5 Reasons to Join the Icebreaker Pre-founder Community
Do you have an idea for a tech startup or want to join an early-stage startup?
We get it. Striking out on your own and building a startup from the ground up is a little intimidating.
There are a lot of things that could be holding you back. The money you need to start your business, resources or knowledge about starting a company, fear that your idea won’t work, or fear that you’ll fail.
Our whole purpose is to meet pre-founders needs, help them find the courage to take that first step, and aid them on a successful journey to building a new business.
Since it has been a while since we discussed our pre-founder community, we thought this would be as good a time as any to reiterate some of the benefits of joining.
Keep reading to learn about our mission and check some of the reasons we think that anybody who wants to get involved in the world of startups should consider joining our incredible community.
1. Meet Like Minded Individuals
This is the whole point of Icebreaker. We founded Icebreaker to connect interesting people with one another. There are perhaps 10,000 people in Finland with the relevant work experience and forward-thinking brain to become successful founders or contributors to early-stage tech companies.
However, the majority of them never will.
Why? Perhaps because they don’t have the resources, whether monetary or educational. Or perhaps because they prefer the relative safety of their jobs and never quite muster up the courage to try something so daring. Or maybe they don’t for the simple reason that they don’t have the right complementary co-founder with whom to venture forth.
We bring likeminded people together to share their wisdom and ideas. Icebreaker has over 900 members and counting. Every one of those individuals is unique, with talents, skills, and advice to offer. We’re all here, ready and willing to support one another as we reach for our goals.
2. Catalyst for Innovation
We want to be a catalyst for innovation. That’s the whole idea behind Icebreaker. We want to provide a comprehensive set of resources and tools to help startups succeed.
We do this by bringing people together, sharing ideas, and providing education on the startup ecosystem. By joining our community, you’ll find the resources you need to grow as an individual or team.
We help you find the courage to step out of your comfort zone, to realise that failures are learning experiences, and to plough full-steam ahead toward realising your dreams.
Additionally, we’ve invested funds in a handful of tech companies that have become quite successful after being founded in our community.
There are also many startups whose co-founders found each other through our community as well as gained the resources and advice they needed to build their companies. These include (to name a few) companies like Emooter, Superhood, and Origin by Ocean, who recently managed to secure €2M in seed funding!
3. Advice and Mentoring from Experienced Founders, Advisors, and Investors
At Icebreaker we focus on pre-founders, but our community includes people at every stage of the startup process. Ask questions, find support, and apply for the venture capital you need to fund your business. It’s all right here.
Within our community, we have organisers who have helped start over a hundred companies. They have a wealth of knowledge that you can access to help make your venture a success.
There’s no better way to learn about a process than to ask someone who has already done it.
4. Community Events
Networking is hugely important when building a startup. Without the right people on board, your ship isn’t going to sail. In fact, that could be a major thing holding you back — you don’t have the right people with whom to move forward.
This is why we love to hold events. They are valuable not only for bringing people together, but also for learning and growth.
Take the Pre-founder Project, for example. These events are powerful for several reasons. First of all, we love bringing talented people together. You will see Pre-founders and Founders at every stage of the startup process. You gain inspiration and advice from hearing their stories. Though this is not the main goal of the PFP, we also keep an eye out for individuals or teams that we would like to invest in at these events.
You’ll learn about a variety of topics by attending one of our events. We’ve covered everything from how to build a company from an idea, to building a great founding team, to pitching your idea and differentiating yourself in the market.
5. Community Intranet
Perhaps our most valuable resource for you right now with the current state of things is getting access to our Intranet. We hold a wealth of information here that you can access online. If you’re stuck at home with little to do, now is the perfect time to learn and grow in preparation for that first step.
The Icebreaker Intranet serves as a directory for community members. When you have a need, you can search for people with the skills or knowledge necessary to meet it. If you met an interesting individual at our last event, you can learn more about them and connect with them further over the Intranet.
These are all brilliant people who understand what it takes to build software-driven companies. They are founders, advisors, customers, and new recruits. They all have something unique and valuable to share. And so do you!
Share with one another, nurture your ideas, and watch them blossom!
Joining Icebreaker’s Pre-founder Community
Get connected, get educated, and join the community which brings innovative, techy people together to create something great.
Reach out to us today and apply to join the Icebreaker pre-founder community! We’re excited to hear from you and equally excited to see what the future holds.
