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Donna Harris and the business of getting started
After co-founding Washington’s 1776 startup hub, Donna Harris turned her attention to the ideas that never make it into the room. At Builders + Backers, she is working on the awkward, promising distance between “someday” and a first experiment.
Build Up Labs learned to ask: who will pay?
The Lisbon venture studio sells its own software businesses and sells guidance to other founders. Its most useful lessons concern customers, small experiments, and knowing when an idea has had enough chances.
AIC-GIM wants you to test the idea before you bet the business
On a Goa business-school campus, AIC-GIM turns startup ambition into customer interviews, sharper business plans and funding applications. Its most useful lesson may be learning which assumptions to abandon.
ODF (On Deck Founders)
ODF (On Deck Founders) is a San Francisco-based founder fellowship that helps aspiring entrepreneurs go from idea to conviction. Its signature offering is an intense one-week in-person experience in SF where 80-100 pre-vetted builders meet potential co-founders, pressure-test ideas, and commit to starting a company - followed by lifelong access to an alumni community, mentorship, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in startup perks. Unlike a traditional accelerator, ODF takes no equity. More than 1,000 startups have launched through On Deck, collectively raising over $2 billion from investors including Sequoia, a16z, Khosla and Founders Fund.