Faq

About Foundum

• What is Foundum?

  Foundum is an online platform for entrepreneurs, their startups and entrepreneurial stakeholders. Foundum is the one-stop-solution matching entrepreneurs with relevant entrepreneurial stakeholder to foster interaction and to mutually benefit from each other.

• What can I do with Foundum?

  Currently, you can find the following features on Foundum. Have a look and give us feedback what you like and what you don’t like. We will continuously improve and develop new features.

  Discussions:
  Post questions, share experiences and discuss with other entrepreneurs, advisors and investors.

  Events:
  Find an overview of all events in your ecosystem relating to entrepreneurship.

  Your personal Ecosystem:
  Agglomerate all your REAL entrepreneurial connections. Connect to all co-founders, investors, advisors to form a strong network.

About the entrepreneurial ecosystem

• What is the entrepreneurial ecosystem?

  The entrepreneurial ecosystem is made of its entrepreneurial stakeholders. These stakeholders include:

  Members:
  Entrepreneurs, private investors, advisors.

  Startups

  Service providers:
  B2B product & service providers, funding providers, entrepreneurial associations, knowledge institutions, government agencies.

  You can look at the ecosystem from a global, national or local perspective. You can also look at it from a personal perspective: Your personal ecoystem around you and your startup.

• What is the difference between the global, national and local ecosystem?

  The local ecosystem embraces all different stakeholder of a specific city. The national ecosystem includes all the events and ocurrances which affect the players on a national scale. The global ecosystem englobes all the events and occurances on a global level.

• What is an entrepreneur?

  An entrepreneur is an individual who is creating or has created his own startup based on a business idea.

• What are the different entrepreneurial stages?

  Concept Entrepreneur:
  A person interested in entrepreneurship and with an idea in mind. S/he has not created a company yet.

  Seed Entrepreneur:
  A person who has turned an idea into a startup. It's the first stage of company creation. The company needs loans & subsidies, Friends & Family or other private investors.

  Early Entrepreneur:
  An entrepreneur with a growing startup that needs private investment from professionals such as soft loans & VCs.

  Expansion Entrepreneur:
  An entrepreneur with an established startup that can choose to grow organically or turn to bigger sources of funding such as VCs, PE or IPO or preparing for an exit.

  Exit Entrepreneur:
  Entrepreneurs who are willing to sell their company to a third party through a Merger, Sell of Shares, IPO or other.

  Venturepreneur:
  A serial entrepreneur who has exited one or more startups and reinvested the profits into new startups.

• What is a city champion?

  A city champion is a role model entrepreneur who is chosen by Foundum for his/her achievements in entrepreneurship to be a Founding Debenture Member for a Foundum Chapter.

• What is an ambassador?

  An entrepreneur or entrepreneurial enthusiast who moderates a Foundum Ecosystem.

• What is an advisor?

  An advisor is an expert in a certain field who and can give professional advice to a startup regarding a specific subject matter.

• What is a private investor?

  A private investor is a private person, typically referred to as Business Angel, who invests in an entrepreneurial startup at the early and/or seed stage. A private investor can also provide the startup with contacts and advice.

• What is a speaker?

  An entrepreneur or not who is invited to speak about certain entrepreneurial related topics at events, conferences, etc.

• What is an institutional investor?

  An organisation which invests in startups.

• What is a Startup?

  A startup is created by an entrepreneur and often needs funding and know-how in order to become an established organisation. In Foundum's case, we target startups that are based on an innovative concept and target a high-growth expansion of their business.

• What is a Service Provider?

  A service provider provides services or products targeted at entrepreneurs and their startups. For example a law firm, a web designer, a PR agency or a hardware fabricant.

• What is a Funding Provider?

  A funding provider provides financial support to startups in order to develop and grow their business. Three types of funding can be raised by a startup: equity, loan or subsidy.

• What is a government agency?

  Government agencies are public institutions with the aim of fostering entrepreneurship. They provide guidance, support and other services to entrepreneurs and their innovative startups.

• What is an entrepreneurial association?

  An entrepreneurial association aims to bring together entrepreneurs and support them in their endeavor through services and know-how.

