Founder Insights

Practical and lived perspectives on the less visible challenges of building an early-stage venture.

Episode 1: Introduction to SpinOut Advisory - supporting founders of early-stage ventures as they navigate the realities of building, governing and growing a sustainable business.

Note: SpinOut Advisory is now Belinda Shaw Advisory

Episode 2: Stakeholder oversight matters — but is it the same as founder support?

Note: SpinOut Advisory is now Belinda Shaw Advisory

Real World Founder Lessons

Learned from actually building an early-stage company.

REAL WORLD FOUNDER LESSON #2:

Meeting overload is not productivity. At one stage as a founder, my diary had become ridiculous. Meeting after long meeting. And so many people. Everyone who might conceivably need to know what was happening had been invited. For my own sanity, I started questioning it. How much were all these meetings actually costing us - time is money right?. And what were we getting back? Try this calculation yourself. It will shock you: Meetings per week × duration × people atten

Belinda Shaw

REAL WORLD FOUNDER LESSON #1.

1. Never let funding pressure you into scaling ahead of commercial reality. 2. Do not confuse access to capital with evidence of a market. 3. Never let the size of a future funding opportunity hide today’s downside risk. In 2018, we launched our company with seven employees, backed by grant funding and matching investment capital. Then COVID-19 arrived. We quickly developed a plant-expressed SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein for potential use in diagnostic test kits. Through introduct

Belinda Shaw