New initiative launched to support founders in the North East
A COMMUNITY initiative for North East tech founders has been launched to support and encourage sector growth.
#everyfounder, announced on Twitter by creator Paul Smith, will ensure tech startups have access to practical and informed advice from experienced operators–“upstarts”–who have themselves started tech companies.
The move follows a rise in “stories of bad actors taking advantage or well-meaning advice causing harm” within the tech startup community.
Smith told The Northern Report: “Startup founders don’t have access to a lot of meaningful support. That’s not to say there aren’t organisations and initiatives offering to help with workshops and programmes, but technology startups face unique challenges during their development and growth that aren’t well understood.
“The biggest challenges for new tech founders and early-stage startups are nearly always the same, which is why a generalist approach from an experienced head is often the most effective.”
In a blog post announcing the initiative, Smith, who also cofounded lead-generation startup Ricochet, refers to the low population density of the North East and how this affects a founder and new business’ ability to cluster efficiently or effectively.
“Cities and regions have to work so much harder at community building. It means small changes have a material impact, for better and for worse,” he wrote.
#everyfounder is not the first to identify the importance of clustering for regional and sector growth, with the launch of Dynamo North East’s cluster groups echoing a similar sentiment earlier this year.
But #everyfounder is different because it offers cooperative, casual mentoring and advice to tech founders from those who have done it themselves.
“General business support is a useful primer but founders don’t necessarily know which problems are important to solve. The people best placed to help are those with the experience — they’re either currently building technology companies or have done so previously,” Smith told The Northern Report.
“Founders have to do most jobs themselves in the early days because there’s nobody else to do them — so they’re qualified generalists that can help a new founder understand what challenges they really need to think about.”
#everyfounder has support of over 25 founders and operators across the region, including SoPost, Paid.co.uk, Word Nerds and Refract AI — “founders who have experience of creating proprietary technology, building meaningful companies, selling globally, exiting and so on”.
For the past couple of months, Smith, who previously pioneered the now-defunct Newcastle Tech Trust, had been exploring ways to get involved with the tech community again, but it was a tweet from “one of the most prolific researchers into technology communities” that spurred him into action.
“I’ve deliberately stepped out of the community over the past year to concentrate on building Ricochet, but coaching founders is something I genuinely love to do and I’d be very upset if a talented team made an avoidable mistake that robbed the region of a world-class company,” he said.
Smith hopes founders can leave the 30-minute sessions–which are free–with “some relevant action points” to find a solution to their problem.
“If someone has a specific challenge or need, they can be referred onto a more relevant person in the community,” he added.
Office hours begin later this month, working on a first-come first-serve basis, and can be booked through the #everyfounder website. The seasoned founders will try to offer sessions times around usual work and school hours to ensure everyone has access support.
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