Anchal and I have known each other for a couple of years after meeting at IIM Ahmedabad. We have very different backgrounds, experiences and personalities, but we somehow manage to work well together. One evening he called saying “Giulia, I have a new business idea, listen”.
I have heard this sentence from him so many times (he is the chief idea-generator of the team) and most of the times I discard his ideas due to various reasons. This time however, I did not have to think twice. I said “It sounds great, let’s do it!”. This happened in the first half of July and here we are introducing Sparklehood in our first blog, and we could not be more excited!
Like many other startups, the idea came by talking to people around us and friends in particular. We had heard so many times from people with full-time jobs saying how they wish to start their own company, exit their corporate job routine and change their lives. However, even though they constantly contemplate new ideas, they think they cannot take the leap because they do not know how to start, do not want to risk career and family, or are afraid they will not have the time to work on their startup.
They think so because, well, to be honest it is partly true: launching a startup with a full-time job adds a layer of complexity, but also because there is the belief that the only way to build a successful startup is to risk it all and commit 100% time to it. Moreover, this credence is perpetuated by other startup schools, incubators and accelerator programs out there which demand you to work full time on your business idea to join them.
Considering so many ideas do not see the light because future-to-be-founders are not ready to take a step in the dark, we decided to build Sparklehood and solve this. We want to help people not to have regrets later in life because of something they did not have the guts to do alone. We plan to do this by taking some of the risk away by guiding them on how to build an early stage startup without having to quit their job too soon without idea validation, team and funding commitment.
We are a 9 months online startup school, which is awesome because you can participate in it without having to move city or country and without being forced to leave your job and/or family. The program is open to entrepreneurs at any stage: without a defined business idea and no team, with a MVP in place and trying to grow, or trying to find a co-founder to help them build their startup etc. We reckon all startups' journeys go through four big phases: idea, build, launch, and grow. The program will be adapted to your unique situation when you join it. I do not want to go into too many details and annoy you here, but you can check our website to know more information about the program.
You might wonder: why should I apply to Sparklehood when there are so many online resources available for free? We think resources alone do not hold much value without someone guiding you on how to use them. This is why the most valuable features of our online startup program are one-on-one mentorship by successful entrepreneurs with exits and domain experts who will give you their personal advice based on their expertise and experience, and program coaches who will become your more direct point of contact during your journey with us and be always available for you. We, all together, will help you set your goals, act towards them and work hard to be ready to pitch in front of investors on our Demo day.
We truly hope we are able to create something meaningful that can help tons of people fulfill their dreams of independence and flexibility. We also hope that you could be one of them. You might think it is not the proper time now and that this is not the optimal situation, but really, does an optimal situation even exist? It is not a step into the dark anymore if we are here to catch you if you fall.
Sparklehood startup school is now open and eager to build the companies of the future!
I am very optimistic and therefore I leave you the link to apply to our online program.
