If you are reading this article, chances are you are regularly surrounded by new ideas. And how do they all start? Usually by opening messy documents, Googling, researching… and eventually naming your folder “project 1”. As someone who both worked at a startup incubator and organizes an annual Startup Conference and Academy for high schoolers, I’ve really come across a lot of those projects. I noticed that the process of bringing such an idea to life (or, as we officially call it, the “early-stage” of a startup), is very chaotic, especially for first-time founders. They are usually lost in the process with no structure and no clear next steps. That’s where Project01 comes into the story.
Project01 is an AI workspace where founders can build their startups step by step. Along with a roadmap that guides founders through each startup phase, founders can receive instant feedback, automate task management, generate one-click reports for all stakeholders, and view the real-time analysis of metrics they care about. What sets it apart is that it doesn’t just track tasks, but guides founders through the entire startup journey. You can think of Project01 as a “control center” for all of your startup data. At least that’s what we will try to achieve, as we are currently in the MVP stage.
The Challenges of Early-Stage
We kicked-off our journey by interviewing 50+ startup stakeholders, including early-stage founders, startup incubators, mentors and investors (we basically mapped out the Croatian startup ecosystem). We asked them how they track progress, store data, what are the common challenges they face, and similar. Through those conversations, we validated that the problem exists, as we noticed patterns in participants’ responses.
After the initial problem validation phase, we spent the summer building the first iteration of our MVP (for those who are new to the startup lingo, it stands for minimum viable product). The first iteration was then tested with real founders. Although the MVP still needs significant improvements in terms of user experience, most founders gave positive feedback on the overall concept and functionality. Now, we are working on the second iteration that we plan to test with a much greater sample.
As you may have noticed, in the past few months we gathered a lot of insights. And while customer feedback is the most important thing you should gather as a founder, it is challenging to manage. Different people will give you different opinions, which then opens different routes you can take. It’s easy to get lost. What matters is that you don’t jump at every single thing someone says, but test and validate assumptions with multiple (relevant) people.
The Startup Ecosystem as a Whole
The Croatian startup ecosystem is still fairly young and in development, but it is definitely gaining momentum in the past few years. There are many opportunities, including startup programs, events, competitions and conferences, where you can meet other startup folks. Our advice would be that you surround yourself with other founders, not just because they can be a great source of advice when you get stuck, but also because they will understand your struggles and give you a push to keep going when you need it.
We participated in the Pre-Incubation program by the BIRD Incubator back in June. It was a great opportunity to gain early feedback from mentors, refine our idea and practice pitching. Warm recommendation.
A Few Final Thoughts
If I had to give only one piece of advice to future founders, it would be to build a great team. Under “great” I mean choose people you genuinely enjoy working with, who share the same values and expectations as you, and, most importantly, who are willing to put in an equal amount of time and effort. And yes, you will disagree about things (even if you are great friends privately), and that’s normal. Just like in any other area of life, proper communication makes a difference. Although, with the rise of AI, the need for having co-founders has been questioned, I still think having a team you can rely on is easier. So, Nora Miškulin (CTO) and Vitomir Pavičić (CSO), thank you for sticking with me on this crazy ride.
Finally, where do we see Project01 in the future? In the near future, we want to expand to incubator and investor dashboards where they could follow the progress of their startups (without manual reports or constant update meetings) and offer personalized support. Ultimately, we want Project01 to become the default workspace for the entire startup ecosystem.