G98d Mentor Progress Review (10)

#1 (Epic Sprint)

If you have a Epic Sprint from the Mentor Progress Review, post the work from that assignment here, including links to any documents. You will also need to email the assignment to the people identified in the assignment itself. It is very important to complete the Epic Sprint on time and to produce the highest quality work possible. Follow the exact instructions provided to the best of your ability. (20+ Hours)

#2 (Growth)

Make progress on your Weekly Growth Goals. Write a couple of sentences on how you achieved or missed your Weekly Growth Goals from the previous week. Write a sentence that examines how the system to keep yourself accountable is performing, and make necessary adjustments to the system. Spend time to meet or exceed your Weekly Growth Goals for the current week. If you need to adjust your Weekly Growth Goals, provide the updated set of goals with a couple of sentences on why the adjustment was necessary. (4 Hours)

#3 (Product)

Make progress on the Next Release. Write a couple of sentences that describe the progress and the setbacks that you have faced on completing the Next Release and on working with the Project Team. Spend time working on the Next Release. Each Release should take approximately two weeks, so the Next Release should be halfway to completion. Adjust the Project Roadmap and Project Plan with lessons learned. If you are in the process of adding Project Vendors, then collect any proposals, review the proposals and start negotiating a price to engage the vendor. (4 Hours)

#4 (Hiring Needs)

Update your Project Team needs. Score each of the Team Members from the Project Team on a 1 to 10 basis, including yourself, based on the work that they have done on the Next Release. Provide a bulleted list of the Team Members on the Project Team with the top-ranked Team Member at the top and the worst ranked at the bottom. For every Team Member rated below an 8, write a couple of sentences per Team Member on why you are keeping them and what your plan is to ensure that they improve. Provide another bulleted list of New Team Members that are required to either replace poorly rated Team Members or to supplement the team that includes the name of the Role and a couple of sentences on what the Role will need to accomplish. (2 Hours)

#5 (Set Up Advisory Board)

Set up your Advisory Board with a Startup, Industry and Technology or Marketing Advisor. Review the Founder Advisor Standard Template (FAST) Agreement here (https://FI.co/fast) for ideas on how to structure an advisor relationship and an Advisor agreement. During the Closing Call with the Selected Advisors, discuss having the individual join your three member Advisory Board and compensating them with the FAST Agreement, which includes a three month “cliff” in case the Advisor relationship fails in this time period. If the Selected Advisor agrees on the Closing Call, finalize the “Advisor Performance Level” for the FAST Agreement and set up a recurring schedule to check in with them for at least 15 Minutes every two weeks at a regular time. If the Selected Advisor does not agree, proceed with a process to replace the Selected Advisor with the next qualified Advisor Candidate. Once all three Advisors have confirmed, write an email to them all to set up a one hour conference call with all of the Advisors, which will be your first quarterly Advisory Board Meeting. Upload and provide a link to the signed FAST Agreement for each Advisor, write the regular call time with the Advisor and include the time for the first Advisory Board Meeting. (3 Hours)

#6 (Bookkeeping)

Start regular bookkeeping processes if you have not done so already. Collect all of the information on purchases that you have made for the business to date, and collect receipts for all of these purchases, organizing them by month. Going forward, start a process to collect and organize business expenses and receipts by month, and write a couple of sentences to describe the system that you choose. Set up an accounting system to track monthly expenses, which may be a Google Sheet or an accounting system, and write the name of the system that you have chosen. Apply for a dedicated credit card for business expenses in order to ensure that you do not mix business and personal expenses, and write the name of credit card that you applied for. Set aside a couple of times each month to do bookkeeping, and add these times to your Business Calendar. (2 Hours)

#7 (Accountant Interviews)

Interview Accountants if you do not have an accounting vendor. You will need a startup-friendly Accountant to help your business set up ongoing financial operations, prepare year end financial reports and pay taxes, though you may not need to use the vendor until you start to grow, depending on your comfort level with initial bookkeeping. Consult with your Working Group peers, Advisory Board and program Local Leaders for accounting firm recommendations. Create a bulleted list of at least two local accounting firms that have a reputation working with startups, including the local accounting partner of the Founder Institute, and include their name and URL. Set up an interview with each of the accounting firms over the next few days. During the interview, ask about special pricing for new startups that include monthly or quarterly help, and ask about any government credits, incentives or tax reductions available for your type of business. Also ask about how they work with startups to set up a ‘chart of accounts,’ help track monthly expenses or handle unusual transactions, such as the initial purchase of shares. Mention the accounting system that you are thinking of using, and solicit feedback. Update the bulleted list with details on the accounting firms pricing and one sentence about your positive or negative impressions of the firm. You will select an Accountant in the next assignment. (3 Hours)

#8 (Investor Pitch Deck)

Develop an Investor Pitch Deck. Take your Pitch Deck and extend the presentation to 12 slides using the structure and insights from this guide (https://fi.co/guides/pitch). Incorporate any feedback from the Mentor Progress Review and include as many quantifiable statistics as possible into the presentation. Present the Investor Pitch Deck to one Working Group peer and solicit detailed feedback. Provide a link to the Investor Pitch Deck and a bulleted list of the feedback and improvements. Upload the Investor Pitch Deck under ‘Account.’ (4 Hours)

#9 (Financial Model Update)

