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Formerly SpinOut Advisory
Helping Early Ventures Build, Adapt and Keep Moving
Why work with me
Building an early-stage venture can be a lonely place to make important decisions
Early-stage businesses rarely progress in a straight line.
Priorities change, funding takes longer than expected, markets move and decisions have to be made with incomplete information.
My role is to be an experienced partner alongside founders, providing an independent sounding board and ongoing support to bring perspective, challenge assumptions and build practical structures so that important decisions are made deliberately and the venture keeps moving forward.
Through TouchstoneFlow™, my engagement platform, discussions are translated into visible priorities, actions, risks, milestones and progress offering a clear view of venture health and momentum without adding another layer of intrusive reporting.
I Have Been on the Founder's Side of the Table
My approach comes from ten years of building and leading an early-stage biotechnology company.
During that time, I experienced many of the issues founders encounter first-hand — raising funding, managing shareholders and boards, building teams, protecting intellectual property, dealing with grant, equity and debt funders, managing cash runway, scaling operations and trying to convert promising technology into a sustainable commercial business.
I also experienced what happens when progress takes longer than expected and funding and commercial timelines do not align.
That experience has shaped how I now work with founders. I understand both the opportunity and the pressure behind the decisions.
Common reasons why start-ups fail
More than Occasional Founder Support
I work alongside founders as an experienced, independent sounding board.
Rather than advising on an isolated question and moving on, I develop an understanding of the venture, its priorities, pressures, stakeholders and risks. This allows each conversation to build on the last and helps maintain continuity as the business develops.
I help founders step away from the immediate noise, think through difficult decisions, challenge assumptions when necessary and keep attention on what matters most.
The aim is not to tell founders how to run their businesses. It is to help them make better-informed decisions and keep the venture moving.
When This Support is Most Useful
This type of engagement can be particularly valuable when:
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a founder is technically strong but running a company for the first time;
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competing priorities are becoming difficult to manage;
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the venture is approaching an important funding or commercial milestone;
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difficult decisions are being postponed;
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progress is becoming harder to see;
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investor, shareholder or board expectations are increasing;
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the founder needs an independent person with whom they can think openly; or
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an investor, university or funder believes a promising venture would benefit from closer support.
The Economic Argument
South Africa is not short of company registrations. Over the last five financial years, annual company registrations have sat in the 400,000–510,000 range. CIPC has previously cited research estimating that 80% of them fail in the first three years. (CIPC).
The latest Global Entrepreneur Monitor's latest 2025/2026 report, highlights two growing divides: "The Survival Gap" and the "AI Readiness Gap". GEM’s South Africa profile states that South Africa’s 2025 NECI score is 3.9, ranking it 47th out of 53 GEM economies globally for the overall quality of its entrepreneurial environment.
South Africa does not have a start-ups registration problem. It has a start-up survival problem.
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