Given the disruption and uncertainty of the last 16 months, it might seem like a strange time to be encouraging those with start-up ideas to take the plunge. But that's exactly what Jonathan Greechan, co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based Founder Institute accelerator, is advocating.
In Greechan’s view, the pandemic has created numerous new market opportunities and the advantage budding entrepreneurs have over established businesses is their ability to move fast to meet them.
“Even the most agile large companies are lumbering giants and it takes them time to respond to the market,” he told The Irish Times, “but consumer needs are changing quickly due to the pandemic and this has opened the door for entrepreneurs.”
Greechan adds that the widespread furloughing and lay-offs that have characterised the pandemic have also created a pool of talent and experience that wouldn’t normally be available. Entrepreneurs have a unique opportunity at this point to tap into it to bring their ideas to life.
Greechan is no stranger to starting things during difficult times. At the height of the economic crisis in 2009, he and Adeo Ressi set up the Founder Institute to provide tech or tech-enabled start-ups with a combination of structure, support, feedback and fast-track access to funding to get them out of the starting blocks as quickly as possible.
On the face of it, setting up an incubator during an economic crash might seem a bit odd. It might also seem odd that the institute has seen a spike in applications for its programme in the last year. But Greechan is not surprised. On both occasions people have been pushed to the limit by exceptional circumstances, he says and, when faced with worst case scenarios, the “what’s it all about?” question inevitably moves centre stage.
“Covid, like the global economic crisis before it has created a lot of job losses, a lot of stress and forced many people to take a step back because the work-life balance has become so convoluted since it began,” he says. “For some, this crisis has presented the perfect opportunity to start doing something they feel passionate about.”
Different
The Founder Institute is different to most other accelerators in that it was set up as a pre-seed incubator, willing to accept entrepreneurs with very raw ideas as well as those at a more advanced stage who need to tighten their offering.
While physically based in California, the institute is international with programmes running in more than 200 countries. Since its formation 12 years ago, it has put some 5,000 start-ups through their paces.
It has run its programme in Dublin in the past. As of now, however, budding entrepreneurs here can access it via the UK (the next programme starts in the autumn). And there is nothing to stop Irish-based insomniacs or night owls from applying for the US programme in Palo Alto as, like most things these days, it’s accessible online.
The institute’s bootcamp is not for the fainthearted. Only around a third of the companies that apply are accepted and fewer than 40 per cent of those accepted finish out the core four-month programme which is designed to challenge them at every turn.
Participants are closely monitored and, if they get consistently poor ratings or fall behind on the series of “business sprints” they have to complete within a specific timeframe, they do not progress. However, the door is left open for those who failed to finish first time around to have another go when they’re better prepared.
Each cohort is watched over by a team of mentors and angel investors who rate and review their progress. These teams are made up of experts with a good feel for local markets and whether or not an idea will fly in a particular part of the world.
Although Greechan is keen for people with bright ideas to stop talking about them and act, he is quick to emphasise that the start-up world is no picnic.
“Starting a business is not romantic and it’s not a founder fantasy game. It’s a constant grind and even with all the hard work the majority of start-ups will fail – that’s the reality,” he says.
Wellbeing
Entrepreneurs often opine that they started their businesses because they didn’t want to work nine to five and ended up working nine to nine instead. On this note Greechan sounds a word of warning as, in his experience, founders who don’t practise self-care during the start-up process are setting themselves up to fail.
“A founder’s mental health and wellbeing play a big part in the success of their business,” he says. “If you’re not at your peak, that’s the biggest risk for business failure. It’s not funding or the market, it’s the person. Entrepreneurs need to set boundaries to avoid exhaustion and burnout.”
To hammer this home the institute has added founder wellbeing to its curriculum and participants are asked to document their time out.
One wellbeing hack the institute recommends to its “students” is not having their mobile phone by their bed. “If you do, your inbox will be constantly calling your name like a siren and eventually you will start checking your email,” Greechan says. “To those who say they need their phone for its alarm, we tell them to go out and buy an old fashioned alarm clock. Once you start looking at your phone in bed it’s a slippery slope.”
