Majella Murphy shares her top tips for early-stage founders ahead of the deadline for the latest Furthr Foundry accelerator.
Applications are currently open for the latest Furthr Foundry, a 12-week pre-seed accelerator for early-stage start-ups.
The Dublin-based innovation centre will run the programme from 4 March to 27 May 2025 and will bring 10 start-ups together for in-person workshops and one-on-one support from expert consultants.
The programme culminates in a final investor day, where founders can pitch their refined business concepts and hold individual meetings with a wider selection of equity investors. The accelerator will take place at Dublin’s Guinness Enterprise Centre.
In 2024, Furthr’s acceleration team supported almost 40 pre-seed companies, helping them secure more than €3.8m in Enterprise Ireland pre-seed funding from Enterprise Ireland. Many of these companies participated in last year’s Furthr Foundry.
Majella Murphy, head of acceleration at Furthr said the programme offers founders a “unique opportunity” to hit the kind of milestones that investors value.
“We understand what it takes to support successful start-ups and enable them secure early-stage seed funding,” she said.
Expert advice for start-ups
Murphy has been working in the entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialisation space in one guise or another for almost 30 years.
At Furthr, she works as a consultant, helping start-ups accelerate their progress towards securing investment through various programmes.
Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com, Murphy said there are many ingredients that are critical for start-up success but one could cause a start-up to flounder no matter how good the rest of the ingredients are is timing – specifically, coming to the market with the right product at the right time.
“Founder resilience can help overcome this to a degree – the persistence to tweak the solution to get a fit for market readiness, but at the end of the day, if customers aren’t ready for a change, it’s a hard uphill battle to educate them, persuade them, encourage them to make the jump and buy,” she said. “That’s why customer discovery and validation are so critical.”
With this in mind, she said a common mistake founders make is not doing sufficient discovery and validation earlier on and then not focusing enough on sales once they do have a target.
“It’s a fine balance. Entrepreneurs sometimes engage with target customers very early on, but not with the right mindset – they are already in sales mode. They need to be in listening and learning mode early on and only switch to sales mode when they are confident they have the right solution,” she said.
“Then the focus becomes filling the sales pipeline funnel and the process behind converting them into paying customers and getting to real product-market fit.”
‘Don’t just hear what you want to hear. Really listen’
For founders who are considering applying to take part in the next Furthr Foundry, Murphy said the accelerator wants entrepreneurs with the ambition to create successful enterprises with “innovative solutions to big global problems”.
“Convince us that there’s a substantial problem to be solved, that you have identified a unique alternative to what’s currently available and that you have the experience, expertise and track record to be able to deliver on your promise.”
She also advised applicants to think about what they would like to achieve, both commercially and technically, within three months and how the accelerator could help them to achieve those milestones.
Above all, her biggest takeaway for all entrepreneurs is to listen – that goes for customers, investors and mentors. “Don’t just hear what you want to hear. Really listen. You may get conflicting messages, but if you talk to enough people, you’ll start to recognise patterns and that will guide your decision-making,” she said.
“At the end of the day, the direction you take is up to you, but there are plenty of signposts out there, as long as your eyes and ears are open to recognise them and take direction.
“It’s never too early to engage with customers, investors and mentors – but be clear what you’re trying to get out of every conversation you have and modify your expectations accordingly.”
The deadline for applications to Furthr Foundry is Sunday, 9 February 2025.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
