No idea, team, money — how company builders can help founders to get their startup off the ground
Most startups fail and we also have a good understanding of the main reasons, for that I like to refer to the famous TED talk from Bill Gross highlighting the top 5 success factors for startups:
At Stryber we receive many applications for founder positions in one of our portfolio companies. When we ask our applicants why they are not launching a startup on their own, those are the top 3answers we get:
- “I have no great business idea”
- “I do not find complementary co-founders”
- “I do not have enough cash runway”
On top of that we observe that first-time founders often lack the experience, methodologies and network that can significantly help to build a successful startup.
So we see many smart and ambitious individuals out there who want to build their own startup, but they struggle to fulfill ANY of the top 5 success factors mentioned above already on day 1!
Actually 30% of startups fail or give up in their first 2 years.
How we eliminate typical starting problems of many founders
As a company builder we enable smart and ambitious individuals to overcome their starting hurdles:
IDEA
We find an attractive unicorn idea (big market and right timing!), build a first product version and validate the idea in a structured way with real transactions, plus the idea becomes fundable.
SPEED / EXECUTION
Our highly professional and experienced in-house team of Venture Architects, Product Owners, Growth Marketers, UX/UI Wizards and Engineers tests hypotheses, gets transactions and achieves fundability super-fast
(= time savings of 12+ months compared to independent founders with much smaller teams at that stage).
This also lays the foundations to not get left behind by main competitors early on and to be able to exploit the right timing of the business idea with more manpower from the beginning.
TEAM
We build a kick-ass founders team based on our learnings what skills and experience the exact topic needs and whose individuals complement each other well. Typically the dream team consists of a visionary CEO, an execution-focused COO, and an experienced CPO/CTO.
MONEY
We are a founder-friendly company builder who is convinced that an attractive equity package (up to 75% for the founders + ESOP) is needed to ensure long-term incentivisation and fundability. We are Rocket 2.0!
On top of the large equity stake provided, we cover the starting costs (pre-seed + some cash runway towards seed funding) and enable a small base salary for our founders (= huge cost savings and peace of mind compared to independent founders). Independent founders typically earn no or very little salary during the first 1 or 2 years.
Check this document to see latest salary benchmarks for founders of funded startups as well as a generic equity calculation.
INVESTORS
We help our startups to get in touch with the right seed investors (and we are already one of them).
MENTORING
One of our experienced senior partners joins the startup board and acts as mentor to advice on things like strategy, team, fundraising and operational topics (OKRs, culture deck, hiring, performance management, etc.).
How you can join forces with Stryber
We currently offer 3 opportunities for founders:
- Become Entrepreneur in Residence: As EiR you can find a promising venture idea with us within one of our investment theses, validate it with our team of Stryborgs, and later join this independent startup in a CxO role.
- Become CxO: You can join as co-founder for one of our portfolio companies.
- Get operational pre-seed funding (“boost program”): If you are an existing founder (team) / pre-seed startup with a promising idea, you can join forces with us to accelerate your startup towards the next funding round.
If you feel a strong urge by now to get to know us, check out our open CxO positions or — for existing startups — learn more about our boost program on our website: https://stryber.com/build-and-grow-your-startup-with-stryber/
