Foundervine started in 2018 as a small group of founders that shared a passion for entrepreneurship and technology. This community has become an important place for founders to connect, learn, grow and collaborate with each other.
And as such we wanted to introduce you to members of our team so you can get to know who we are, what we do and how we can help you on your journey.
I’m Izzy Obeng, Founder/Director at Foundervine. We’re on a mission to change the global face of entrepreneurship. What does that mean to me? It means building awesome programmes that help entrepreneurs build sustainable ventures.
Technology has changed our world so fundamentally — the way we live, the way we interact with each other, the way we buy. It’s an extraordinary time to be alive. In this new age of digital economies, where entrepreneurs — armed with nothing but laptops — can build successful companies on the backs of binary codes, every single person regardless of background can play a unique role in re-inventing our society. Yet not everyone does.
It’s solving this “opportunity gap” that guides our work. At Foundervine, we believe that the future of work requires a new perspective on education and we build high-impact programmes that shift the way young people think about their future.
My advice would be that you don’t always need a lot of money to start up. Funding is important, don’t get me wrong and varies considerably depending on what you are trying to build but I’m a huge fan of focusing on growing through acquiring customers, not funders. When you’re starting out building your new product or service, there’s a lot of free support out there for you — training programmes like Foundervine’s Startup 54 or accelerators; free tools like Notion, Wix, Google Drive; and organic reach through social media.
Start by focusing on building your minimum viable product — the version of your product that allows you to engage early customers and get feedback with the least effort. Build on this feedback and build as much traction as you can before you seek funding from elsewhere.
I love coaching founders and spend quite a bit of time working with founders one-on-one to help them solve challenges and grow. I’m a passionate, experienced public speaker, and business advisor and have helped people grow at global brands such as Just Eat, Facebook, PwC, Google, Airbnb and more.
I’m also a Non-Executive Director for Capital Enterprise, a body that has raised £814.7m for UK start-ups and a former trustee for wellness charity, parkrun.
I moved from London to Ghana in autumn 2019 to expand Foundervine’s work across Sub-Saharan Africa — supporting over 10,000 young people across the continent by 2025. We have really ambitious plans for the continent and I now live out in sunny Accra with my husband and Labrador pup, Moshi.
If you’re interested in our work across Africa, feel free to reach out to me at hello@foundervine.com
We’re building the greatest and most diverse community of digitally enabled businesses globally. Our plan over the next five years is to continue to grow a community just for you — one which connects you to people, networks and knowledge that you need to grow a successful venture. We look forward to you joining the Foundervine Community. Sign up for our newsletter here!
