Ask Canopy: How Do London's First-Time Founders Actually Start Their Startup?

Ask Canopy is a weekly series where we take real questions from first-time founders — the kind being asked right now on Reddit and Quora — and answer them using insights from the Canopy community. Each week we pick a city, find the question that's keeping founders up at night, and draw on what our founders, mentors and investors have learned the hard way.

About the Author

Stewart is the co-founder of Canopy Community, and a regular host of demo nights. He's also the Chair of the Board in Residence, providing coaching and mentoring to CEOs and Founders in the community each week. In 2026, Canopy Community was recognised as one of the top European Startup Hubs by the Financial Times. You can connect with Stewart on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/stewartnoakes.

This Week's Question

"I'm considering launching my own venture at 32. What are the initial steps? Should I focus on finding a mentor first, or is it more important to assemble a team or develop a proof of concept?"

Spotted on r/ukstartups, where a London-based founder asked the question that almost every first-time founder eventually asks.

Start With What You Don't Know

It sounds counterintuitive, but the most useful thing a first-time founder in London can do before hiring anyone or building anything is to understand their own gaps. Canopy mentor Barage puts it plainly:

"You have to be very open in terms of who you are and what you have and what you can contribute — but also be very aware of who you are not and what you don't have or can't do."

This isn't a soft skill. It is the foundation of every decision that follows: who you recruit, which advisors you bring in, and how you structure the early team.

Proof of Concept First — But Don't Build Alone

The instinct to build a proof of concept early is right. But according to Canopy mentor John, waiting too long to bring in co-founders is one of the most common and costly mistakes a first-time founder makes.

"If you wait too long before you recruit co-founders then addressing issues like equity gets to be really messy and you tend to make mistakes because you don't have other people around to talk to."

The proof of concept and the co-founder search are not sequential steps. They happen together. Getting the right person on board early — someone whose skills complement yours, not replicate them — means you are solving the problem from two angles at once.

The Three Types of Advisor You Actually Need

On the mentor question: yes, you need one. But Barage breaks down why one mentor rarely covers everything a first-time founder needs:

"There's subject matter expertise... networks and connections... and thirdly, the ability to hold people to account, to ask those poignant questions and challenge the executive team in a constructive way."

When you are starting out in London, the instinct is often to find one experienced person and rely on them for everything. The better approach is to build a small advisory group that covers all three of those bases separately.

The Beautiful Chaos Phase

None of this needs to be perfectly structured from day one. Canopy mentor Jana describes the early stage well:

"Usually you start in what I call a beautiful chaos — you have to be CMO, CFO, COO, CEO. And then once you get that idea off the ground... you have to put some structure into place."

The beautiful chaos phase is not a failure of planning. It is a normal and necessary part of getting a startup moving. The key is recognising when that phase needs to end — typically when the first investor comes on board and governance becomes a real requirement.

London has one of the world's most developed startup ecosystems, with accelerators, incubators and early-stage communities ready to help. The sequence matters less than starting.

Got a Question for Canopy?

If you're a first-time founder with a question you'd like us to dig into for a future edition of Ask Canopy, we'd love to hear from you. Send your question to [email protected].