Why I Built Sova

Why Startups Fail (When the Solutions Exist)

These aren't execution problems. They're planning failures. And the tools that prevent them? They already exist:

For the 42% no market need

• Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder, 2012) - forces validation of customer jobs, pains, gains before building
• Customer Development (Blank, 2005) - tests assumptions with real customers before committing resources

For the 29% ran out of cash

• Unit Economics Framework (1990s-2000s) - shows runway and burn rate months in advance
• Scenario Planning (Shell, 1960s-1970s) - stress-tests financial resilience across different futures

For the 19% flawed business model

• Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2008) - exposes model weaknesses before scaling
• Porter's Five Forces (Porter, 1979) - analyses competitive threats systematically
• SWOT Analysis (Humphrey at Stanford, 1960s-1970s) - identifies strategic vulnerabilities
• McKinsey 7S Framework (Peters & Waterman, 1980) - aligns all organisational elements

So why aren't founders using them?

Because Access Requires Either Time or Money or Both

The information is locked behind gatekeepers:

• $200,000 MBA degrees teaching frameworks created 40 years ago
• $500 per hour consultants explaining Business Model Canvas in workshops
• Incubators and accelerators that take 5-10% equity

And even when you can access it, the information is fragmented:

You learn Business Model Canvas from one book. Financial planning from another consultant. Marketing strategy from a different course. But nobody shows you how it all connects.

So founders fix marketing (get customers) only to watch operations fail. They raise funding without a financial model and run out of cash. They hire teams without clear strategy and waste months building the wrong thing.

Most founders don't have $200k for an MBA. They don't have $50k for consultants or can afford 10% equity before they even get off the ground. They don't have time to piece together fragmented information across books, courses, and frameworks.

So they fail. Preventably.

What Sova Does: Empower You to Help Yourself

I spent 15+ years as a Strategy & Transformation Leader, applying renowned, global, business tools, theory, and principles of excellence frameworks like Baldridge, EFQM and ISO 9001.

I know these work. I also know startups can't access them.

So I built Sova to empower founders to help themselves and their startups succeed.

How Sova Works

Sova is built on the principle that business excellence is a system, not a checklist.

We've mapped nine interconnected elements: Governance, Purpose, Strategy, Performance, Finance, Marketing, People, Process, Technology.

Sova gives you:

• Assessment tool showing your maturity across all nine elements
• Gap analysis identifying where you're weak and how those weaknesses cascade
• Prioritised action plan based on your stage (Discovery, Validation, Efficiency, Scale)
• Tool recommendations for frameworks you actually need right now
• AI-powered guidance asking diagnostic questions to find root causes

Everything backed by research:

• 281 tools and methodologies with descriptions and URLs
• 162 Australian startup resources (grants, accelerators, programs, networks) filtered by state, stage, and identity
• 140+ startup failure and advice insights from CB Insights, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey
• Assessment based on all of the above

Empower Yourself

If you're one of the 437,150 Australians who started a business this year:

• Have you validated that anyone actually wants what you're building?
• Do you have a documented business model?
• Can you forecast your cash runway?
• Do you understand how the nine elements of your business interconnect?

If you hesitated, you're not alone. But you don't need a $200k MBA or a $50k consultant.

You need the tools that are proven to work. And now, you have them.

Take Sova's free assessment. See where you stand. Get a personalised action plan. Access the frameworks that prevent the 42%.

Because you didn't quit your job to become a statistic.