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scale-ups advised
THE FIRST MILE
For founders with a clear idea and nothing built yet. We build it with you, launch it with pricing and payments live, and work the first customers alongside you.
Applications are open. We take three founders at a time.
Apply for The First MileThere is no flat pack
You need a cupboard. You could buy the wood, sketch a design and start cutting. You might get it right. More likely you put holes in the wrong place, the doors do not sit properly, and six months later you are doing it again. That is what the idea stage looks like for most founders. There is no flat pack, no set of instructions and no bag of the right fixings. So we built one.
Who it is for
You have a concept and the intent to build a company around it. You do not yet have an MVP or users, which rules you out of the grant routes we run. This is the stage before that, and it is where most ideas stall.
Founders we have already walked this road with.
“Our profit margin was -97%, our client satisfaction survey was 15% and we were $50k in debt. Ben dove in and helped us to surgically resolve all the root causes and stabilize the company. Now our company is profitable.”
Hassan M
Founder, Enigma
“Ben has really brought great experience, sound judgement and focus to our business. He is engaged in your success and a really strong mentor for any business owner looking to get to the next stage.”
Guillaume Debauchez
Founder, ASP
“Ben is truly remarkable; he consistently brings fresh and innovative ideas to the table. He also offers invaluable assistance in developing new concepts and serves as an outstanding mentor.”
Peter Wellbrock
Founder, W-ITC
Why us
I have launched four companies. Four companies reached a million in ARR within sixteen months of launch. None of that happened because I am unusually clever. It happened because I had the right people around me, the right network, and a discipline about sequencing that I have since turned into a playbook for launching early stage companies. The First Mile is that playbook, run with you rather than handed to you.
The 90 days
A sequence laid down with you.
WEEK 2
Service design.
Two weeks pressure testing the idea with the people meant to buy it.
WEEK 8
Design and build.
Six weeks building a working product from scratch.
WEEK 13
Go to market.
Five weeks of targeted outreach, going after your first customers.
We start talking to customers with you in week one, not only at the end, so you are not starting cold when the product is ready.
WHAT IS INCLUDED
- Service design, run with you
- A working product, built from scratch
- Source code you own outright
- Pricing grounded in evidence, not guesswork
- Positioning and a go to market plan
- User testing with real buyers
- Targeted outreach through our network and yours
- A spotlight in our newsletter, 5,500 subscribers
- Three hours of coaching a week, every week
- Weekly peer review on what you produced
The terms
€15,000 fixed and 2% equity. Paid in three instalments of €5,000, at the start of month one, month two and month three.
You own the product and its source code outright. We take none of it.
What we guarantee is a working product, tested and ready to take paying customers. We work to bring potential customers into the service design and keep them involved through the build, so that when you launch you are talking to people who already know it is coming. That is best efforts rather than a guarantee, in the same way that going into an accelerator does not guarantee investment.
What the fee buys
The product. A working MVP, designed and built from scratch over six weeks. Commissioned on its own, a build of this standard costs several times the entire programme.
You are not handed a cheque and left to find your own developers. We provide the developer, someone proven in our network who has built at this stage before with our other startups.
The coaching. Three months working directly with me and the team, the same coaching we sell in its own right on this site.
The market. The go to market discipline we run for established firms at €2,500 a month, pointed at your first customers, with our network behind it.
The fee covers the work. The equity is our upside, which is why we choose carefully.
How you get in
An eligibility form.
A qualification call with someone from the Inside Startups team.
A call with Ben and the developer.
A two hour technical workshop, where we get properly under the bonnet of what you are trying to do.
A scope of work, written and agreed with you before anything starts.
Filtering alongside the other applications, and three projects selected.
Applications are open all year. We take three founders at a time, and the next project starts when a place opens. We agree your start date with you once the scope of work is signed.
After the first mile
Most companies continue with us as fractional operators once the product is live. That is a separate conversation on separate terms.
Common questions
Apply for The First Mile
Tell us about you and the idea. We review every application and reply within 72 hours.