Everything we have, somebody gave us first.
A room when we had no office. An introduction we could not have made ourselves. Money that arrived before the thing was worth funding. None of that was owed to us — so this page does two things: it keeps a public record of who did it, and it sets out exactly what we now do for the next people in that position.
Two columns, and we would like them to balance.
Left is what was given to us when we could not have paid for it. Right is what we now give, in the same currencies. It is not a metaphor we invented for a website — it is how we decide what to say yes to.
What we actually do for people building something.
Not a fund and not an accelerator with a demo day. The useful things are smaller and less photogenic: the introduction, the second opinion before a bad contract, the week of somebody’s attention when you are stuck.
Four stages, and most people only need one.
There is no application form, no cohort and no deadline. You tell us where you are, we tell you honestly whether we are useful at that stage, and if we are not we say who is.
The people this was built on.
Credits, in the order things happened rather than the order of size. Every name goes up only once that person or institution has agreed to be named — which is why some of the lines below are still waiting. We would rather show you the gap than fill it with a logo we have no right to use.
If you are on this list and would rather not be, tell us and you come off the same day, no conversation required.
Two ways in, and they are not the same conversation.
Some people want to put money into EXZELLENT. Some want to put their name, their room, their network or an afternoon a month into the founders we support. Both matter and they need different things from us, so they get different columns.
The numbers, once there are numbers worth publishing.
We are not going to decorate this page with metrics that flatter us. These are the figures we intend to keep and publish as they become real — printed here now, empty, so that the empty ones are as visible as the full ones.
Nothing above is a projection or a target. Each one goes in when it is true and comes with the date it was measured.
Where we are the wrong people.
Written down because the alternative is three polite meetings and a slow no, and everybody’s time is worth more than that.
Asked from both sides of the ledger.
Say which side you are writing from.
It changes who reads it and how fast you get an answer. Both go to people rather than a queue, and neither needs a deck attached to the first message.