Everyone has an idea. We are unique in our capacity to see how complexities of life unfold and where there are opportunities to make it better. Out of such ideas, entrepreneurs are born and these founders create startups which change how something in the world works. These companies can be very small, or can completely redefine what a market is, having an outsized impact on both individual lives and total economic output of the world. A grandiose statement but it is true. As a society, we need to encourage more talented individuals start market defining companies.

Many smart and ambitious people do express a desire to create a new technology company, yet relatively few do. Why?

The default career path leads our most qualified individuals to seek the safety of a harbour in financial services, law, medicine, consulting or more recently in the burgeoning multinationals. These are all excellent choices but as a result individuals who may have thought about starting a company now have a hygiene factor which is difficult to unstick. We are missing out on so much potential.

The second issue is opportunity. Access to building a technology company is not equal. Historical professional and personal networks give certain individuals a foot up. We should remove these barriers to entry and provide an equal, open and transparent “foot up” to anyone wanting to make this journey. Creating a successful company does not have a pre-requisite of a third level qualification or a job at a multinational – Entrepreneurs can come from anywhere. We need people from outside the normal startup gene pool. Individuals who have an energy, an excitement and an ambition to do something impactful.

Homogeneity will not help. Common sense tells you that a diverse team will produce better outcomes and this is now backed by millions of datapoints. Better customer understanding, a wider problem set, improved decision making and a pure increase in economic output are all more likely if you build a diverse team.

We are in a position to help. One of the reasons we take considered decisions about who to invest in as NDRC is that if the companies are successful, we get a return on that investment. All of this capital is then earmarked to be re-invested into the startup ecosystem as a whole. Thanks to the success of NDRC alumni such as Silvercloud, Chasing Returns, Brightflag, Biome, Robotify and others we can now offer a more democratic path to people who want to take a chance on an idea.

Introducing Founders

All of this is why we created Founders. A new programme designed to support the most ambitious individuals who have the desire to start a company but don’t know where to begin. This September, 45 ambitious individuals will come together in Dogpatch Labs to try and create something from nothing. It will be an intense and challenging process which will force these founders to move uncomfortably fast, immersing them amongst a cohort of peers and helping to form the perfect co-founding team with strong idea fit. And here’s the kicker, we will also pay each of them a stipend of €2k per month during the first three months.

We will help them, as individuals, understand what their personal competitive advantage is and help them meet a co-founder with a complementary skill set — dramatically increasing chances of success. They do not need an idea. They do not need a team. The only pre-requisite is ambition. We want to help create market defining companies in Ireland, working on large and difficult problems with technology at the core. And, if they find the right co-founder and create a team around the idea, we will invest €100k into the fledgling startup and help raise the first round of venture capital.

This is not a new idea. Some amazing talent accelerators exist globally and we are standing on their shoulders but as yet, this avenue has been closed to founders in Ireland. Our thesis is that there is a huge amount of trapped value in the Irish ecosystem just waiting to be unlocked.

How does it work?

There are two phases of the programme. In the first phase, 45 individuals will come together in Dogpatch Labs with the idea of finding your perfect co-founder and idea fit. The selection process will target a diverse cohort with a wide skill set including engineers, entrepreneurs, PhDs, domain specialists, go to market talent and ambitious outliers. The goal at the end of 12 weeks is to have formed a company and have momentum on your idea. Speed of thought and execution will be very very important.

At the end of phase 1, the teams that have been created can pitch to the investment committee for a €100k investment and the chance to move to phase 2. We will not invest in everyone. We have the capacity to make between 5–8 investments per cohort and then support each team as they look to the venture market for their first round of institutional capital.

Our team, alongside an experienced panel of EIRs, will then help each startup with all aspects of their business from product, sales, marketing, financials, hiring, fundraising and more. We will be 100% aligned on making the new startup a success. This phase will culminate in a Demo Day in which we will invite hundreds of investors, founders and supporters to come see what you have built.

This will not be an easy ride. The path to creating any successful company is difficult, even torturous. There is the idea, but then there is the ability to exploit that idea through a combination of human and financial capital. With Founders, we are aiming to give ambitious individuals the greatest chance of success.

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If you would like to know more, visit www.joinfounders.co or reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter. If you know someone who may be a great fit for the programme, I’d love to chat to them.

Applications are open now with selection and offers completed by mid July before a programme start date in September.