The one thing you NEED to do before creating a startup

Most founders start with the idea. Far fewer stop to ask the more important question first: what do you actually want out of this?

Your personal goals : financial, lifestyle, the kind of work that genuinely satisfies you, the reputation you want to build, the values you won't trade away, all determine the shape of the business you build, not the other way around.

Take an engineer who gets their energy from solving lots of different problems: licensing their ideas might suit them far better than scaling a single company to a trade sale, even if the financial return is lower. Same idea, very different business — and only one of them actually fits the founder.

This is a hands-on 60-minute workshop to help you get define what you want to ensure you don't go down the wrong path.

In this session you'll work through:

• How your personal goals and values shape the business structure that suits you best — with a worked example

• Why the form of your exit matters, and why it's worth thinking about from Day 1

• Guided sessions to map your own goals across what counts: your overall goal, financial, personal satisfaction, reputation and credibility, and your personal values (sustainability, work–life balance, and the rest)

Who it's for: Innovators, startup founders and aspiring founders — especially anyone at the idea stage trying to work out what they're really building towards.

You'll walk away with a clearer picture of what you want, and a sharper sense of the business shape most likely to get you there!