Before You Build Bigger: A Founder & Investor Discussion
How to prevent a $100,000 mistake while building a startup
Book presentation · Panel discussion · Founder networking
What needs to be true before you invest more time, money or momentum into your startup?
Before You Build Bigger is an evening for founders, investors and startup ecosystem leaders who want to make consequential decisions with more evidence and less guesswork.
Building has never been easier. Deciding what deserves to be built, tested or funded remains difficult. AI can accelerate execution, but founders still need to determine which problem is worth solving, which customer signals are meaningful, and what evidence justifies the next commitment.
The conversation will explore:
How to validate an idea before investing heavily in execution
How customer research and testing can distinguish genuine demand from encouraging but inconclusive signals
How to approach product-market fit validation without overbuilding
When the available evidence is strong enough to invest, scale or change direction
How platform thinking and investment judgment can reveal risks that founders may otherwise overlook
The evening opens with a short presentation of Finding the Fit, Natasha Gorobinskaya’s new book, and an introduction to OPTICS, her method for turning a hunch into evidence in days, not months.
It then widens into a panel discussion bringing together founder, investor and research perspectives around one practical question: how can startups identify and reduce the risk of failure early?
Networking is central to the evening. You will meet founders working through similar decisions, investors evaluating early evidence, and people supporting startups through research, acceleration and funding. Come with one question or decision you are currently facing, and leave with new perspectives, useful connections and a clearer way to think about your next step.
Who’s in the room: founders and innovators, investors, accelerators and incubators, researchers, ecosystem leaders and selected media.
On the panel (confirmed and in discussion): representatives from Leta Capital, the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures, Nexus at the University of Leeds, Sustainable Ventures and others.
If you are deciding what to build next, whether an idea is ready for greater investment, or how to validate product-market fit before scaling, this evening is for you.
Schedule:
18:00 — Arrival & networking
18:30 — Opening
18:35 — Book presentation
18:45 — Panel discussion
19:20 — Audience Q&A
19:30 — Closing networking
The evening opens and closes with networking — come with one question you're working through, leave having met someone who can challenge your thinking.
Hosted by Natasha Gorobinskaya (author, Finding the Fit) and Alina Verbenchuk (author, How Platforms Work).
Facilitated by Alex Bapti.