Really what started me off in my startup journey was a few years back, I was working with Google and their small business efforts. And it just got me talking to people on the street about how they see the world and how they build their businesses. The more I traveled and the more I spoke to people, the more, I just fell in love with this.

Bootstrapping is actually a fantastic way to get yourself off the ground initially. You don't necessarily need loads of savings to get started. Most people who are starting their businesses for the first time already have some kind of income, it's really about being very clear about what you are able to invest into your own business.

There's a lot of jargon and mixed definitions around early-stage investment. The first place to start is looking at pre-seed investment and pre-seed funding. This is really the very first money that you need to get started, to get you from zero to one. Traditionally, this hasn't been an official round per se, but now we're seeing it more as its own category.

It's a tricky thing to consider when you're at a super early stage because you can't necessarily value your company then. To start giving equity away gets a little bit problematic. However, we have seen that incubators and accelerators which will support you through mentorship, a network, training, that will get you to where you need to be.

Pre-seed investment, traditionally, is for getting you to a point where you can actually start implementing. A lot of the time you might be needing specific technology, specific softwares, which really add up after a while and your expenses may be getting a hammering.

What Founder Institute looks at is not just having a great idea which is scalable, which is important, but at this early stage, they're looking at the founders themselves and at the specific mindsets and attributes of these founders. It's what we call the entrepreneurial DNA.

The biggest reason startups fail is poor implementation. And that usually comes from a lack of support, lack of advice and lack of focus at the early stage.

It's important for startups, and founders specifically, and if you a lone founder, even more, to feel part of something greater. So knowing people, having a network, being able to speak to people, networks such as Heavy Chef are awesome for that because you're speaking with people that are in the same boat as you.

All you need is a landing page, and on that landing page is a teaser for what you're going to provide. So you might have a little bit of a video to humanise what you're offering, just a little snippet of what you're planning to launch to the market. Then you ask people for their email address, if they want to find out more. 

We're brimming with opportunity here. I often say, if you're looking for opportunities, you need to look where the biggest challenges are. We've got plenty of those - but in a positive way in some regards.