The 100 Challenge
Fusion42 as a use case
To answer the 100 Challenge questions we’ve received, I thought it best to give a use case—and use us.
The 100 Challenge is a rigorous approach designed to uncover the real problem—not just the perceived one—helping founders cut through assumptions and pinpoint precisely what will accelerate their startup forward.
Now, caveat: the three Fusion42 founders have lived this problem from both sides—founder and investor. But that’s no excuse to skip the steps we expect others to follow.
This is the short version. It’s drawn from hundreds of data points—across solo founders, early teams, and pre / post-revenue startups—gathered through calls, founder sessions, and direct conversations over (years) but structured, intensive and aligned over the last 6–9 months.
Markets move. Assumptions calcify. And bias—especially your own—is the hardest to spot.
So we decided to test it.
🧪 Start with the Hypothesis
Hypothesis:
“Fundraising is hard, and investors are impossible to convince.”
That’s what we hear from founders time and time again.
We’re not here to argue—we’re here to break it down.
🧭 First Principles: What’s really slowing you down?
Question 1:
“If you had to pick one thing slowing your startup down—what is it?”
✅ The resounding answer: Money >60%
✅ How are you solving it? Fundraising > 48%
But we’ve seen this pattern before. And we know from experience—it’s a false positive.
So we went deeper.
📡 Listening to the Social Signals
To check if this was just anecdotal, we turned to social listening—and the volume was deafening.
Any LinkedIn post with a list of investors? Top engagement, every time.
Tweets like “Describe your startup in one line to get investor eyes”?
Viral. Instantly.
But social media isn’t truth—it’s a mirror of belief.
So yes, we could clearly see there was something going on—but we needed to dig into where the problem actually lived.
🧨 Ask questions that Challenge Conventions.
Before we built our framework, we stepped back and challenged the consensus. What if the most repeated startup advice wasn’t actually helping founders move faster—or smarter?
Industry-Wide
1. "Build a monopoly" (Zero to One)
Most won’t. Most shouldn’t. Real success is in smart differentiation, not chasing unicorn myths.
2. Lean Startup loop
“Build-measure-learn” often becomes busywork. Iteration’s only useful if it leads somewhere deeper, you want velocity not speed.
3. Growth at all costs
Premature scaling kills. Nail retention and margins first—speed’s useless without substance.
Founder / Investor Focus
1. "Raising proves you’re onto something"
Nope. Revenue proves it. Fundraising often hides a shaky foundation.
2. "Get experienced investors on board"
Be careful. Pattern-matching VCs can kill fresh thinking. Safe isn’t always smart.
3. "Valuation = success"
It’s not. Traction, retention, margin—that’s the real scoreboard.
Opportunities for Expansion
1. "Pick one thing and stay focused"
Yes—until focus becomes a cage. Validate, then explore where real demand pulls you.
2. "First-mover wins"
Not always. Fast followers often win bigger with fewer scars.
3. "Fail fast, fail often"
Burnout isn't strategy. Smart bets > constant resets. Learn deep, not just fast.
🥧🔧 The Deconstructed Problem Pie
We realised we needed a better way to get to the root of the issue—not just what’s loud, but what’s real.
So we built a simple framework: the Deconstructed Problem Pie.
It’s now how we run founder discovery, shape new ideas, and challenge our own assumptions.
🎯 Why We Use It
It forces us to slow down and interrogate the problem properly:
Not the symptom. The source.
Not assumptions. Actual insight.
Not “what should we build?” but “why does this matter?”
🔍 The Steps We Follow
1. Ask “Why” (get to the root)
We drill into the first layer—then keep going.
“Why is fundraising so difficult for founders?”
→ Because they’re chasing capital before they’re ready. They’re unclear on traction. They’re overwhelmed.
We don’t accept surface-level answers.
2. Then “What” (understand the impact)
“What happens when this doesn’t get solved?”
→ Founders waste months pitching, burn out, lose focus, and often go quiet altogether.
This helps us prioritise what’s actually worth fixing.
3. Ask “What If” (visualise the shift)
We imagine the alternative.
“What if founders knew exactly when they were ready to raise—and when they weren’t?”
→ We’d see sharper execution, less noise, more meaningful traction, and a healthier founder-investor dynamic.
4. Ask “Why” again (challenge the solution)
“Why is this the right thing to build?”
“Why would this actually make a difference?”
If it doesn’t go deep enough, we refine until it does.
5. Ask “How” (make it real)
How do we build this in a way that’s simple, useful, and sustainable?”
