Founder Companion: From financial plan
to approval.
It checks your founders’ financial plan and pitch deck, shows what is missing, and rehearses the bank meeting. All in one place, with your programme’s content.
30 minutes, no obligation. We show the companion and work out whether a pilot fits your programme.
For founder advisors, chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, incubators, accelerators and universities. Founding yourself? Join the waitlist
Example screen with fictional data.
Founders rarely fail on paperwork. They fail on money.
- nearly 2× higher chance of giving up when financial risk and financing problems hit. Bureaucracy annoys more but barely stops anyone.
- 4 in 10 people planning to found give up their plans every year.
- 57% of founders struggle to win customers, more than twice as many as two years earlier.
Check. Improve. Rehearse.
The companion works with the plan founders already have and gets it ready for the meeting that matters.
- 01
Check
Founders upload their financial plan and pitch deck. The companion checks both against public KfW and IHK checklists and matches the documents: does the revenue in the deck fit the financial plan?
- 02
Improve
For every open point it shows why it matters and how to fix it, using the founder’s own numbers. Then it checks again until the plan holds.
- 03
Rehearse
In a simulated bank meeting, customer call or investor pitch, the questions target exactly where the plan is still weak. Every answer gets feedback.
Support more founders with the same advisory time.
Too many founders, too little advisory time, and much of each meeting goes on missing numbers? The companion takes on the first check and the practice. Your people handle the questions that need experience.
Coach view
Who stands where, which points are open, who has been stuck for weeks. You know where a conversation is due.
Your content
Your funding programmes, your region, your checklists and dates. The companion answers from them and names the source.
Prepare the start-up grant
For founder advisors and AVGS coaching: founders prepare their plan for the viability assessment.
Your brand
In your organisation’s design, as part of your programme or advisory service.
- Founder advisors and AVGS coaching
- Chambers of commerce and crafts
- Economic development agencies
- Incubators and accelerators
- University founder centres
- Programmes for young founders
Everything founders need, in one place. Aligned with your programme.
Much of this works with a general AI chat, spreadsheets and folders. Then the answers are generic, numbers and feedback are scattered, and nobody sees the progress. The Founder Companion brings it all together.
Get answers
Otherwise: An AI chat with general knowledge, unrelated to your programme
Answers from your content: your funding programmes, dates and checklists, with sources
Check the numbers
Otherwise: Own spreadsheets that nobody cross-checks
Financial plan checked and matched against the pitch deck
Prepare conversations
Otherwise: Alone, or not at all
Bank, customers and investors as a simulation, with feedback
See progress
Otherwise: The coach chases updates by email
Coach view for the whole cohort
The Gründerplattform helps founders write the plan. The companion helps them defend it. Founders keep writing their business plan in the free Gründerplattform by KfW and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs or the IHK Unternehmenswerkstatt. The companion takes the plan from there and builds on it.
The companion stays when the first customers arrive.
Founding is only the start. For incubators and accelerators it also supports the time after.
-
Rehearse customer calls
First meeting, the price question, objections: founders practise with simulated customers before real deals are on the line.
-
Sharpen offer and pricing
What do the first customers say, and what does it mean for the offer and the price? The companion helps make sense of the feedback.
-
Plan growth
First hires, the next round of funding, the key numbers: built on the financial plan, step by step.
Learn to found before it gets serious.
For schools and programmes: from the idea and the first customers to a student company or a side business. In Germany, anyone under 18 who wants to register a business needs consent from their parents and the family court (§ 112 BGB). The companion explains the steps and shows who can help.
What the companion does not do
- It gives no individual advice on legal form, taxes or contracts. It compares options and refers to the chamber, a tax advisor or a lawyer.
- It does not predict a loan decision. It shows which questions are still open.
- It does not replace your advisors and coaches. It gives them time for the conversations that matter.
The Founder Companion runs on the same learning platform as our AI tutor for apprenticeships. The platform won the BMWE AI Prize 2025 and is developed in a research project with FH Dortmund.
- Hosted in Germany
- No data for AI training
- Answers with sources
Questions and answers
What is the Founder Companion?
The Founder Companion is an AI companion by LearnSlice for organisations that support founders. It checks the financial plan and pitch deck against public KfW and IHK checklists, shows gaps with ways to fix them, rehearses bank, customer and investor conversations and shows coaches the progress. We are developing it with our first pilot partners.
Who is the Founder Companion for?
For organisations that support founders: founder advisors and AVGS coaching, chambers of commerce and crafts, economic development agencies, incubators, accelerators and university founder centres. Also schools and programmes for young founders from 16.
Is this legal or tax advice?
No. The companion explains in general terms with sources, calculates with the numbers founders enter themselves, and checks their documents for completeness and consistency. It does not answer individual questions such as which legal form fits. For those it refers to the chamber, a tax advisor or a lawyer.
Why not just use a general AI chat?
A general AI chat can draft a business plan quickly, but it answers from general knowledge and knows neither your programme nor your funding offers. The Founder Companion answers from your content with sources, calculates the financial plan with fixed formulas, matches documents, rehearses conversations and shows you the progress. All in one place, with data on servers in Germany.
Does it replace the Gründerplattform or chamber advice?
No, it complements them. Founders keep writing their business plan wherever they like, for example in the Gründerplattform. The companion checks the plan, shows the gaps and rehearses the meeting, so founders arrive at their advisory sessions better prepared.
Who sees the founders’ data?
Data is stored on servers in Germany and is not used to train AI models. What the coach sees is agreed with you in the pilot. The data processing agreement sets the rules.
From what age can it be used?
From 16, through schools and programmes. For founders under 18 the companion explains what registering their own business requires and refers to the responsible offices.
When can we start?
We are developing the Founder Companion together with our first pilot partners. In a first call we check whether your programme fits and when a pilot can begin.
What does a pilot cost?
The pilot has a fixed price that depends on the number of founders and your content. We give you the amount in the first call.
Become a pilot partner
We are developing the Founder Companion with our first partners. This is how a pilot works:
- One programme or cohort to start
- Your funding programmes and checklists as content
- Goals agreed upfront: plans checked, points solved, advisory time saved
- A fixed price for the pilot
I run the call myself. I show you the companion and we work out whether a pilot fits your programme.
Alesia Kunz
CEO of LearnSlice
Founding yourself?
Join the list. We will let you know when the Founder Companion opens for founders.
The Founder Companion provides general information and does not replace legal or tax advice.