

A model which elevates and fundamentally supports founders - often with a perspective, track record and insight of deep academic expertise - who are exploring Scaleable Niches into complex market problems that require deep IP and innovation.

In this model, support means everything. From multi-faceted advisory boards, mentoring, deep understanding and planning around market research and launch integration, as well as capital raising to create a defensible beachhead to scale and leverage going forward.

As we will with all guests on the Series 4, we then walk through, explore, challenge, counteract and gain further insight into The Switch Deck together - www.propelia.com/switchdeck 

Follow Xavier on:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavierparkhouseparker 

• [email protected] 

Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of Pilot Round - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 

Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/

Sign up to the Pilot Round Beta at www.pilotround.com

In this episode we have one of the most interesting and exploratory conversations of this Series talking with Jim Shirley. Where we navigate different facets and dynamics of the current venture ecosystem and how FounderTech might vividly reimagine it within a projectable short-term horizon.

First we explore Jim's own journey scaling and exiting from the highly disruptive new sector of micro breweries - which were very much the 'garage startups' of their day! - helping to build a culture where you were ‘proud to wear the t-shirt of the brand, to taking market share and eventually being acquired by a $3billion dollar mutinational. 

We then move onto the evolution of venture driven by this low code / no code approach and how it changes the game in terms of the entry points, agility and fluidity with which a founder can quickly launch, test and iterate their startup in a very compressed timeline. A shift which also enables them to get off the funding flywheel that too many founders unfortunately get locked into and trapped in.

This leads us to explore Jim’s latest venture FundingHero which helps and educates founders through the 6 Pillars of fundraising. From exploring fundraising strategy to understanding funding types to framing due diligence, which also enables them to evaluate that they can demonstrate founder market fit and position them to solve their market problem better than anyone else.

As we will with all guests on the Series 4, we then walk through, explore, challenge, counteract and gain further insight into The Switch Deck together.

Follow Jim on:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-shirley-finance-director/

Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of Pilot Round - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 

Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/

#FounderTechBulletin #PilotRound #FounderTechDecoded

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast we get to listen in to Puja Balachander’s founder story, that saw her go from meeting her co-founder to in the first week of her MBA to then iterating and launching their MVP as a WhatsApp based product that helped them inform and determine product market fit. We hear how she used the Chrome extension Contact Out and Mail Merge as a critical piece of FounderTech to identify and be backed by the right team of early stage investors and aligned forward thinking early stage pre-seed backers like Bethnal Green Ventures and Catch22. 

Puja’s story is a brilliant example of the hustle and work it out as you go no code / low code approach. An approach that is much celebrated as an ideal founder path but very rarely well and successfully executed on. Perhaps in her case it was because she had the combination of the Founder Market Fit of working in the government and public services first combined with her other expertise in product development and design.

Puja’s story also illustrates that not all startup stories have to move towards their scale phase before exiting and how sometimes there is an inflection point where a sell to a partner is sometimes the best calculated and strategic right choice and how useful it is to have good investors and advisors around and on the journey with you if you hit this important inflection point.

Finally we use The Switch Deck to explore Puja’s new role working for ClimateTech fund Carbon13 and how her own founder’s journey helps inform her approach when evaluating and talking to early stage founders who often have solutions in search of problems, in startups who are at a similar stage to when she started her founder’s journey.

Connect with Puja:

> https://www.linkedin.com/in/pujabalachander/

> https://carbonthirteen.com/