Pooja Viswanathan went through multiple accelerators including Founder Institute and learned that talking to experienced peers early about problems saves time and prevents burnout. Many challenges have already been solved elsewhere, so reaching out for support accelerates startup progress.
I almost wish that I had done FI earlier. So one of the biggest challenges that I faced is like I went through so many networks like FI, right? Like I went through and I got different support from everyone. And I think that's the one thing that I did do well was I did reach out. Like I'm affiliated with, like Ontario Brain Institute with Ontario Biosciences Innovation Organization with Techno— sorry, Impact Center, which is like at U of T and with like, they have a few other accelerators that they're part of and I'm part of everything, right? And then I was part of Fierce Founders, I'm like wearing their shirt right now or their sweater. But like I got connected to everybody and that was largely also because when I came in, I was just very paranoid that I didn't know anything about starting a company and I just, didn't know anything about creating a business. And so I knew that if I was going to keep trying to reinvent the wheel, I would burn out really fast. And so I think one of the key things to really know, understand as a founder is just talk to somebody else about your problems before you try to solve it yourself, because there's a really good chance that somebody else has already solved it. And so one of the big things that I found, and that, like, accelerated a lot of my efforts at the beginning, where otherwise I think things, things would have taken a really long time, was getting those consults early on.
