Early Stage
Nova typically invests at an earlier stage than other investors, often pre-revenue and even pre-product. We believe this allows Nova to buy incredibly well and also allows them to mitigate many early stage risks with their considerable experience.
Methodology / Founders
The type of founders Nova seeks are more experienced, domain experts, with a strong network of contacts and who have identified a problem in their industry. Founders who join our programme gain access to our free learning and mentorship platform called Leanstack, which is also used at Harvard university.
Nova use this to assess the founders’ capabilities, whilst also mentoring them and instilling sound business practices. Nova also has a range of external business mentors which their founders can access.
Operational Support
Nova offers impact beyond investment, that is core to their offering and is their main USP. Nova provides support to start-ups beyond just investment. Not only does a start-up receive funding from Nova but they put a bespoke and flexible team around the founder to plug any gaps or weaknesses and support the start-ups aim at any particular stage. They draw in the right skill set as and when it is needed to improve the likelihood of success of portfolio companies and help with their development. Investee companies receive 595 days of team resource time in the first 9 months. Nova has an experienced team of 100+ full time employees: designers, hardware and software developers, business consultants, product owners, financiers, marketeers, videographers and more.
What types of founders do Nova look for:
Nova typically invests at an earlier stage than other investors, often pre-revenue and even pre-product. At this early stage, they really focus on what they call Founder-Market Fit. Is there a real world problem that needs solving, can the founder evidence this and there are real users that understand the problem in the same way. The type of founders Nova seeks are slightly more experienced, domain experts, with a strong network and who have identified a problem in their industry.
Given this, Nova insists that their founders must display that;
1. Their start-up is focused on solving a real world, validated, problem. Nova seeks strong evidence that founders have uncovered a problem space that affects a lot of people, and that those people feel strongly enough about it that they will pay to have this problem solved.
2. They are a domain expert; Nova seeks founders who are experienced and well networked within the industry in which they wish to start their business. For example someone who has been working in an industry for several years will have a deep understanding of the problem space, they’ll have the contacts to help test and develop the product and quickly identify their first customers.
3. The market they are targeting / the problem they are addressing is a growing one. Success is driven by market demand for their product. Start-ups with an average team and product, but in a great market will have a much better chance of success than a great team and product in a poor market.
4. The start-up has to have good market defensibility and some kind of differentiator or competitive advantage.
Profile of a typical Nova Founder
- Problem solvers
- 7+ years of experience in their industry
- Domain experts
- Identified a problem in their industry
How does Nova support the founders they back:
Founders who join Nova’s programme gain access to their free learning and mentorship platform called Leanstack, which is also used at Harvard university. Nova use this to assess the founders’ capabilities, whilst also mentoring them and instilling sound business practices. They also have a range of external business mentors which their founders get access to through talks and workshops.
Nova offers a huge amount of support beyond investment, that is core to our offering and is the Fund’s main USP. Not only does a start-up receive funding from Nova but they put a bespoke and flexible team around the founder to plug any gaps or weaknesses and support the start-ups aim at any particular stage. This can be up to an equivalent of £300k investment into the resources that will be used to build and launch the start-up.
Andy Davidson, CEO, Nova
Experienced teams
Nova has an experienced team of 100+ full time employees: designers, hardware and software developers, business consultants, product owners, financiers, marketeers, videographers and more.
Skillset access
Nova draw in the right skill set as and when it is needed to improve the likelihood of success of their portfolio companies and help with their development. Investee companies receive 595 days of team resource time in the first 9 months. The Nova team will provide the start-up with all of the ‘Inside the Building’ services that the start-up will require in its first year. This allows founders to focus on the problem and customers.
Risk reduction
Nova aims to further reduce risk of failure in the first three years of a start-up’s life span by addressing the 5 core reasons that account for around 80% of start-ups failing:
- building the wrong thing
- hiring the wrong people
- executing sales and marketing before understanding your customer
- Not having the right cofounders
- chasing investors and not customers.
