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Alcove founder: Funding won’t answer all your early-stage problems

Alcove founder

Hellen Bowey is the CEO and founder of Alcove, a virtual care company supporting independent living.

The company has more than 20,000 users of its services, which include a virtual care agency, a care phone for the digitally excluded, and a “digital orientation clock”.

In this week’s Founder in Five Q&A, Bowey explains why early-stage funding won’t answer all your problems, shares a common founder mistake, and explains why gambling apps should be regulated like cigarettes.

1. What advice would you give to a first-time founder?

Hellen Bowey: It’s key not to assume raising seed/early stage or going out to investors will answer all of your early problems. It’s important to bootstrap as much as you can, use other sources of capital like grants, prizes and take in as minimal capital as you can in the early stages....