When I received the acceptance email for the ODF Founder Fellowship, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew it was a prestigious program, but I didn't fully grasp how transformative the experience would be for both me personally and for RoryPlans as a company.
What is the ODF Founder Fellowship?
The ODF (On Deck Fellowship) Founder Fellowship is a highly selective program designed to support early-stage entrepreneurs who are building impactful companies. The fellowship provides lots of interesting sessions, but more importantly, access to a network of experienced founders, investors, and industry experts.
What sets ODF apart is their focus on founders on helping you figure things out and their commitment to supporting companies that can create meaningful change. As a female founder in the early days of building my AI platform, I felt aligned with their mission from day one.
The Application Process
The application process was rigorous but fair. It involved multiple rounds of interviews where I had to articulate my vision for RoryPlans, the problem we were solving, and how we planned to grow. The interviewers were incredibly thoughtful. But the most important they wanted to understand my personal journey.
What impressed me most was their focus on the founder, not just the business. They asked thoughtful questions about myself. It was clear they were investing in people, not just ideas.
The Fellowship Experience
The 10 days fellowship was structured around workshops, mentoring sessions, and peer learning groups. Each day focused on a different aspect of building a company: product development, go-to-market strategy, fundraising, team building, and scaling operations.
The workshops were led by successful founders who had been through similar journeys. Hearing their stories – both the successes and failures – provided invaluable context for the challenges I was facing with RoryPlans. It's one thing to read about product-market fit in a book; it's another to hear how a founder pivoted three times before finding their breakthrough.
Key Learnings
Three major insights emerged from my fellowship experience:
1. The Power of Peer Learning
My fellow cohort members became an incredible source of support and learning. We were all at different stages and building different types of companies, but the challenges were surprisingly similar. The monthly peer sessions where we shared our struggles and victories became the highlight of the program.
2. Focus on Unit Economics Early
One of the most practical lessons was the importance of understanding unit economics from the beginning. My mentor helped me build financial models that went beyond just revenue projections to really understand the lifetime value of customers and the true cost of acquisition.
3. Building for Scale from Day One
The fellowship taught me to think about scalability not just in terms of technology, but in terms of processes, team structure, and company culture. This perspective has been invaluable as RoryPlans has grown from a solo project to a team effort.
Impact on RoryPlans
The fellowship had a direct impact on how I built RoryPlans. The customer discovery framework I learned helped me validate our core features before building them. The go-to-market strategies we discussed influenced how I approached our initial user acquisition.
Perhaps most importantly, the fellowship gave me confidence in my vision. Building a company can be lonely, and there are moments when you question everything. Having a cohort of fellow founders and experienced mentors who believed in what I was building made all the difference during those difficult early months.
The Network Effect
One of the most valuable aspects of the fellowship has been the ongoing network. Even though the formal program ended, the relationships continue. I regularly exchange ideas with other fellows, and several have become customers or advisors for RoryPlans.
The ODF network has also opened doors to investors, potential partners, and key hires. When you're building a company, having warm introductions can make the difference between a cold email that gets ignored and a meeting that changes your trajectory.
Paying It Forward
The fellowship instilled in me a strong sense of responsibility to help other founders. I now mentor early-stage entrepreneurs through various programs and try to provide the same kind of support and guidance that was so valuable to me.
I've also become more intentional about building RoryPlans in a way that creates opportunities for others. Whether it's hiring from underrepresented groups, partnering with diverse suppliers, or sharing our learnings openly, I want to contribute to a more inclusive startup ecosystem.
Looking Back
The ODF Founder Fellowship was a turning point in my entrepreneurial journey. It provided not just the practical skills and knowledge I needed to build RoryPlans, but also the confidence and network to think bigger about what we could achieve.
For any founder considering applying to a fellowship program, my advice is simple: do it. The time investment is significant, but the returns – in terms of learning, network, and personal growth – are immeasurable.
The fellowship reminded me that building a company isn't just about the product or the market opportunity. It's about the founder's ability to learn, adapt, and inspire others to join them on the journey. Those are skills that can be developed, and programs like ODF provide the perfect environment to do so.