Studio for founders & research teams
I work with founders and research teams at that stage. The most interesting companies always have more in them than what's currently visible. The work is finding those possibilities, testing them, and making them visible to everyone else.
Building something new is isolating, and most of the founders I work with have plenty of people with opinions. They don't have someone who'll be honest with them about where they actually are, and then help them do something about it.
Most end up reaching for the wrong thing. A non-exec when they need someone building. An advisor when they need someone producing. A programme when they need something specific to them.
The story, the strategy, the fundraise, the go-to-market are all tangled together. They can feel what's wrong but can't separate the threads enough to act on any of them.
I help pull them apart, figure out which ones matter now, and we work on them until they're moving.
Calum Forsyth. PhD in chemistry, then ten years working with early-stage companies as a founder, investor, and operator. Founded an angel fund and incubator, six years at a venture capital fund, hundreds of founders across every domain.
I still think like a scientist. The early stages of building a company are experimental work, and a decade of doing it means you learn which experiments matter and what good looks like.
Every interesting company I've worked with had something in it that wasn't visible yet. Something the founder could feel but hadn't found the language for. The question is what that thing is, how big it could be, and what experiments to run to find out.
Engagements are usually a mix of focused sprints and embedded activity over a few months.
Equity is expensive at this stage and I'd rather you kept it. I don't take board seats either.
Founders, research teams, and corporate new bets teams. Could be pre-revenue, could be post-traction hitting a ceiling. The common thread is potential and open questions.