That’s how we ended up with the traction engine inside GSA.
That’s how we aligned market proof with investor readiness.
And as the data and feedback roll in, we keep evolving everything we do.
🔁 Then we iterate.
Every week we ask ourselves:
What worked, and why?
What didn’t, and why not?
How will we improve immediately?
⚙️ This isn’t theory—it’s operating in the real world.
It’s how we sharpen founder sessions, streamline internal strategy, and cut through the noise.
It forces us to challenge our biases, kill our darlings, and relentlessly focus on what moves the needle.
✅ Try this now: Pick your biggest current bottleneck. Run it through the loop: Why → What → What If → Why (again) → How. Then ask: Are we solving the problem—or just what’s loud?
How We Use It Inside Fusion42
We apply it across:
Founder discovery sessions – to understand what’s really blocking progress
Tool and programme design – so we’re solving real problems, not just creating content
Internal decision-making – especially when we think we’re right, but can’t explain why
The extra point is that we work closely with design partners, investors from accelerators, VC’s and Angel investors, to double check the thesis and how it would also solve their problems. In essence the work done by the founder is just a mirrored to investors to answer their greed and fear.
🧩 A Real Example
Category of problem: Clarity and readiness
Specific problem: Founders are chasing investment without knowing if they’re ready
Impact: Time wasted, confidence knocked, trust eroded
What if: They had a way to self-assess and focus on proof and get on the pitch?
→ That’s what GSA is.
💡 Our “Aha” Moment
Here’s what it looked like when we ran ourselves through the 100 Challenge.The more we listened, the clearer it got:
Founders don’t have a fundraising problem.
They have a readiness gap—and a very human desire to skip the hard part.
And yet…
They’re told to “just get out there and raise.”
They build decks before building conviction.
They chase intros instead of insight.
So we stepped back and asked:
What does a founder actually need to be fundable—and to build something worth funding?
That’s when we broke it down into five core silos:
🧱 Startup Resilience
The foundations.
Everything that makes a startup a real business—not just a slide deck.
Clarity, conviction, systems, habits, and emotional durability.
📣 Go-to-Market (GTM)
No customers, no company.
This is about real traction—not theory.
Who you serve, why it matters, and how you reach them with urgency and relevance.
💸 Fundraising Fluency
Raising capital is a skill—so we treat it like one.
You need to understand how funding works, when you’re ready, and who’s right for your stage, sector, and ambition.
🤖 AI for Startups
Every founder needs to be AI-first now.
Not because it’s trendy—but because it’s a multiplier.
Faster learning, smarter workflows, leaner ops.
🥋 Pitch Kung Fu
We call it pitch kung fu.
We practise because we raise.
Not the other way around.
It’s about mastering the fundamentals—not performing for a panel.
Fundraising is a reflection of everything else. If it’s shaky, it’s because something underneath is.
This became the structure for everything we built at Fusion42—from the Global Super Accelerator to the tools, workshops, and diagnostics we run every week.
It’s not about theory. It’s about operational clarity, structured thinking, planned action—and relentless execution.
🧠 Investor Alignment: Solving Both Sides of the Table
We also work closely with design partners—investors from accelerators, VCs, and angel networks—to test and challenge our assumptions.
Why? Because the founder journey needs to reflect what investors are really looking for.
And when you boil it down, that means addressing their two core drivers: greed and fear.
Everything a founder works on with us is mirrored to reduce investor fear (risk, uncertainty, gaps) and amplify investor greed (momentum, traction, clarity).
That alignment is what turns effort into capital—and pitch into progress.
🛠️ What We Did at Fusion42
We stopped fixing the symptoms.
We started fixing the foundation.
✅ 1. We began publishing every new fund that comes to market
To prove a simple point:
Capital isn’t scarce. Focus is.
If capital was the real blocker, this problem wouldn’t exist.
✅ 2. We launched the Global Super Accelerator (GSA)
Not a pitch-prep programme.
A readiness engine.
We built a journey focused on:
Problem Fit
Solution Proof
Market Clarity
Traction Metrics
Customer > Investor Narrative
And a brutally honest accountability community
We flipped the question from:
“How do I pitch?”
To:
“What do I need to prove?”
💡 Why This Matters
Most founders treat fundraising as a milestone.
We see it as a mirror.
It reflects whether your story is real.
Whether your data holds.
Whether you’ve done the work.
💥 “If you’re not ready, the market will tell you—loudly and expensively.
Ask yourself: Would you fund this company if the story wasn’t yours?”Because if the answer’s no—you know what to do next.
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Derek