Building bridges of former entrepreneurs to today’s founders

Even with years of experience as an entrepreneur, my journey was far from easy. More often than not, I found myself navigating through crises – a reality many founders know all too well. The ability to engage with founders and empathise with them through the challenges of building a business, is most powerful when you can say you’ve been in their shoes. That’s why at Intel Ignite, all our managing directors and many of our mentors are former entrepreneurs like me who can advise current founders based on their real-life experiences. Drawing on the hard-won lessons from my 12-year journey as an entrepreneur, I’m honoured to be a part of the team distilling my experiences to participants in our 12-week accelerator programme. In fact, it was three pivotal moments from my time as a founder that have been especially influential in shaping the programme I lead in the UK. 

Achieving product-market fit that lasts

I co-founded a company called Tvinci in 2007, with a vision to make TV available on any device over the internet (Over-the-Top, OTT) in one unified experience. This was during the same time that Netflix shifted from DVDs into streaming, and we realised the entire industry would be impacted as the way people consumed media would change forever. We faced huge challenges because of how early we were in the market, but we were consistent in our goals and ultimately when there was a market to serve, we had the solution that customers needed. Fast forward seven years later, and we were acquired by Kaltura, one of the leading video cloud providers today, enabling us to continue scaling our vision globally.

Today, many deep tech innovations are grounded in what’s next, with founders developing solutions that are often well ahead of the market's current pace. As a result, founders are often left to play the waiting game – either anticipating the world’s recognition of their advancements or confronting the possibility that a market may never materialise. It can be extremely frustrating at times, but I’m able to counsel them from going through this experience and navigating this challenge.

For this reason, our programme begins with teaching founders to build the best practices on how to validate their ideas and the problems they seek to solve. This starts with being customer obsessed. Founders need to speak with potential customers frequently to understand the pain points they are facing, and then offer a solution accordingly. It takes time to fill this gap between what the customer needs and being able to deliver a solution, but this gives founders the opportunity to propose ideas that have never been considered. Finally, we emphasise the importance of solving a problem repeated across among many customers, so that the solution can be replicated as well. Without the proper product-market fit, often companies with great innovations fail to scale.

Mental resilience in startup leadership

Another transformative point in my career as a founder was actually one of the hardest – the decision to part ways with our Chief Technology Officer, who was one of the three co-founders of our startup. As a startup matures, those who helped build it from the ground up may not always be the best fit to drive its growth in later stages. My fellow co-founder and I experienced this firsthand, and it’s extremely challenging to part ways with a founding team member as the company’s direction and focus shifts. This experience taught me the importance of aligning individual roles with the evolving needs of the company and handling such transitions with empathy and transparency.

I recall the months of dealing with this issue as the most stressful period of my founder journey, and it impacted my life outside of my business as well. Looking back, it was the right decision and our team emerged stronger on the other side. Founders are no strangers to stress or mental health challenges. In fact, entrepreneurs face higher rates of mental health issues than the average person due to the pressure of building a business.

Knowing this, at Intel Ignite, we are breaking the stigma surrounding mental health in the programme we’ve built. Navigating the ups and downs of startup life in the constant pursuit of success and being the leader that everyone turns to for decisions can take a significant toll on founders. Not only do we encourage founders to maintain transparent relationships with their co-founders, but also to create a peer infrastructure to share experiences with other founders and individuals outside of their business to alleviate feelings of loneliness. Startup success never has to come at the cost of mental and emotional wellbeing, and founders who are prioritising their mental health can deliver better results for their business.

A global network powering the startup ecosystem

Finally, one of the most memorable moments for our startup team was securing our first large enterprise deal over one million dollars. It came from one of the largest media companies in Singapore at the time, which was a market that wasn’t even previously on our radar. In fact, the relationship began as an introduction at a panel of startups. While it panned into a meaningful engagement and a customer deal soon after, it was this win that solidified the importance of maintaining a wide network to me.

As a founder, every connection is a potential business opportunity, whether directly or indirectly. For Tvinci, our largest deal in our early days came through one of the most unexpected channels.  Recognising the power of networking, I’ve made it a priority to remain open-minded and nurture relationships, even with those I've only met briefly, because people are such a foundational part of the startup ecosystem.

Intel Ignite has programmes in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and Israel, and we’ve been able to foster a network of connections across the world since our launch. Before our UK programme even opened, I dedicated a year to connecting with every deep tech stakeholder in London. It was critical we had the right network to accelerate the companies we selected. In our programme, we’ve facilitated hundreds of introductions, many of which have blossomed into some of the most successful business deals in the technology industry. At other times, these connections have resulted in potential customers, new investors, and even chairpeople of the startups. The global network we’ve created, and the lifelong connections formed through these efforts has brought to life some of the most impactful collaborations in the deep tech ecosystem.

Sharing lessons from a lived founder experience

All these factors – creating innovation that meets real needs, enhancing mental resilience, and nurturing a strong network – are rooted in connection. I truly believe that nothing can replace these real-life experiences to foster that connection, which is why I resonate so deeply with the mission of Intel Ignite. Operating on a co-founder-as-a-service model, our programme offers founders personalised support to achieve their goals by overcoming their challenges with proven strategies from serial entrepreneurs. It’s mentorship that goes beyond advice; it’s a roadmap paved by individuals who have navigated the path themselves.

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