founder dojo, season 0 recap

12.31.22

written reflecting in the woods of mt. shasta while feeding learnings forward in designing season 1.

i’m currently exploring the question: what would a monthly membership, like a gym, look like for founders? how might we train mindsets, skillsets, and knowledge needed to increase the probability of building successful ventures?

the project is named the founder dojo, because i see performance as a function of practice, and i do not think founders currently have a place to practice or get feedback.

if curious, some background insights on founder coaching + current programs

current coaching models assume there is a fire to put out (ex. cutting costs for longer runway in a global recession) or pressure to avoid getting fired. these problems are usually solved in 3-6 month packages with 1-1 meetings.

current accelerators are based on venture funding milestones, and yet, even with their support, most startups still do not succeed.

in order to challenge the notion of reactive coaching or accelerated financial milestones, i’m curious to focus on the human potential + development of a founder in venture success paired with community of other founders.

progress + learnings this quarter

this quarter, i spent my time talking with early stage founders and building weekly experiments to test assumptions to figure out what makes sense.

recap of this quarter include:

• 87 conversations with different founders, investors, and program directors on what is needed at different stages of venture building
• 24 1-1s with founders at different stages for coaching feedback and personal support
• 10 community events, aimed at bringing founders together over meaningful experiences
• 3 training specific sessions for group feedback
• 1 tough tech summit for three hundred people people in the boston ecosystem hosted by mit the engine

it’s dubbed season 0 as everything was done as individual events paired with feedback to see how they could be packaged together for a full program.

some learnings from observation:

1. founders identify, and ultimately connect, more with those at similar stage and difficulty of problem. season 1 explores climate tech as a focus to filter those two.
2. founder to founder learnings accelerate from those who are 1-2 steps ahead. this will be front and center when designing group sessions, like live case studies.
3. there is almost no baseline for support fully aligned for founders. i feel like this may be too simple of an insight, but i’m curious how far putting founders first will go.

with these, i'm excited to pilot and launch season 1! i'm now testing a three month runthrough for early stage climate tech founders.

new website is up, more here →

if you liked this, have feedback, or more resources to share, send me a note.