About DNFF
A brutally honest foundation built to stop the 99% startup failure rate through data, rigour, and truth.
THE PROBLEM
Of all startups fail within three years. Not because of bad luck. Because of preventable mistakes.
Every single one of these causes is detectable early. We exist to detect them before founders waste years of their lives.
OUR MISSION
To ruthlessly filter out doomed ideas before they destroy lives and waste capital.
We are not an accelerator. We are not an incubator. We are the filter before the accelerator—the last honest voice before founders jump into the abyss.
Our job is to save you from yourself. To tell you the truth that VCs won't, that your friends can't, and that you don't want to hear. If your startup will fail, we will tell you now—not in three years when you're bankrupt and broken.
And if your startup has a chance? We'll give you the DNFF Seal of Recommendation—a mark of validation that signals to investors and partners that you've survived our gauntlet of truth.
HOW WE ARE DIFFERENT
| Criteria | Accelerators | Incubators | DNFF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accept anyone | Often | Often | Never |
| Focus on validation | No | Sometimes | Always |
| Will tell you to quit | No | No | Yes |
| Take equity | Yes (5-10%) | Sometimes | No |
| Data-driven decisions | Rarely | Sometimes | Always |
| Success rate | ~10% | ~15% | TBD (Target: 60%) |
THE THREE PILLARS
Failure Autopsy Vault
A searchable database of 500+ anonymised startup failures. Real post-mortems from founders who lost everything. Every failure reason categorised, every warning sign documented, every preventable mistake exposed.
Access granted only after acceptance into the validation program.
R&C Sessions
Rigour & Constraints. Monthly sessions with battle-tested founders, failed entrepreneurs, and brutally honest operators who will tear apart your assumptions. No cheerleading. No networking. Just reality checks.
Stockholm and Lisbon. In person only.
Concept Validation Course
6–8 gates of brutal truth. Customer interviews, unit economics stress tests, 48-hour kill-or-commit sprints. Pass them all, earn the DNFF Seal of Recommendation. Fail any gate, and we tell you to walk away with dignity.
Only 20% of applicants earn the Seal.
TEAM
Dr. Erik Lindström
Founder & Director
Survived 3 failures before first exit. PhD in Behavioral Economics.
Maria Santos
Head of Validation
Former VC. Rejected 2,000+ pitches. Founded 2 companies that failed.
Lars Andersson
R&C Lead Stockholm
Built and sold SaaS to Spotify. Lost €4M before that.
Sofia Pereira
R&C Lead Lisbon
Scaled 3 startups to €10M+ ARR. Watched 5 others die.
Jonas Berg
Data & Research
Analyzed 10,000+ startup failures. Never founded one himself.
Ana Costa
Failure Vault Curator
Documented 500+ post-mortems. Refuses to start a company.
THE BRIDGE
Nordic Discipline
Swedish startup culture values process, data, and systematic thinking. We bring this methodical approach to validation—no shortcuts, no handwaving, no "fake it till you make it."
Southern Resilience
Portuguese founders know how to build with constraints. Limited capital, smaller markets, less hype. This breeds resourcefulness and real customer focus—exactly what startups need to survive.
Two ecosystems. Two philosophies. One brutal standard. DNFF operates in both Stockholm and Lisbon, bridging Nordic rigour with Southern European entrepreneurial grit.