(Part 1 of the Founder Briefing Series)
Questions, Questions, Questions …
Founders considering JFDI have lots of questions. This post outlines the rest of the series by listing all the questions that we answer.
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams…
Theoria: Why JFDI?
JFDI believes that innovation need not be a mystery and entrepreneurship should not be painful or lonely.
Both can be learned, working with peers and guided by mentors.
We lead people to think and act entrepreneurially by helping them to engineer innovative businesses around their ideas. We can do this because innovation is evolving from an art into a science, and because we have built a community who share their expertise and experience turning ideas into reality.
Poesis: Tools and Techniques
What should a founder expect over the course of their entrepreneurial journey? For context, we discuss the theory of innovation entrepreneurship.
What kinds of businesses go through JFDI? We invest in a variety of startups. Some are at idea-only stage. Some have built a working prototype. Some have hundreds of users. Some have paying customers and are already ramen profitable. JFDI’s 100-day bootcamp serves each type of business.
You must be curious about your fellow JFDI founders. Whom do we select? How do we select them? The quality of your peer group and alumni network is one of the greatest strengths of JFDI.
Praxis: The Craft of Entrepreneurship
Building a business is both like and unlike building software
We support ambitious engineers, developers, and innovators, who want their work to find the widest possible audience. But it can’t just be an art project; it has to be a sustainable business that pays salary! What does that mean in practice?
What are the basic agreements that form the basis for JFDI’s investment in a startup?
Dozens of mentors volunteer their time and energy to JFDI. How should you get the most out of your relationship with them? Many of those mentors are experts in Lean Startup methodology, Customer Discovery, and Agile Development. We select for teams who are already familiar with these concepts, so we won’t say too much about that. We do help you find usability testers and run through a series of usability tests. And we keep you honest by keeping a focus on your growth metrics, to build an objectively supported case for investment at seed-stage and Series A.
But quantitative evidence is only one part of your pitch. We also help you tell your story, and in so doing, to crystallize the true potential of the business, and better understand the soul of the innovation.
Many founders come to JFDI because it’s the most efficient way to reach seed investors. This blog series talks about follow-on funding: why it’s the focus of the last third of the bootcamp, and how we prepare you for it.
Finally, we talk about the entrepreneurial roller-coaster. Starting a company is one of the hardest things that anyone can do. It requires considerable discipline, sacrifice, and maturity from the founders. The first discipline is getting to the end of this blog series – even the boring bits!
Entrepreneurship has been defined as the pursuit of opportunity without regard for resources currently controlled. At the end of JFDI’s 100 days, you will be in a much better position to evaluate the scale and scope of that opportunity, and you will have a much better idea of the work it will take to realize that opportunity. Is the race worth the run? Decide before you commit to raising external funds for the business.
Synthesis
Creating a new business can be one of the most fulfilling life paths for the extraordinary individual. But, as Edison said, it’s 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Don’t give up:
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy
We invite you to discuss this essay and continue the conversation on the openfrog mailing list.
If you’re looking for practical advice about getting into a seed accelerator, this article by Zain Shah may be useful.
Next Article: The Founders Agreement