• What is a knowledge institution?

  Knowledge institutions are universities, schools, accelerators or academies offering educational programs specifically targeted at entrepreneurs.

Joining Foundum

• Why register to Foundum?

  By joining Foundum, you can profile yourself and the startups you have founded, advised or invested in. You may also search for other service providers. Members can make use of resources, contacts, a discussion section, a calendar of entrepreneurial events, and a map of the ecosystem where all service providers are easily visible.

• Who can join Foundum?

  Not everyone can join. Quality contacts are very important to us and to our members. This is why members can invite their contacts or you can request an invitation here. In order to join Foundum you need to be one of the mentioned stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

• How do I join Foundum?

  1. If you are not invited by a Foundum Member you can request an invitation here.

  2. Fill out the information and click Apply. You must be of legal age and you must have a valid email address.

  3. After you click Apply, a confirmation link will immediately be sent to your email address. If you do not see it in your inbox, check your Spam folder.

  4. It should take no more than 48 hours for us to verify your information and confirm or deny your invitation request.

  5. Once your invitation request has been verified you will receive an email. Click the link to complete your registration.

  6. Once you are done with the entire registration process explore the sections of the ecosystem, view other entrepreneur profiles and create your own startup profile.

• Why is Foundum asking for my email address?

  Foundum needs it to verify and activate your account. Your email address and other personal identifying information will be kept private.

• How do I verify my account?

  When you complete your registration, we will automatically send you a special link which you have to click on to verify your account. Until you have not clicked this verification link, you will not be able to join Foundum.

  When the verification email arrives in your inbox, click the verification link, or copy and paste it into your browser. When you do this, you will be redirected to the registration process.

• How is my personal information displayed?

  You can control the information you want to submit in your profile. By clicking on the link "View" on your profile page, you can see your personal information as others see it. If you click on "Edit" you can modify the information you either would like to display or not.

• Who can see my profile?

  Your profile is visible only to registered members.

• Is Foundum for free?

  Currently we offer our services for free. We will be introducing a Premium Membership offer which will help you explore Foundum to the fullest.

• As a member, what can I do on Foundum?

  As a member you have the option to explore your ecosystem and to connect with other entrepreneurial stakeholders, search for local events and participate in discussions. In the future we will add many more features which will be of value to you and your startup.

Using Foundum

• What can I do if I have forgotten my password?

  If you forget your password, simply click on "Request a new password" under the sign in area on the start page. After you enter your email address, we will send you a link to a password reset page. You can use this to create a new password. After that, you can immediately sign in to the site.

• How can I change my basic profile information?

  You have the option of changing your data at any time. Click on the link "Edit" on your profile page. To save your changes, you must scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Save" button.

• How is my name displayed?

  Your first and last name are displayed.

• How do I change my email address?

  To change your email address associated with your profile, just click on "Edit General Information" on your profile page and edit the email address registered. Please be aware that for security reasons, you must re-confirm the contents of your profile once you have made your changes. You will then receive an email to your new email address. Please click on the link in the email to confirm the changes.

Profiles

• Under which profile can I register?

  You can choose to register either as a member or as a service provider. If you choose to register as a member, your profile allows you to register as an entrepreneur, as an investor, as an advisor or all three. You can also register your organisation as a service provider if its offers products, services or funding to entrepreneurs. There are different types of service providers: B2B service providers, funding providers, knowledge institutions, government agencies and entrepreurial associations.

• How do I create my startup profile?

  If you are an entrepreneur, you can create a profile of your startup. On your personal profile you need to be in the "edit" mode first. Secondly, scroll down to your startup section and click the edit button. Once you are in the edit form of your startup, you can create your startup profile by clicking add startup.

• What is the difference between a member profile and a service provider profile?

  Member profiles are only for entrepreneurs, private investors and advisors whereas service provider profiles are for knowledge institutions, government agencies, entrepreneurial associations, B2B service providers and funding providers offering services to startups. In addition, startups can only be created through an entrepreneur profile.

About your local ecosystem

• What can I find in the local ecosystem?

  Apart from connecting with other entrepreneurial stakeholder you can find local events as well as discussions that are relevant to your ecosystem.

