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How WE works

How WE works

How a company brings WE on, how the work runs, how WE is paid and how it ends.

Start a readiness review Talk to WE

Bring WE in once, for as long as the work is useful

Bring WE in the way you would bring in a long-term partner: once, at the start, for as long as the work is useful. WE steers a dedicated, fully remote team that builds the company with you, in phases paced to the years a company really takes.

There is no intake calendar, no class to wait for and no showcase day at the end. The work runs on a written rhythm, every week, month and quarter, with an Orbit Review every year. When the company is ready, WE steps down by notice rather than stopping on a date.

Your company as a sun of blue hexagonal tiles, with the seven parts of an engagement in orbit around it.
  1. Before Day One A conversation, a readiness review and the agreements
  2. Start in any month No intake calendar and no class to wait for
  3. Five phases Paced to the years a company really takes
  4. The team WE steers Roles on your company, steered by WE
  5. The rhythm Weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly
  6. How WE is paid In cash, monthly, for work already done
  7. How it ends Step down, not stop
Your company at the center. The engagement moves around it: the start, the phases, the team, the rhythm, how WE is paid and how it ends.

Before Day One

Nothing is signed except an NDA until the agreements. Each step tells you more, and either side can stop.

  1. 1 A conversation

    A call about the company, your situation and the timeline you expect. If WE is not the right help, WE says so and suggests where to go.

  2. 2 A readiness review

    A structured look at the company with the D.R.E.A.M. Playbook. You receive your company clock: a one-page read of where the company sits, the next checkpoint, what the next phase needs and a draft team shape.

  3. 3 The agreements

    An NDA, then draft agreements and an order form with every term written down. You review them with your own counsel before anything is signed.

  4. 4 Day One

    Accounts, access, introductions, a working agreement and a first deliverable. The team is in place, with a written plan for the first cycle.

Your company clock starts from a readiness review
  • Baseline at the diagnostic
  • A later review
  1. Baseline The diagnostic records where each area starts, with the evidence behind it.
  2. Review Each review checks the same six areas against the records the company keeps.
  3. Close the gaps The plan targets the weakest sides first, so the shape grows evenly.

Illustration only; the shapes are not real scores.

An illustration of how the review reads a company: no scores, weights or thresholds. WE makes no promise of funding.

Start in any month

Bring WE in the way you would bring in a long-term partner: once, at the start, for as long as the work is useful. There is no intake calendar and no class to wait for. You start in any month, when your readiness review and agreements are done.

Your Day One is your own. Every review after it, including the yearly Orbit Review, is counted from that date.

Day One can fall in any of these months

  1. JanuaryOpen
  2. FebruaryOpen
  3. MarchOpen
  4. AprilOpen
  5. MayOpen
  6. JuneOpen
  7. JulyOpen
  8. AugustOpen
  9. SeptemberOpen
  10. OctoberOpen
  11. NovemberOpen
  12. DecemberOpen
No intake dates are marked, because there are none.

Five phases, matched to the business clock

Typical windows from public data, drawn to scale from Day One. Your plan sets your own pace, and gates are reached by milestones, not by dates. A company that is already operating starts at the phase it is in; the readiness review places it.

  1. Ignite

    Months 0 to 6

    First proof and the written plan.

    Method D.R.E.A.M. Playbook and O.R.B.I.T.A.L. Plan

    Checkpoint Six-month review

    Stage Dream

  2. Build

    Months 6 to 18

    The first release and the first customers, through the steepest year.

    Method S.T.A.R.T.U.P. Initiative and A.N.D.R.O.I.D. Ops

    Checkpoint Year-one Orbit Review

    Stage Build

  3. Launch

    Months 18 to 36

    Repeatable sales and product-market fit.

    Method L.A.U.N.C.H. Sequence

    Checkpoint Year-three Orbit Review

    Stage Build

  4. Grow

    Years 3 to 5

    Becoming an established company.

    Method G.R.O.W.T.H. phase

    Checkpoint Year-five Orbit Review

    Stage Grow

  5. Orbit

    Year 5 onward

    Running steady, and planning what comes next.

    Method Event Horizon

    Checkpoint WE steps down by notice

    Stage Grow

The five phases on one scale, Day One to year six. Orbit has no end date: WE steps down by notice when the company is ready.

Why the windows run for years

77.9% 1

of new U.S. establishments were still operating after one year (group opened in the year to March 2024)

56.3% 2

survive three years (2022 group)

51.4% 3

survive five years (2020 group)

42 months 4

of paying wages before GEM counts a business as established

  1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , 2024 to 2025
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , 2022 to 2025
  3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , 2020 to 2025
  4. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, United States 2019/2020 Report, p. 26

These figures describe all new U.S. businesses, not WE's results.

See how long it really takes

Your team, steered by WE

  • The team works only on your company, role by role, as written in your team schedule.
  • WE recruits the people, manages them and replaces them when needed, including subcontractors.
  • WE gives direction, planning, coaching, quality oversight and reporting.
  • You set where the company goes.
  • Your named contacts at WE are a Delivery Lead, a Technical Lead and an Executive Sponsor.

The roles on this page are an example. Your team schedule sets the real ones, and roles can be added or removed by notice. To see the roles a team can include, open the Team Composer.

