Underway Wants to Keep the Part of Startup History Founders Usually Lose

Underway aims to preserve a facet of startup history that is often overlooked. Founders typically remember the company they built, but forget the day-to-day specifics that shaped it. These minor details, such as a bug that disrupted an afternoon or a customer call that altered a feature, are usually unimportant at the time. However, they become crucial when piecing together the company's journey.

Startup narratives frequently narrate the story in reverse, making early decisions appear deliberate while real-life events were often chaotic. This creates a polished account that lacks substance. Richard Lovatt, a founder, encountered this issue with his previous businesses and plans to document his current venture with Underway.

His series is raw and unpolished, capturing the unscripted moments of a startup's early days. Underway leverages existing data from a founder's day, like calendar entries, GitHub activity, meetings, payments, and analytics. It then asks out loud and records the founder's responses, keeping the exact words spoken in order. This method produces a more authentic and detailed account of the startup's development.

The process is less about automation and more about preserving the founder's genuine voice. Underway allows episodes to remain private, catering to stealth startups or companies seeking an archive without the need for frequent social media posts. This approach also alters the motivation behind using the platform. Instead of needing to generate dramatic content, creators have the freedom to document everyday occurrences without feeling the pressure to extract a lesson or mask an ordinary day.

The real value emerges once a significant number of episodes are accumulated. Thirty recordings represent a month of memories, while a hundred episodes begin to form a comprehensive history of the company's thinking process. Future team members can review the early stages of the product, investors can observe how the founder approached problems before fully realizing their solutions, and the founder can avoid having to reconstruct the startup's beginnings from fragmented memories or screenshots.

Underway is employing this model internally, having produced 36 episodes within two weeks of starting the project in September 2023. Some of these episodes may seem irrelevant later, but their inclusion in the archive is essential. A well-rounded record must encompass all moments, not just those that later proved significant. This perspective offers a more genuine and complete record of a startup's journey.