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asking for help
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Hey there,
Dragos here, from Project Arrow, where we guide founders with what to do and who to talk to in order to get funded and accelerate their startups.
Hope everyone had a great productive summer and have the batteries charged for the end of the year push.
PSA. I am in London this week, let me know if you’re up for a cup of coffee.
When you’re a first time founder, everything about your startup is moving at a high speed and can easily get out of control. That’s not a bad thing, on the contrary - it’s supposed to be this way. However, you have to make time for a bit of planning and doing strategy for your next steps. 👇️
How do you make sure you have a competitive product? How do you position it in the market? How do you stand out against competition? How do you make sure you don’t run out of money? How do you talk to investors? Where do you find them? And so on…
While everybody deals with more or less the same type of problems, many first time founders also think they have all the answers. They put their head on the ground and do everything by the ear - my way or the high way. But more often than not they hit hurdles and need to make decisions quick, sometimes on strategic issues that will impact the future of the startup in a significant way.
And that’s the moment when they may need help. Or at least an outside opinion. And they’re usually too afraid to ask for help - they’re simply worried about what others may think. Or too proud - I know better!
In fact, the most successful entrepreneurs know that it's actually the other way around. The fastest way to figure out a way is to ask for advice from people who’ve done it already. They’ve been in your shoes, have done a lot of trials and errors and figured out a way. That can be a go to market strategy, or pricing, or fundraising, or hiring.
Your startup story is often relatable to other founders. You’re stuck, you ask for advice, and someone helps you out, or at least provides an opinion that can give you perspective. That can save a lot of time, energy, resources and can boost your efforts considerably - it’s worth having somebody in your corner. So don’t be shy and ask for help, what’s the worst can happen?
It’s what we also do with a bunch of startup founders at Project Arrow. Every week. Have a look at it and give it a try.
Community
Startups recently seeded
If you want a full list of interesting startup raises from all over Europe, you can go check Monday CET. Below a selection of the more interesting ones:
🇩🇪 Atopia - metaverse for the arts (Munich)
🇬🇧 Context ai - analytics stack for generative AI text interfaces (London)
🇩🇰 Hyphen - AI-enabled personal assistant (Copenhagen)
🇫🇷 Statinf - tools used for statistical timing analyses on real time embedded systems (Paris)
🇩🇪 traide - customs compliance SAAS using AI (Berlin)
Did you just raise funding for your startup? Hit reply and we’ll feature it here.
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