7 min read
Building a startup is not only about building a product. It is also about building relationships with people and organisations that can challenge your assumptions, improve your thinking and help you understand what the next stage of the journey should look like.
For Nap OS, our relationship with the NovaUCD innovation ecosystem has become an important part of that learning journey.
Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss Nap OS with Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation at NovaUCD. The conversation covered the product, the problem we are addressing, our early traction, commercialisation, technology development and how Nap OS can continue developing as a sustainable company.
I am particularly grateful to Liam for the advisory perspective he has provided as we think about the next stage of Nap OS.
The real value is understanding what evidence a company needs to build next.
For Nap OS, one of the clearest takeaways has been the importance of three areas:
Team. Technology. Traction.
These three areas are increasingly becoming a simple framework for how we think about building Nap OS.
Why relationships with innovation ecosystems matter
Founders can spend a lot of time inside their own companies.
We build the product, speak with users, write content, approach employers, develop partnerships and make hundreds of small decisions every week.
That can make it difficult to step back and ask:
Are we building the right thing, in the right way, at the right stage?
This is where constructive relationships with innovation leaders, universities, entrepreneurs, researchers and ecosystem organisations can be valuable.
For Nap OS, conversations with the NovaUCD ecosystem have helped us think beyond simply demonstrating that the problem exists.
We already know there is a significant workforce and employability problem around practical experience, demonstrating capability and connecting people with meaningful opportunities.
But proving that a problem exists is different from proving that a sustainable business can solve it.
That distinction has become increasingly important to us.
The strategic question is therefore moving from:
“Is this a real problem?”
towards:
“Can Nap OS build a product that customers value enough to pay for and continue using?”
That is a much harder question — and an important one.
The 3Ts: Team, Technology & Traction
A key lesson from the discussion with Liam was the importance of Team, Technology and Traction for a company developing towards a stronger innovation and commercial position.
For Nap OS, we have taken these three areas and turned them into a practical framework for the next stage of company development.
1. Team
A startup eventually needs to become bigger than its founder.
In the earliest stage, founders naturally carry a large proportion of the work. Product development, customer conversations, marketing, operations, partnerships and strategy can all sit with one person.
But building a scalable company requires complementary capability.
For Nap OS, the goal is to develop a capable core team across areas such as:
- Product and technology
- Sales and growth
- Operations and workforce delivery
- Customer development
- Commercial execution
The important question is not simply:
“How many people work for the company?”
It is:
“Does the company have the capabilities required to execute?”
This changes how we think about team building.
Rather than hiring simply because a company is growing, Nap OS needs to build the capabilities that directly support product development, customer acquisition and delivery.
The objective is to gradually move from a founder-dependent company towards an organisation that can execute through a small, capable team.
2. Technology
Technology is obviously at the centre of Nap OS.
But another important lesson is that technology should not become an end in itself.
Building more features does not automatically create more value.
The technology needs to solve real problems for users and customers.
For Nap OS, that means continuing to develop a workforce platform capable of supporting practical experience, evidence, verification and workforce workflows.
Our technology development therefore needs to demonstrate:
- Clear functionality
- Reliability
- User value
- Differentiation
- Scalability
- Evidence generation
- Verification
- Workforce workflows
- Commercial usefulness
These are more important than simply increasing the number of features.
The fundamental question for every major product decision should increasingly be:
Does this make Nap OS more valuable to the people and organisations using it?
This is particularly important because Nap OS operates at the intersection of workforce technology, employability and recruitment.
Trust matters.
If the platform is asking employers or workforce members to rely on evidence about skills, experience and capability, the underlying technology needs to be robust enough to support that trust.
Research and university collaboration can also play a role here — particularly when there is a specific technical or methodological question that needs investigation.
The important distinction is that research should improve specific components of the technology or methodology rather than being treated as a substitute for commercial validation.
3. Traction
Perhaps the most important of the three Ts is traction.
A startup can have a compelling idea.
It can have a strong founder.
It can have an interesting technology.
It can have partnerships.
But ultimately, the market has to respond.
