The Pre-Founder
Programme
A structured 90-minute session for people who are serious about starting something — but haven't yet committed.
Before you do anything else
Most people who start a business never have the honest conversation before they begin. They move fast, commit hard, and meet the important questions through experience — which is the most expensive way to answer them.
This session is designed to sit with you at the moment before any of that starts. Not to talk you out of it. Not to validate it. To help you think clearly about what you are actually walking into — before the cost of being wrong gets high.
"Some of the most important decisions don't look like decisions at first."
The questions raised in this session are ones you will have to answer eventually. Better to answer them now, when adjusting course is still easy.
The Program
Your starting position
1
Where you actually are — financially, personally, professionally. What you have, what you don't, and what that means for how you should approach this. Not a judgement. A map.
Motivation, commitment and the idea
2
The difference between being motivated and being committed. Whether your reasons for doing this will hold up when momentum fades. And whether the idea itself is built on evidence or assumption — and what you would need to test before going further.
Financial reality and stop rules
3
Your actual financial runway. What financial pressure will feel like as it builds — and why defining your limits before you start is not pessimism, it is the most professional thing a founder can do.
Your decision
4
The session ends with a clear outcome — Proceed, Adapt, or Pause — based on an honest reading of everything covered. Not a verdict. A position you have arrived at yourself, with the thinking to back it up.
What is included
90-minute live session A structured 1:1 conversation via Zoom. Not a lecture — a working session built around your specific situation and where you actually are right now.
Pre-Founder Checklist A personalised written output from the session — your decisions, your gaps, and your next steps in a clear reference document you keep and return to.
Before You Start — A signed copy of Before You Start, written by Douglas Seabrooke. Fifteen truths about what you are walking into — written specifically for the person who is serious about starting but hasn't yet. The session brings it to life. The book carries it further.
Who this is for
You have an idea that keeps coming back. You are taking it seriously but haven't committed to it yet.
You want to think clearly before you spend money, hand in your notice, or ask anyone else to believe in what you are doing.
You are honest enough to know that enthusiasm alone is not a strategy.
You want someone to sit with you in the difficult questions — not tell you what you want to hear.
You are at the stage where the cost of being wrong is still low — and you want to keep it that way.
This session is not for founders who have already started. If you have launched, have customers, or are actively building — the Founder Decision Advisory is the better fit.
Book your session
One session. One outcome. Everything you need to move forward with clarity — or to understand why now is not yet the right time.
€175
Includes session · Pre-Founder Checklist · Before You Start book