Resume guidance
Hello everyone. We, a group of three friends, worked on a startup idea for hyperlocal e commerce. We worked on that idea for about a year, held several brainstorming sessions, met with various stakeholders, learned a lot about the startup system, and improved our idea based on feedback, but we dropped it after a market study and moved on. We never registered our startup but contacted startup incubators and received guidance several times; now, how can I share it on LinkedIn and in the resume experience section? Can I include a co-founder title or describe it as a project?
You can still put it on your resume. Add in link to a deck or anything you’d made as proof.
Explicitly mention it never took off after you didn’t get the right market feedback
Thanks for the helpful insights, but can I use the co-founder title in the LinkedIn and resume experience sections? I am asking because the idea never made it to the incubation stage.
I would say no . Since you product never got developed and company was not launched . If they provide a role considering you cofounder experience it would be brutal both for you and those working with you . So I would say that you mention it under projects like someone else said in the comments .
I am sorry to say this but it looks like you spent some time on product research and product market fit . But since no product development took place and there was no company , co founder title cannot be justified.
You can use it explain the gap and include it in projects . I don’t have more context like if you raised any capital for this or have done any product pitch to investors.
If there was no outcome but only idea and decks, there’s nothing about startup here.
Yes, I agree, but we worked and put efforts to make it live, but we do not get answers for some questions to move forward and incubate; my question is, how can I present it to recruiters?
Post your research as posts on LinkedIn, if you thinks something founders in the industry aren’t aware of, share with them
You can’t put it on resume since there is no company or institution to verify it legally.
You can put that under special projects section in your resume or extracurricular Interests (if student).
Thank you for your helpful insights.
So now we're adding ideas that popup randomly? Cool, that makes everyone a bathroom entrepreneur
Startups like hyper local delivery and e commerce have a lower barrier to entry; those who are passionate about it can start, but what matters is scaling up.