Startup Science vs The Dinner Ladies

Giving founders an unfair advantage

To help startups design their success, 1 founder at a time.

Why? Because wealth inequality is directly tied to entrepreneurship. 95% of people who get out of check-to-check living do so by selling a business.

It started with researching why, how, and when startups fail. We did 1,200 interviews and spent months reading the research to understand the 90% failure rate. We learned that founders keep making the same mistakes and these mistakes can be avoided. And the problems that lead to these mistakes center around people, knowledge, and financial resources.

Accelerators are designed to help startups solve these problems. But only 2% of startups who apply, are accepted into accelerators. 60% of rejected founders “failed to complete the application due to lack of knowledge.” And 70% of those startups who are accepted, came through a referral. So if you don’t know the language or are not connected into the ecosystem already your chances are slim.

Location: Santa Cruz, United States

Ready Made Meals Home Delivery - The Dinner Ladies

The Dinner Ladies are Sophie Gilliatt and Katherine Westwood. We got together at the school gate in 2007 and came up with the idea of preparing dinners for time-poor friends and family members so they would always have good, homemade food in their fridges and freezers (and, incidentally, so would we).

Between us, we have seven children of varying sizes, appetites and degrees of fussiness. So there’s not much we don’t know about pleasing a tricky crowd!

We started cooking in the shed in Katherine’s back yard on a converted trailer and two camp stoves. We’d shop on a Monday, cook on a Tuesday and then one of us would do the delivery run while the other fed and bathed all the kids.

Address : 14/30-32 Perry St, Matraville, Sydney, NSW, 2036, Australia
Phone : 02 8310 6508
Business mail : [email protected]

Location: Matraville, Australia