How We Select Our Founders

Most accelerators and VC firms select founders based on a pitch. You walk into a room, present your idea, show some slides, answer questions, and hope for the best.

We think that process selects for the wrong things. It selects for people who are good at presenting. People who can tell a compelling story. People who look and sound the part.

None of those things predict whether someone can build a profitable business.

Our selection process has three phases. The first is the application. We look for signals of execution ability. Have you built anything before? Have you sold anything? Have you demonstrated the kind of relentless follow through that building a business requires?

The second phase is what we call evaluation sprints. This is where it gets interesting. Instead of asking founders to pitch us, we ask them to do real work. Over two weeks, candidates complete specific tasks with clear objectives. Source leads. Run outreach campaigns. Map a delivery process.

This is not busy work. It is the actual work of building a business. We are watching how you perform, how you handle obstacles, how you communicate progress, and how you respond to feedback.

The third phase is an in person weekend at our venture studio. We fly candidates out so we can work together face to face. This is not an interview. It is a mutual evaluation. We are assessing fit, and you are assessing whether A Foundery is right for you.

By the time a founder joins our program, we already know they can execute. We have seen them do it. Not in a conference room with a slide deck, but in the real world with real work.

This process is more expensive and time consuming for us. But it produces better outcomes. Every time.