Founders
Design partners: learn from early customers without becoming their custom agency
An early partner can sharpen a product or pull it into a series of one-off commitments. The difference is in the agreement and the learning plan.
FOUNDRA
Leah Brooks
Deeptech, climate & founder guides
10 stories to explore
Founders
Customer interviews: investigate the last real attempt to solve the problem
A concrete past event can reveal constraints that a conversation about a proposed feature will miss.
Founders
A startup roadmap should show the uncertainty each project will resolve
Feature lists can become a queue of promises. A decision-led roadmap explains why the next piece of work deserves scarce time.
Founders
Founder-led sales: turn the first ten conversations into a repeatable offer
Early sales work should reveal who buys, why they act and what has to happen before money changes hands.
Founders
An AI-assisted publication needs a source trail readers can challenge
Transparency is useful when it lets a reader inspect a claim, identify an uncertainty and request a correction.
Climate & deeptech
EV charging economics: utilisation begins with the site, not the charger count
A charging location has to match driver behaviour, power availability and operating costs. Installed capacity alone does not describe the business.
Climate & deeptech
Second-life batteries: the value is in a verified next use
Reusing a battery can be attractive, but its remaining characteristics and the cost of preparing it determine the practical opportunity.
Climate & deeptech
Hardware pilots: define production readiness before celebrating the prototype
A working demonstration proves an idea can work. A customer product needs repeatability, support and a process for handling variation.
Climate & deeptech
Commercialising research: choose the first customer before the broadest market
A scientific capability can have many possible applications. A startup needs an initial use case with a reachable buyer and a testable reason to switch.
Climate & deeptech
Climate claims: ask what was counted before comparing the headline percentage
A product’s environmental comparison depends on its boundary, reference case and operating assumptions. Those details belong beside the claim.