For Nap OS, traction increasingly needs to be demonstrated through measurable evidence such as:
- Paying customers
- Monthly recurring revenue
- Customer retention
- Conversion
- Employer adoption
- Candidate outcomes
- Repeat usage
- Customer acquisition
- Partnerships that generate users or revenue
This creates an important transition in how we think about the company.
The goal is to move from:
“People like the idea.”
to:
“People pay for the product and continue using it.”
That is the difference between early interest and commercial validation.
What this means for Nap OS?
The discussion has helped us clarify the sequence we need to focus on.
Rather than putting institutional validation at the centre of the company-building process, the stronger sequence is:
Problem → Product → Customers → Revenue → Traction → Team → Scale
with universities, research and innovation ecosystems supporting the journey where they provide measurable value.
This is an important distinction.
It does not mean universities are less important.
Quite the opposite.
University ecosystems can provide access to:
- Researchers
- Students
- Talent
- Academic expertise
- Introductions
- Research collaborations
- Innovation networks
- Potential partnerships
But their role should be understood as an accelerator rather than a replacement for customer demand.
For Nap OS, that means we want to build a company that creates value independently while using relationships with universities and innovation organisations to accelerate learning, access and capability.
Transparent evaluation: what we are learning
One reason I want to share this publicly is that startup evaluation can sometimes appear mysterious from the outside.
Founders submit applications, attend meetings and receive feedback, but people following the journey rarely see what happens between those points.
We believe there is value in making our own learning process more transparent.
Importantly, this does not mean publishing private conversations or presenting another organisation’s internal decision-making as a formal public checklist.
Instead, we want to share the principles we are taking away and the actions we are taking as a company.
For Nap OS, the current evaluation mindset is increasingly centred around three questions:
Team
Can we build the capability required to execute beyond the founder alone?
Technology
Can we develop a robust product that delivers measurable value and can scale?
Traction
Are customers adopting, paying for and continuing to use the product?
These are practical questions that any founder can apply to their own company.
They also provide a useful discipline for Nap OS.
Instead of asking what sounds impressive, we can ask:
What evidence can we produce?
From feedback to action
Good advisory conversations should result in action.
For Nap OS, the next stage is therefore about strengthening the evidence behind the company.
That means continuing to:
Build the technology
Develop the Nap OS product around genuine workforce and employer needs.
Acquire users and customers
Continue testing the channels through which people and organisations discover and adopt Nap OS.
Measure commercial behaviour
Track conversion, recurring revenue, retention and customer value.
Develop the team
Build complementary execution capability as the business grows.
Use research strategically
Work with researchers where their expertise can improve specific methodologies, technologies or verification approaches.
Build relationships
Continue developing constructive relationships across universities, employers, founders and the wider Irish innovation ecosystem.
The objective is not to optimise Nap OS around any single programme or institution.
The objective is to build a strong company.
A thank-you to Liam and the NovaUCD team
I want to take this opportunity to express my genuine appreciation to Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation at NovaUCD, for the time, challenge and advisory perspective he has provided during this stage of the Nap OS journey.
For founders, good advice is not always advice that confirms what you already believe.
Sometimes its value comes from forcing you to look at the company differently.
The conversations around Team, Technology and Traction have given Nap OS a clearer framework for thinking about what evidence we need to build next.
That is something I am grateful for.
Our relationship with the innovation ecosystem is ultimately about learning, building and creating value — not simply about receiving validation.
The Nap OS principle going forward
The biggest lesson we are taking forward is simple:
Build what customers value. Use technology to solve real problems. Build the team required to execute. Measure traction through evidence.
For Nap OS, universities and innovation ecosystems remain important parts of that journey.
But the company itself must continue to prove its value through the market.
Our ambition is to build a workforce platform where technology, verified experience and real-world outcomes come together to help people demonstrate what they can actually do.
And the next stage of that journey will be measured not only by conversations, meetings or applications, but by something much more tangible:
better technology, a stronger team and measurable traction.
That is the 3T framework we are taking forward.
Team. Technology. Traction.
And for Nap OS, the work continues.
