What does “equity approach” mean in practice during the first 90 days?

During the first 90 days, equity terms are agreed in principle but typically formalised after the discovery phase, once both parties have validated the problem and confirmed the partnership is the right fit. We don’t take equity before we’ve earned it.

How much of my time is required in the first 90 days?

Expect to commit 4–6 hours per week, concentrated in strategy sessions and customer interview support. The discovery phase is intentionally founder-led — your time and access to real customers is the most valuable input. After month one, the time commitment from you typically reduces as the studio takes on more of the execution.

What happens if the discovery phase reveals the idea needs to change?

It happens more often than founders expect, and it’s one of the best things that can come out of the first 30 days. If the discovery process reveals a better problem to solve or a sharper angle on the original idea, we treat that as a success, not a setback. We’d rather make that pivot on day 28 than on day 280.

The First 90 Days of a Founder Partnership — We Are Native

Why the first 90 days are different

Most partnerships begin with a brief. A problem statement, a timeline, a budget. Someone is hired to build something for someone else. When the work is done, both parties move on.

We Are Native doesn’t work that way. When we partner with a founder, we’re entering a relationship that’s designed to last — one where we have skin in the game, where our interests are structurally aligned with yours. That changes everything about how the first 90 days feel.

The first three months of a We Are Native partnership are intentionally structured — not as a project kickoff, but as a shared discovery process. We’re not trying to build quickly. We’re trying to build the right thing, for the right reason, with the right team dynamic. That takes time to get right, and rushing it is one of the most expensive mistakes a venture can make.

Days 1–30: Getting to the real problem

The most common mistake founders make in the first month of a venture relationship is trying to get to solutions too fast. You’ve been living with your idea for months, maybe years. You know what you want to build. You want to start building.

We deliberately slow this down.

In the first 30 days, we run a structured discovery process: strategy sessions, customer interviews, assumption mapping. We’re not interrogating your idea — we’re trying to understand it well enough to have a genuine point of view on it. By the end of month one, we want to have a shared map of the problem space: the real customers, the real pain, the assumptions we’re betting on, and the assumptions we need to test before we write a line of code.

The deliverable isn’t a spec. It’s a shared understanding that we both sign off on.

Days 31–60: The first thing we build

Armed with a clear problem map, the question in month two is: what’s the single most valuable thing we can build and test right now?

This is not an MVP in the traditional sense — “everything small.” It’s a deliberate bet. We identify the riskiest assumption in the business model and design the smallest possible thing that will tell us whether that assumption holds. Sometimes that’s a prototype. Sometimes it’s a landing page. Sometimes it’s a concierge service before there’s any software at all.

The goal isn’t to launch. It’s to learn. Founders who understand this move faster in the long run, because every decision after month two is grounded in real data rather than hopeful assumptions.

Days 61–90: Establishing the rhythm

By the third month, we’ve done the discovery work and we’ve made our first real bet. Now we need to establish how we work together over the long term.

This means agreeing on cadences: how often we meet, what we review, who makes what decisions. It means establishing clear communication patterns — what lives in Slack, what warrants a call, how we handle disagreement. And it means being explicit about decision rights: which calls are yours as the founder, which are ours as the product and engineering team, and which we make together.

Getting this right in month three pays dividends for years. Partnerships that don’t invest in this infrastructure tend to accumulate friction over time — small misalignments that compound into bigger problems.

What we look for in a founder across those 90 days

The 90-day period isn’t just about us delivering value to you. It’s also an evaluation — in both directions.

We’re looking for founders who can hold two seemingly contradictory qualities at once: deep conviction in their vision, and genuine openness to being wrong about the details. Founders who can’t be moved on anything rarely build great products. Founders who can be moved on everything rarely build lasting companies.

We’re also looking for someone who treats this as a partnership, not a vendor relationship. That means showing up to the discovery work, being honest about what you don’t know, and being willing to pause when the data suggests a pivot.

And we expect you to be evaluating us just as rigorously. Are we asking the right questions? Are we adding value beyond execution? Do you trust our judgement? The best partnerships we’ve built started with both sides approaching the first 90 days with clear eyes.

The First 90 Days of a Founder Partnership

Why the first 90 days are different

Days 1–30: Getting to the real problem

Days 31–60: The first thing we build

Days 61–90: Establishing the rhythm

What we look for in a founder across those 90 days

Frequently asked

Building a venture
and want to talk?

The First 90 Days of a Founder Partnership

Why the first 90 days are different

Days 1–30: Getting to the real problem

Days 31–60: The first thing we build

Days 61–90: Establishing the rhythm

What we look for in a founder across those 90 days

Frequently asked

Building a ventureand want to talk?

Building a venture
and want to talk?