Your company

  • Delivery Lead Named contact
  • Technical Lead Named contact
  • Executive Sponsor Named contact
  • Product design
  • Front end
  • Back end
  • Quality assurance
  • Brand
  • Growth and support
  • Operations
An example of the team WE steers Three named contacts at WE, and the roles that work only on your company.

Written down, every week

Mission Control is WE’s name for the rhythm that runs through every phase: steering, quality review and reporting.

  1. Weekly

    A written status. You say yes or no to the next cycle’s plan.

    Delivery Lead and founder

  2. Monthly

    A service report and a monthly service review.

    Delivery Lead

  3. Quarterly

    A business review against the plan, and the team shape for the next quarter.

    Executive Sponsor and founder

  4. Yearly: the Orbit Review

    An Orbit Review on each Day One anniversary, timed to the year-one, year-three and year-five points: a phase gate, team reshaping and an updated company clock.

    Executive Sponsor, Technical Lead, Delivery Lead and founder

One world at the center with four nested orbit rings around it: weekly on the inner ring, then monthly, quarterly and, on the outer ring in amber, the yearly Orbit Review.
  1. Weekly Delivery Lead and founder
  2. Monthly Delivery Lead
  3. Quarterly Executive Sponsor and founder
  4. Yearly Executive Sponsor, Technical Lead, Delivery Lead and founder
Mission Control: weekly on the inner ring, the yearly Orbit Review on the outer one.

Step down, not stop

Your agreement has an initial term and then renews as your order form sets. After the initial term, either side can end it by notice. Roles can be added or removed by notice.

When the company is ready, WE plans the end with you: a smaller team, lighter steering and a handover to your own hires.

Default initial term: six months. Default; your agreement sets the real terms.

  1. Full team and steering
  2. A smaller team
  3. Lighter steering
  4. Handover to your own hires
The steering ring fades segment by segment as your own hires take over.

The long game

Move fast every week. Build for the decade.

The weekly rhythm is the fast half of WE. The slow half is the engagement itself: it has no fixed end date, because a company takes years, and WE is paced to them.

Every week

Fast, and written down.

  1. 1 Plan The week’s cycle is set in writing.
  2. 2 Build A dedicated team ships the work.
  3. 3 Report A written status, every week.
  4. 4 Decide You say yes or no to the next cycle.

Every year

Patient, because the odds turn slowly.

Most new businesses close in the first five years. After that, each year survived makes the next more likely. WE paces the work to that curve.

  1. Month 1 First written status WE reports in writing from the first week.
  2. Month 7 First payroll 1 Typically 2.29 quarters after a business applies, for the 2021 applications.
  3. Year 1 77.9% still operating 2 One year after opening.
  4. Year 3.5 Counted as established 3 A business is called established at 42 months.
  5. Year 5 51.4% still operating 2 Five years after opening.
  6. Year 10 34.7% still operating 2 Ten years after opening.

Where milestones typically fall, and how many new businesses are still operating at years one, five and ten. Each survival figure comes from a different opening-year group; the sources name them.

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics , 2021 and 2005 applications
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , Opened in the year to March 2024
  3. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, U.S. report 2025/2026 (Babson College) , Definition
See how long it really takes See how WE works

What WE is, and what WE is not

WE isWE is not
A services firm that steers a team inside your companyAn investor, a lender or a fund
Set up for years, with no fixed end dateA three-month program
Building your company, around your ideaA venture studio that starts its own ideas
Answerable for how the team worksA staffing provider that sends people for you to manage
Coordinating with your lawyer and accountantA law, tax or immigration adviser

The wider ecosystem

Join the programs that fit. WE stays for the long run.

WE does not compete with the programs around you. Founder programs, coworking spaces, investor communities and public funding each do something WE does not, and most founders do best using several. Join the ones that fit. WE works alongside, for as long as the work is useful.

  • Founder programs

    Structured, time-boxed programs with a peer group and a deadline.

  • Coworking spaces

    A desk, a room and people who are building too.

  • Investor communities

    Angel groups and investor relations events where you meet the people who fund companies.

  • University and lab programs

    Research, labs and technology transfer for science-based companies.

  • Local small business support

    Advisers, training and regional networks close to home.

  • Public funding

    Federal research awards such as SBIR and STTR.

Independent programs that WE encourages founders to consider. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.

Browse every program to join Apply to SBIR and STTR

Public funding

Apply to SBIR and STTR.

The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs fund small businesses to do research and development. If your company is building something technical, apply, and keep applying.

WE helps founders prepare alongside. WE is not an agency and cannot promise an award.

See how SBIR and STTR work

  1. 1 Find The agency topics that match what you build.
  2. 2 Prepare The registrations, the plan and the proposal.
  3. 3 Apply Submit, learn from the review and go again.

See the data behind the long game.

Public statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, the SBA and the Federal Reserve, charted with every source linked.

94.4% 1

of establishments still open after eight years survived their ninth, against 79.6% in their first

48% 2

of firms aged 0 to 5 years were fully approved for financing, against 63% of firms aged 21 or more

70% 3

of venture-backed startups that shut down cited running out of capital

  1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , Opened in the year to March 2013
  2. Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey (2026 report on employer firms) , Applicants in the prior 12 months
  3. CB Insights (2026), venture-backed startups that shut down; more than one reason allowed , Shutdowns since 2023

Explore the data

Start with a readiness review

Tell WE where the company stands. WE arranges a conversation, then sends your company clock: where the company sits, the next checkpoint and what the next phase needs.

Start a readiness review Talk to WE