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Tree tree wood tree wood

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind with the presentations by Laurence Onfroy on branding and storytelling and by Jean-Patrice Anciaux, the venture capitalist who runs a €50M seed fund for the French government, being notable highlights. Those sessions were two of the key reasons why I signed up for the Founder Institute program in the first place.

Additional ad hoc sessions like the breakfast I managed to have with Yann Lechelle in Paris yesterday are simply the cherries on this whole “incubator experience cake”.

In fact, the last three months have been a whirlwind. During that time I purposely avoided travel to the US. However a 9 hour flight to Chicago yesterday gave me the opportunity to take a step back and start to see the wood for the trees.

When I landed I felt very happy to be back in the land of the free, and not just because I breezed through immigration despite the recent change in president!

As I sped across the Atlantic I started to think about “life after the incubator”, I summed things up into six key questions that I and the team at FFLOK are going to need to answer on an ongoing basis…

1) Do we have a compelling idea, vision and story to tell?
2) Do we have the right business model and organisation?
3) How are we achieving product market fit (and later scale)?
4) How are we telling our story to the wider world?
5) Can we create, finance and run an effective business?
6) Do the financials and metrics back up what we're doing?

These are the six things now underpin our detailed plan for the next 6 to 12 months. Sounds simple when you put it like that, but it's definitely been a journey.

Time to go and get down and dirty!

So armed with a host of wonderful experiences, insights and contacts, I now also have a detailed master plan. A rye smile breaks out over my face as I picture my previous teammates saying, “hmmm, I think I’ve heard something like this somewhere before…”

However to ensure that that plan doesn’t just remain a theoretical exercise, we’re going to need to explore the oft taboo subject of money. That’ll be the topic of next week’s post following a one on one session with Jean-Patrice Anciaux, and an upcoming group session on financial modelling for startups with the FI director Gilles Le Guennec.

Have a wonderful week guys and greetings from the Windy City!

Aidan