Surge Founder
Starter Pack

Company-building essentials for
early-stage startups

The early stages of building a company are both exhilarating and incredibly challenging. It's a time when founders have to make many critical decisions about their product, their company and the market they’re going after. Those early design choices can make or break a startup. To help aspiring founders, the team at Surge has put together a collection of actionable insights on laying the foundations for an enduring company.

Download in English

We are proud to partner with the Maharashtra State Innovation Society to present the Surge Founder Starter Pack in Marathi to every startup founder who wants to build a truly enduring company.

Practical advice founders are
looking for

The Founder Starter Pack helps early-stage founders answer existential
questions for their fledgling company, including:

Your vision

  • Is this problem big enough, and the market large enough, to allow my company to really hit scale?
  • What does the industry structure look like? What are the layers, who are the players and where are the revenue pools?

Your product

  • Who are my users, and what are their ‘jobs-to-be-done?
  • How do I define and articulate my value proposition?

Your business

  • How do I chart a path to US$100 million revenue?
  • What moats can I build into my business model to sustain my competitive advantage?

Your performance

  • How do I measure the health of my business?
  • What product and business metrics matter the most?

Your pitch

  • How do I craft a compelling story to attract customers, employees and investors?
  • What goes into a killer pitch deck?

Founder feedback

We’ve test-driven this with real founders we know, who are building right now, just like you. Here are some of the things they had to say:

The Founder Starter Pack helps early stage founders think about how to focus on the short and long term at the same time. To have clarity of what needs to be proven in the short run, and to make sure everything is aligned to what compounds in the long run.

Abraham Viktor Co-Founder & CEO, Hangry

This is a very well-written, structured and super comprehensive guideline in building an impactful startup. I wish we had this when we started Bobobox.

Indra Gunawan Co-Founder & CEO, Bobobox

You could spend years building companies, and may not get to the insights of these 70 pages. This captures the key pillars of company building with a very high level of clarity.

Nellie Wartoft Founder & CEO at Tigerhall

Remove those motivational posters from the office walls, paste some of these pages instead to go from vision to your first investor pitch in record time.

Sachin Bhatia Founder & CEO at Bulbul

Frequently asked questions

Who is the Founder Starter Pack for?

This guide is particularly aimed at early-stage founders who want to build something special. You may have bootstrapped your startup so far, raised from angel investors, or are looking to raise a seed round – or even Series A. But whatever funding stage you’re at, you’re in the phase where you’re burning the midnight oil to turn your idea into an inspiring vision, find PMF, get traction and potentially raise your first round of institutional funding.

Is this pack free to download?

The pack is completely free to download. You just need to fill in a form with a few details and you’ll receive an email with a link to the pack.

I’ve finished reading the Founder Starter Pack. How can I learn more about company building?

First of all, we would love to get your feedback on the Founder Starter Pack, so please let us know here so that we can iterate and make better.

Secondly, we have a whole host of resources for founders that we are continually adding to:

Can I share this pack with other founder friends?

For sure, we encourage you to share the love. You can share this pack to them here.

I’m interested in applying for the Surge program. How do I get in touch with the investment team?

We take applications for Surge all year round. Please do apply for Surge here and if there is a potential fit, our investment team will reach out.

Technology Partner

Building a product for your startup? AWS, our technology partner, is offering some Activate credits to help founders kickstart their journey! To access these credits, download the Founder Starter Pack.

Surge

(n) A sharp swell or wave. Sudden, powerful growth. A marked increase in voltage. (v) To rise, or move forward, quickly.