A problem shared is a problem halved. That has been the guiding principle of Founders Standup, a community and support tool that’s long been used by Google for Startups to foster community among entrepreneurs and unlock their collective knowledge to help solve problems they’re each facing. “There’s this camaraderie with other people going through the same situation,” says Abbie Morris, cofounder and CEO of compliance platform Compare Ethics, which were part of Google for Startups Residency in 2019. “You don’t quite know how to solve it — but sometimes, there are other founders who do, because they had the same problem six months ago.”
Google for Startups’ underlying idea is that when startups succeed, the wider economy benefits, Today, Google for Startups is present in nine countries—the UK, US, Germany, Spain, Poland, Israel, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea—and is expanding quickly to other parts of the world. In some instances, it has established one of its iconic Campus coworking spaces, while in others it runs multi-month programs which provide mentorship, support, acceleration, and funding to promising tech companies.
More than anything, Google for Startups has sought to be a safe space for entrepreneurs who are just coming to grips with their startup journey. “While financial support is important, what we’re hearing from founders the most is the importance of community, of how powerful it is for them to be able to come together, support each other,” says Marta Krupinska, head of Google for Startups UK. “A bunch of them even started angel investing in each other.”
That sometimes boils down to tools such as the “Founders Standup”—a meeting where founders can meet up, share a high and low from the past week, and then a challenge they discuss with the group. They also receive help and emotional support from fellow founders and a Google-trained host. “What comes out of these sessions is a sense of perseverance, but also that many founders experience a sense of loneliness and lack of confidence at the top,” Morris says. “But these sessions definitely help combat that loneliness.”
“Being a founder is hard, it’s even harder if you don’t have access to networks. In lockdown we used Founder Standups as a tool to support our community because they were in a hard place balancing their startup, personal life and global pandemic.”
Recent years, have been in many ways, even more challenging than an ordinary decade would have normally been for an aspiring startup founder. In these circumstances, Google for Startups’ focus on mental wellbeing became even more relevant. Morris recalls how, during the Covid lockdowns, Google for Startups’ program alumni chat became a unique source of support and collaboration. “That was something that really stood out amongst every other program I’ve done,” she says.
Krupinska recalls that as the pandemic escalated, Google for Startups’ community became one team. “We were able to provide a sense of confidence, like, ‘Follow this path and things are going to be fine’. And in that moment, there was no path. Nobody really knew what was going to happen,” she says. “So emotional and mental support became much more important: We started including it in all of our programs.”
Beyond dedicated support during Covid, the initiatives launched by Google for Startups, and the subsequent founder ecosystems in each community across Europe, are working to tackle other areas that have been holding startups back. “It has been great to see that if we invest the time in fostering these communities these founders continue to pay it forward supporting each other and founders earlier in the journey” explains Marta.
“We now have Women’s Health startups helping each other overcome Go-To-Market challenges and there are now founders from beyond London supporting each other’s growth. And 70 startups from our Black Founders Fund in Europe actively supporting each other on partnerships and investor introductions.”
In 2020, Google for Startups decided to ramp up Black founder initiatives, which had already been in running in the UK since 2018, and expanded it significantly. The initial $2 million fund in Europe in 2021—which challenged the pipeline myth.
Other steps and initiatives aimed at harnessing untapped or under- represented tech and startup talents have followed. Google for Startups is increasingly setting its sights on Eastern Europe, using its Warsaw hub as a hub for supporting founders in countries including Romania, Latvia, Estonia, and Czechia. Programs vary, and include initiatives focused on startups leveraging a specific technology (e.g. machine learning), to conventional accelerators, to plans to help Eastern European companies expand to other parts of the continent. “We know that there is something interesting happening in those countries’ tech scenes, and we know how to use Google’s brand power to have people take notice,” Krupinska says. “And maybe, when they start paying attention, there could be a little bit more investment, a little bit more engagement.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, another program was launched geared towards Ukrainian startups. “We’re putting $5 million into Ukrainian startups,” Krupinska says. “The goal is to try and provide cash to help these companies keep going.”
It’s all what Krupinska describes as Google for Startups’ core mission. “It is to level the playing field for startups,” she says. “To increase the amount of money raised by founders, increase monthly revenue, and increase jobs, when startups are doing these three things, the founders can go on to have a much bigger impact on the growth of the ecosystem, a positive impact on the community, and are helping each other develop.”
For more information about Google for Startups' offering, visit startup.google.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
