ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

We're in the business of partnering with people for whom launching a company isn't just a choice, but a calling; people who will create their company one day, with or without us. Besides this drive, there are specific traits we value: mindsets, soft skills, and qualities we’ve seen fuel successful startups time and time again. These boil down to ambition, humility, and execution. While there are always exceptions, they’re the attributes shared by many of our founders who have gone on to create some of the world’s leading software companies.

For a deep-dive on the profiles and qualities we look for in founders, read this.

The journey at Hexa typically lasts 12 months. Every journey is different, but all startups reach the same milestones during their time at Hexa: getting matched with an idea, finding a cofounder, building an MVP, finding first customers, hiring a team, launching publicly, raising a seed round, and finally, becoming independent.

Hexa's Start track is deeply involved in each project, providing hands-on support over a 12-month period. Our team works alongside founders in key areas like product development, design, strategy, go-to-market planning, recruiting, and funding. The focus is on building strong, independent companies, both from an operational and financial perspective. We cover all costs until the company becomes independent. We do not provide shared resources in consulting mode to independent companies, nor do we provide funding to independent companies.

As for our partners, they contribute significantly to strategic decision-making, shaping the business's trajectory, and addressing complex challenges head-on, ensuring a blend of independence and expert guidance for the founders we support. Founders are in the driving seat, but need to remain open to the perspectives around them.

The Hexa team supports each project on recruiting, product, design, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and more strategic topics. Most importantly, the priority of each core team member is to help build a fully independent team for each project. It's also worth noting that we don't have software engineers in the core team working on new products. This means that each new startup's product will be built by engineers who have been recruited specifically for this company.

Hexa is based in Paris, 12 rue Martel 75010. We have several founders who aren’t based in Paris, but it’s important to have a presence at our HQ to benefit from the resources, guidance and expertise of our partners and core team. Building startups in teams is at the core of our ethos.

Every month, entrepreneurs reach out to us to express their interest in launching a company with us. When we sit down with them, we want to have a real and open conversation, similar to when two people meet for a coffee for the first time. The aim is to get to know each other, identify mutual areas of interest and assess the possibility of working together in the long run. The discussions are led by the Hexa partners responsible for each idea. We have three kinds of discussions in the partnering process:

Fit and skills discussion - are we a good professional match?

Idea fit - as we’re spending more and more time together working on the business idea, do we feel that we’re going in the same direction?

Ownership - as our discussion moves forward, do we feel that entrepreneurs are taking ownership of the idea and bringing their own vision and insights to it?

Co-founder match - if a co-founder's already in place, do we think there's a match?

Hexa Start is for entrepreneurs building companies from scratch, often before they have a concrete idea. The program runs for 12 months and is more operationally intensive: it provides the idea, team, and co-founder. It's perfect for founders who don't have an idea or traction yet. Hexa Sprint is for founding teams who already have an idea and are looking for their first check, typically at the pre-seed stage.

At Hexa, we believe in nurturing potential and fostering entrepreneurial spirit. Every year, we are approached by roughly 1000 aspiring entrepreneurs, each with a unique vision and drive. From these, we select an average of 12 founders (two per project) per year to embark on the startup journey with us. This selection reflects not just the high demand for our program but also our commitment to dedicating intensive, personalized support to each founder. Our selection process is thorough and fair, prioritizing candidates who exhibit the qualities we value most: ambition, humility, and the ability to execute. Find out more about what we look for here.

Our focus is on finding the right match between the founder's vision and our expertise. We believe in giving everyone a fair chance and making our decision based on who we think has the highest potential to succeed in the challenging and rewarding world of startups.

The initial idea will in most cases come from our partners. The numerous rich discussions we have through our deep exposure to entrepreneurs, companies, investors, and more generally the global tech ecosystem are the key source of inspiration for new pain points to solve. An idea for us generally means (1) a pain point we want to solve, and (2) a first mockup of the initial MVP - a simple solution to start solving the pain point while providing enough value to users.

It's important to understand the idea will obviously evolve as we will be working together on the venture, driven by the founding team - and that in our experience the founders very quickly become full owners of the idea.
Find out more about our current ideas here.

You can find all the details about the Hexa deal here.

Once the company raises a seed round, it becomes a completely "normal" startup. The founders are in the driver's seat, they have a board comprised of the founders and the key investors. As the business grows, the team will also grow. As cash burn increases, the company generally needs to raise additional funding rounds often with VCs (Series A, B, C...). In general, startups are not profitable for a long time, as they tend to invest a lot in growing the business (e.g. by hiring engineers, sales, marketing people, etc). Hexa remains a shareholder until an "exit", the company is sold, or listed on a public market.

We offer 500k€ through 2 instruments:
• A 20k€ convertible note (BSA Air or SAFE) in exchange for 4% of your company
• A 480k€ convertible note (BSA Air or SAFE) with MFN provisions & a cap at 8M€

If your first funding round post Hexa Sprint is on a valuation of >8M€, this means we will have invested 500k€ for 10% equity in your company.

We look for founding teams at the pre-seed stage - we want to be one of their first investment checks, if not the first. We want to work with teams that are fueled with ambition and driven by purpose, projects that aim to go far and become category leaders while solving real problems in their space. The project must also align with one of our cohort themes.

Hexa Sprint is not for founders who don't have an idea yet (you should go to Hexa Start for that), and it’s not for founders with solid businesses who want to unlock their next phase of growth and are looking for a majority investor (then you should go to Hexa Scale). Last but not least, we only accept projects that align with a currently active cohort theme.

Hexa Sprint is based in France but open to companies throughout the world (though some cohorts may have specific geographical requirements). The program is remote-friendly, though we host in-person events, so being in France or in Europe helps you get the most value.

Applications are rolling. We run cohorts throughout the year, with each cohort focused on a specific theme. You can apply at any time through our online form. Applications are reviewed as soon as they are received and we process investments as soon as your application is validated - no need to wait until the next quarter!

The Hexa Sprint program lasts 6 months.

Hexa Start is for entrepreneurs building companies from scratch, often before they have a concrete idea. The program runs for 12 months and is more operationally intensive: it provides the idea, team, and co-founder. It's perfect for founders who don't have an idea or traction yet. Hexa Sprint is for founding teams who already have an idea and are looking for their first check, typically at the pre-seed stage.