Review and update your Financial Model with the work done to date. Adjust the revenue projections based on the expected timing of revenues from work that you have done trying to secure customers. Adjust the expense projections to ensure that you personally have enough capital to work on the business full-time and quit any other consulting or employment. Provide a link to the updated Financial Model spreadsheet. Write a couple of sentences on how much capital you are able to secure for the operation of the plan from you and your co-Founders. If you need more capital for the Financial Plan, then consider raising a Founding Round as outlined below. (2 Hours)

#10 (Mailing List Update)

Update and segment The List. Make sure The List includes all Team Members, Advisors, lawyers, accountants, shareholders, potential investors, FI Local Leaders, FI Founders, FI Mentors that you are close to, [email protected] and any other stakeholders. You will now divide The List into Stakeholders and Leads. Stakeholders are individuals that are close to the company with a vested interest in your success, such as investors, Team Members, Advisors, FI Local Leaders, lawyers or accountants. Leads are individuals that want to track your progress and possibly become a customer or user, such as target customers or FI Mentors. Going forward, you will email the Stakeholders every two weeks and email the Leads every month. Update your Business Calendar with both the mailing date and a reminder to complete the email before the mailing date for each group. Write the number of individuals that you have placed on each list. (2 Hours)

#11 (Major Updates)

Provide an update on your weekly business progress. Update all fields of your corporate profile on the Founder Institute site. By this point in the program, you should have a Minimum Viable Company. First, you should be incorporated with all of the intellectual property assigned to the corporate entity. Second, you should have strong knowledge of your Customer Archetype, as well as initial traction with real customers. Third, you should understand the economics of your business model. Fourth, you should have progressed with building your solution. Fifth, you should have a functioning Advisory Board that compensates for gaps in your Team Members. For each of the five areas of a Minimum Viable Company, write a couple of sentences on the progress that you have made and the setbacks that you are facing. If you are having trouble with any of the above, go to https://FI.co/ohours and schedule Office Hours with a Local Leader to discuss. Provide bulleted items to be completed across Team, Product, Traction and Program for the coming week. (1 Hour)

#12 (Celebrate Accomplishments)

Write down three significant milestones that you have accomplished over the past two months, and select one to celebrate this week. Decide who to include, what to do, and how to celebrate. The celebration can be as simple as sending a social media message, or as complicated as organizing an event. Publicly recognize everyone who made a significant contribution to the accomplishment. Write down what accomplishment you celebrated, and include the details for this event. In addition, write a paragraph describing how you will make celebrating accomplishments a routine and list the short term milestones which you intend to celebrate. (1 Hour)

#13 (Hotseat Pitch)

Update your one minute without slides and 3 to 5 minute slides Hotseat Pitches with any learning and new materials this week, progress from the Weekly Update, and the latest Asks. Video yourself giving your best Hotseat pitch, and upload the video online as unlisted and accessible. Paste the link to the unlisted video in the assignment here and also paste the link in the field on your homepage under Weekly Pitch. (30 Minutes)

(Optional – Founding Round)

Consider raising capital. If you do not have enough savings and income to cover the next few months of business expenses or if you think that you may need capital in the next few months, then prepare to raise a Founding Round from people who you already know and trust. This is sometimes referred to as a “Friends and Family Round,” and the Target Amount of money raised ranges anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a couple of hundred thousand dollars. The Founding Round should take about one month to close. Write a brief paragraph on why you will need money, how much money that you need and what the money will be used for. Next, contact your Law Firm and ask for a legal agreement to raise the Target Amount of money from your business associates, friends and family members, which is often a loan agreement at this phase. Upload the agreement that you select with your Law Firm and provide a link. Finally, prepare a bulleted list of at least ten names of people that you know and that trust you to ask about raising money from, which will be your Funding Target List. Each member of your Funding Target List should be able to easily give you 25% of the Target Amount without affecting their personal or professional life. You can learn more about a Founding Round financing here (https://fi.co/guides/1281). (4 Hours)(Optional – Curriculum Review) Review the Founder Institute curriculum since the Mentor Idea Review to here. Which parts were valuable for your business, which were less valuable, what was missing, and what could be improved? Fill in this three question survey with your feedback https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFWC39X. (1 Hour) (Optional – Graduation Gift) Brainstorm on a gift at Graduation. It is customary for a graduating cohort to develop a Gift for the class and the Local Leaders. Everything from a shirt to drinking glasses has been created. The Founder Institute logo can be found here (http://fndri.com/2swJBtn). The final Working Group Presidents should virtually meet and decide what the Gift is, which should be kept secret from the Local Leaders until the Graduation session. The Presidents will develop a plan to have the Gift ready by Graduation. (Optional – Go All In) Plan to quit your job. If you have not quit your day job already, then develop a plan to quit your job and focus on your dream company full-time within the next six months. Speak with your friends, family and Working Group about the plan. Write a letter on startup company stationary with a couple paragraphs about your plan to quit, write in large letters the date that you pledge to quit by, and sign the letter. Provide a link to the signed letter.

Links

Resources

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Submitted

• Adrian Tudor Mentor Progress Review
• Alex Oprisan Mentor Progress Review
• Alex Sache Mentor Progress Review
• Costin Lungu Mentor Progress Review
• Dragos Curiman Mentor Progress Review
• Gabriel Negrean Mentor Progress Review
• Maria Gontea Mentor Progress Review
• Raul Durma Mentor Progress Review
• Roxana Geangu Mentor Progress Review