Program terms

Groundwork is run by Your Startup Advisor Ltd., Company No. 769550, registered in Cork, Ireland (“we”, “I”, “YSA”). The program is delivered personally by Charles Hope. These terms are governed by Irish law.

A 10-week remote program for early-stage startup founders. One live session per week, Tuesdays 6:30 to 8:00 PM Irish time, on video. Session times stay anchored to Irish time, including through clock changes. The program includes access to an Evidnt Pro Space for the duration of the program, and private cohort channels inside our Founders’ Room Discord server. Those channels stay open for 30 days after the final session, then become read-only. If your Space runs out of Evidnt Assistant conversations, we cover the extra pack. You are never asked to pay for it.

Groundwork is education and coaching. It is not investment, legal, financial, or tax advice, and we take no equity in your company.

Nothing. Groundwork is free to apply to and free to join. There is no fee, no deposit, no equity, and nothing to pay to us at any point.

You cover your own costs of taking part, which in practice means your internet connection and your own time.

Places are offered after an application and a short interview. If you’re offered a place, you accept it by confirming in writing by the stated deadline. If you don’t confirm by then, the place may go to the waitlist. The waitlist covers this confirmation period only, and closes once the program begins.

A co-founder pair applies as one startup. Both founders may attend, and the conditions in sections 5 and 6 apply to the startup, not to each person.

Your startup completes Groundwork by doing both of the following:

1. Attending at least 8 of the 10 live sessions. Attending means being present in the live session. Watching a recording doesn’t count. For a co-founder pair, a session counts as attended if at least one of you is there.
2. Logging the minimum number of customer conversations Evidnt sets for your Space by the end of week 9. Evidnt calculates this minimum for your specific idea when your Space is created after week 2, so you know your exact target before the discovery weeks start. Conversations run by the Evidnt Assistant count toward your minimum. At least 3 of your conversations must be live ones you run yourself. If you pivot during the program, you and Charles agree a fair adjusted target together.

Completing is what makes you a graduate of the program. Nothing is withheld from you in the meantime, and there is no payment attached to it in either direction.

There are twelve places in a cohort, and the program only works if the same people are in the room every week.

You can miss two sessions. After a third missed session, your place ends. We will tell you before this happens, not after. Attendance is the only thing that puts your place at risk.

The reason the line sits at three is simple arithmetic: completing Groundwork means attending 8 of the 10 sessions, so a third miss means you can no longer complete it.

If something serious happens in your life, illness, bereavement, or anything of that order, tell Charles. He can pause the count once, at his discretion. The rule exists to protect a room of founders who show up, not to punish someone having a hard month.

A place that ends stays empty for the rest of the cohort. We don’t bring someone in from the waitlist mid-program, because they would have already missed too many sessions to complete it.

If your place ends, you keep access to your Evidnt Space for the remainder of the program, you’re welcome at our free Thursday sessions, and there is nothing to settle between us.

We check progress on customer conversations in week 6, but that’s a coaching conversation. Falling behind on them never costs you your place.

Tell us, and there’s nothing to unwind. You’ve paid nothing, so there’s nothing to refund, and there’s no penalty of any kind.

We do ask that you tell us as early as you can, because someone on the waitlist can take the place.

Nothing in these terms reduces any rights you have under Irish or EU consumer law.

If we cancel the cohort before it starts, for example because too few startups confirm, we’ll tell you as soon as we know and offer you a place in the next cohort without reapplying.

If Charles is ill or genuinely unable to run a session, it will be rescheduled, and rescheduled sessions count toward attendance in the normal way. The 10 sessions will be delivered, and dates may shift by up to 4 weeks in exceptional circumstances. If we can’t deliver the full 10 sessions, we’ll say so plainly and offer you the missing sessions in a later cohort.

Every session is recorded. Recordings are shared privately with the cohort only and are never published or used in marketing. By joining, you agree to appear in these cohort-only recordings.

Everyone in the room joins on the same understanding: what founders share about their startups stays within the cohort. You agree not to share other founders’ ideas, information, or recordings outside the cohort. We commit to the same.

You’ll need a reliable internet connection and a device with camera and microphone. You’re responsible for your own startup decisions: Groundwork is coaching, and every decision about your company remains yours.

We may remove a founder who is abusive or repeatedly disruptive. If that happens, the place ends immediately and section 6 does not apply.

We promise to run the program with care and skill. We don’t promise business outcomes: no guarantee your startup will succeed, raise money, or find customers, and one honest possible outcome of the program is concluding that your idea isn’t worth building.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for anything that can’t legally be limited, and nothing in them reduces your rights as a consumer.

Email charles@laythegroundwork.io. I read everything.