• How many ecosystems can I be in?

  Once you are a member of Foundum you can choose one ecosystem you belong to. None-the-less you can browse other ecosystems and even change yours if you think another ecosystem is more relevant to you.

• What if my organisation (B2B service provider/entrepreneurial association/knowledge institution/government agency) that I have registered does not appear in the ecosystem map?

  If that happens, please contact your local ambassador or the Foundum team via our Contact Page.

About events

• Who can upload events?

  At this moment only selected profiles have the right to upload events. If you would like to inform the members about an interesting entrepreneurial event, please get in touch with the the Foundum Team under Contact Us.

• How can I make the event visible in the local, national or global ecosystem?

  In the creation process of an event, you can select the geographic focus of the event.

• What if I create an event and it does not upload?

  This probably occured due an internal system error. Please, contact the team via Contact Us and we'll try to solve the problem as soon as possible.

About discussions

• Who can create a discussion?

  Discussions can be created by all users with a member profile.

• How can I report inappropiate content?

  Please write a message using our contact form and state the following information:

  1. Details of the incident
  2. User name of the discussion topic

  Our team will investigate this report and take appropriate measures. All abuse reports on Foundum are confidential.

• What if the topic does not upload?

  If that happens, please contact the team via Contact Us and we will try to solve the problem as soon as possible.

Recommendations, review and refer

• How do I recommend another member?

  Go to the member's profile who you would like to recommed. Once you are on another member's profile you can click the "recommend" button next to the members profile picture.

• When should I recommend another member?

  If you have worked with someone and you had a good impression on the work he or she has done, it would be nice to let others know. You can write a recommendation for this person and give them credit for what they have been able to achieve. We discourage writing recommendations if they are not authentic and sincere.

• How can I review a service provider?

  Go to the service provider's profile you would like to review. Once you are on a service provider profile you can click on the "review" button next to the service provider logo. Only member profiles (entrepreneurs, investors and advisors) are allowed to "review" service providers.

• What's the difference between Review and Recommend?

  Review means you can write a comment about a service provider which will appear on of their profile. We invite you to post your honest opinion so that other entrepreneurs can learn from your experience with the service provider. Service providers have the option to reply to these reviews. In comparison if you've had a good experience or collaboration with a member or a startup you can recommend them.

Searching for other members

• Who can I search for?

  You can search for other entrepreneurial stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, private investors and advisors. Furthermore, you can search for all types of service providers: knowledge institutions, entrepreneurial associations, government agency, funding providers and B2B service providers.

• How do I search?

  Go to the main page and use the search engine on the right hand side. You can filter by "members", "startups" or "service providers".

Uploading pictures and logos

• How can I correctly upload pictures and logos to my profile, my organisation profile and events?

  You can upload any picture you wish as we provide you with a cropping tool, as long as it is smaller than 2MB. However, we recommend uploading logos and pictures of 230 x 120.

Privacy and security

• What does Foundum do with my information?

  Foundum respects your privacy. We do not distribute your user information to marketers or spammers. You can read more about this in our Privacy Policy.

• What do I do if another member of Foundum is bothering me?

  Please write a message using our contact form and state the following information:

  1. Details of the incident
  2. User name of the person bothering you

  Our team will investigate this report and take appropriate measures. All abuse reports on Foundum are confidential.

Illicit registration

• What if someone illicitally creates an event?

  If that happens, please contact the Foundum team via our Contact Page and we will contact you as soon as possible in order to solve the problem.

• What if someone illicitally registers my startup?

  If that happens, please contact the Foundum team via our Contact Page and we will contact you as soon as possible in order to solve the problem.

Members

• What if I invite someone to join Foundum but Foundum does not accept them?

  If Foundum does not accept the invited member it may indicate that that he or she has not fulfilled the requirements of being an approved member of Foundum.

• How can I communicate with the other members?

  You can either post a discussion to communicate with all members of your ecosystem or you can send individual messages to the other members.

• Can I invite somebody else who is not listed in the ecosystem description ?

  You may invite everyone who is an entrepreneur, private investor or advisor.