The Hard Part with Evan McCann Francois Lafortune from Diagram Ventures
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Oct 1, 2025 Francois Lafortune, Co-founder and CEO of Diagram Ventures, shares his entrepreneurial journey, inspired by his work with Wealthsimple. He discusses how Diagram sources and validates ideas through a problem-first approach and outlines criteria for startups' success, including market timing and competition analysis. Francois emphasizes the importance of building strong founding teams and explains their strategy for maintaining a founder-friendly investment model. He also highlights emerging trends beyond AI, such as stablecoins and digital payments, providing insight into the future of business.
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Hire The CEO Before Filling Roles
- Hire the CEO first and design the founding team around their strengths and gaps.
- Aim for two to three founders, always ensuring a CTO presence when launching product-driven startups.
Make Deals Founder- and VC-Friendly
- Give founders meaningful equity to attract top entrepreneurial talent and outside VC participation.
- Structure studio ownership to be founder- and VC-friendly rather than trying to keep majority economics.
Team Structure: Operators In The Studio
- Diagram's partners act like operator-partners who spend time in venture creation and sit on boards as the companies scale.
- The venture creation team gives entrepreneurial talent hands-on coaching and repeat exposure to building startups.