For first-time founders
You drive We're the headlights
Starting a business is a dark road the first time you drive it. We've driven it before. We set your company up properly, get you ready to raise and give you a straight answer at every step
Free. Online, Birmingham or London. You leave knowing where your idea stands
The people behind ask iDeer
- 20 plus years
- Building and selling businesses
- Thousands
- Of founder ideas seen
- B2B and B2C
- Founders in every sector
Nobody tells you this part
Some days you'll feel unstoppable. Some days you'll wonder what you've done. Both are normal
The idea is the easy part. What catches founders is the work nobody told them needed doing. Small things, until they cost money
Most founders find those gaps on their own, at the point they cost the most to fix. You don't have to
Mark Mark Aston, for the ask iDeer team
What catches founders
- The shares
- A share structure that rules out SEIS before the first investor reads the deck
- The name
- A company name somebody else already owns
- The numbers
- A pitch that falls over when an investor picks a line from year two and asks you to explain it
Why we're here
Most founders don't lose money on a bad idea. They lose it doing the right things in the wrong order
Nobody shows them the order. They register the company, then find the shares are set up wrong. They pitch, then find the numbers don't hold
We started ask iDeer because we were tired of watching it happen. So we built one team that does the work in the right order and gives you a straight answer at every step
The right order
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The idea
Scored, with a clear go, change or stop
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The company
Shares set up for SEIS
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The name
Checked and protected
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The brand
Logo, colours, type and voice
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The page
Live on your own domain
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The numbers
A forecast you know cold
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The pitch
Built, then rehearsed
ask iDeer is new. The experience behind it isn't
You're not doing this alone
You drive
Your company, your name and your work stay yours. You make the decisions. You run your raise
We're the headlights
We look ahead for what first-time founders don't see coming. We tell you the truth, including "not yet". We coach, prepare and rehearse you
How we work with you
- A straight answer, including the ones you'd rather not hear
- The next step named before each session ends
- We've had the bad days ourselves, so yours won't rattle us
- On your team as your consultancy, with no fee, commission or shares linked to money you raise
What you get
A business set up properly, a story anyone gets in one sentence and a raise nobody can knock over on a missing basic
Start It. Your business built to launch
- 01
Your idea in one sentence
Who it's for and how it makes money, scored live with a clear go, change or stop
- 02
Your company, SEIS ready
Your share structure and cap table set up for SEIS, with every eligibility test answered
- 03
Your name protected
Your name checked on the register, a trademark application prepared for you to file and your intellectual property register
- 04
Your brand, sorted
Three brand directions, then your logo, colours, type, tone of voice and founder story, with the files
- 05
Your page, live
A landing page on your own domain, registered to you, with a sign-up button and analytics
Raise It. You ready for investors
- 06
Your numbers, known cold
A three-year forecast reviewed by a chartered accountant, drilled until you answer every line without notes
- 07
Your pitch, rehearsed
Your investor deck, a short deck and a one-pager, then recorded rehearsals with written feedback
- 08
Your raise, run by you
Coaching sessions on your own raise, your SEIS Advance Assurance pack and a curated list of angels for you to contact yourself
Built around what you tell us, not a standard programme. One price, agreed before you start
Book a 30 minute callHow it starts
You know where your idea stands before you spend a penny
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A 30 minute call
Tell us the idea in your own words. Nothing to prepare
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Your Scorecard
We score the idea and send you where it stands, in writing
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We meet
Face to face in Birmingham or London, or online. We go through the Scorecard together
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Your plan and your price
A proposal built around what you told us. You decide
Three things we won't do
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Take a cut of your raise
No fee, commission or shares linked to money you raise. What you raise is yours
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Run your raise for you
We don't introduce you to investors or contact them for you. You approach them and run every meeting. We coach, prepare and rehearse you
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Tell you what you want to hear
Your idea gets a clear go, change or stop. If the answer is "not yet", we say so and tell you why
Anything we can do will be done