Founder

Mission
We are on a mission to build a regenerative and healthy food system by co-founding new mission-driven ventures. And we want you to join us! We are looking for people with the ambition to transform our food system and have the entrepreneurial itch to address the world's most critical challenges.

The Program
The Fresh pre-studio program is a venture-building program through which we build ventures from scratch that accelerate the transition to a regenerative food system. It consists of 13 weeks of team building, collaboratively developing systemic insight into the food system, and jointly applying the early phases of venture building in practice.

You join the Fresh program as an individual, armed with the passion to build a better system, the ambition to start a venture, and the capacity to think and do at a high level. Fresh connects you with an ecosystem of experts and stakeholders who accelerate your journey, help match you with potentially life-long teammates and co-founders, and supports you to develop a validated business model in practice.

At the end of the program, high-performing teams will have the opportunity to join the Fresh Studio, in which we jointly launch and build steward-owned ventures together with our studio team.

What you bring:

• Tremendous drive to transform the food system
• Intention & capacity to start a venture as a long-term commitment
• Grit and perseverance to push through challenges
• Affinity for experimentation, innovation, and challenging the status quo
• Comfort with uncertainty: intent on listening, learning, and challenging your assumptions
• Energy to mobilize supporters and meet the needs of key stakeholders
• Capacity to analyze and solve difficult problems
• Ability to communicate your thoughts and ideas clearly and with multiple perspectives in mind
• Ideally: affinity with or knowledge around a specific food system problem or space

Requirements

• Visa that allows you to work in the Netherlands
• Full-time availability during and after the program
• Strong drive to actually found a new venture
• Intention to apply steward-ownership principles

What do we offer:

• Founder community: opportunity to join a close-knit cohort of mission-driven people
• Systemic approach: comprehensive understanding of systems thinking applied to the food system and venture building
• Co-founder matching: Processes that help match you with 1-2 complementary and mission-aligned teammates
• Strong network: access to a high-quality network of mission-driven experts, investors, practitioners, partners, and financiers to get your venture started
• Deep expertise: insight into the biggest challenges in the food system, the opportunity spaces most in need of attention, and a library of existing ventures, institutions, and other resources
• Workspaces: spaces for teamwork and getting things done
• Finance: access to investors that are mission-aligned
• Structure for impact: steward ownership approaches that safeguard the mission and impact of your venture
• Long-term support: through a growing support community of practice

Practical details:

• The first part is a two-week digital program. This is a relatively minimal time commitment and can be done alongside other responsibilities.
• The bulk of the program is a full-time, in-person program that runs over 13 weeks . This program takes place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
• Program dates:
  • Digital program: October 21st till November 1st, 2024
  • In-person program: part 1 from November 4th till December 13th, 2024 & part 2 from January 13th till February 28th, 2025
• Early application deadline: July 1st
• Final application deadline: September 13th