How .Cocoon works?
Business - Personal link
We start from your business challenge and find the link between the challenge and you (your perception - approach, attitudes, and behaviors).
Perception & awareness change
The mentors of the program guide the participants to change their perception and grow their awareness, and founders can see new solutions that were unavailable to them before.
Challenges into growth
This is when self-discovery becomes essential for business growth, and tackling the business challenges turns into the fuel for self-discovery. Your personal growth is an unfair advantage that can boost the organization's growth.
I joined .Cocoon program because I saw that my company and I need a change to get better results. Since then, I have brought many learnings from .Cocoon back to my company - we make sure that everybody in our team has the right job and that team members trust each other. I have met brilliant people through this program and gained a lot of food for thought for many months to come. Thanks .Cocoon!
Indrek Jaal, CEO of GlobalReader
Our approach
Challenges
Founders are rich with challenges. A goal that you have tried to achieve with your limited resources (time, money, network) and have failed turns into a true challenge. It can range from an external (e.g., not being able to raise the next round) to an internal (e.g., a feeling that you find it hard to make decisions).
Perception
You can't reach your goals when you take the wrong steps. And you can't take the steps that you don't see. To see new steps, you need to change your perception. The components of perception are, including beliefs, biases, blind spots, shortcomings, weaknesses and also strengths.
If you change any of those components, your perception changes, and you see new potential steps to take.
Process
You cannot change those perception components by getting new information from articles, videos, or advisors. Instead, you need to
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Acquire personal knowledge of your perception and its components;
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Devise a plan on how to change the necessary components;
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Work on changing the required components.
We can compare it to body health. If you have long-term back pain, reading an article about it will not solve it. Also, asking for advice will not solve it. Instead, you need to
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Do the spine MRI;
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Let the doctor see it and design you a custom training plan;
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Then do the daily spine exercises selected or even designed specifically for you.
Solution
.Cocoon provides you with support in all those areas:
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The Assessments and Training Days help you to identify how your perception is holding you back;
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The Mentoring program helps you keep learning new knowledge and devise a plan to change your perception and be accountable for executing your plan;
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The Cocoon Ventures investments help to finance the personal and business growth.
Resources:
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Video: Keynote by .Cocoon co-founder Rein Lemberpuu on how your perception impacts your ability to reach your goals;
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The format of .Cocoon Training is good. It opens up and engages different people for one task in a short time. The most valuable aspect for me is to see myself through the eyes of the other founders.
Zigmunds Vikis, CEO of Protectum
Our uniqueness
Cocoon is unique because we combine business and personal development in multiple formats: personal mentoring, shadow mentoring, mentoring in groups, trainings, assessments, masterclasses, and peer-to-peer mentoring.
Compared to startup accelerators and incubators
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Several of our participants are alumni of business accelerators and incubators - after they have acquired the initial business knowledge in accelerator programs, Cocoon is serving as the next step for working on yourself to become a great leader and make your team work well;
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Accelerators focus on the business. .Cocoon sees your personal development as the main driver for business growth;
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Accelerators usually take place in 3-4 months batches. .Cocoon is a year-long program with an intense mentoring and trainings program.
Compared to individual coaches and mentors
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Cocoon program combines individual mentoring with work in groups together with other founders and mentors during our quarterly trainings and masterclasses;
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The individual mentoring is additionally powered by regular know-how exchange between the mentors and Cocoon, and by shadow mentoring (to avoid blind spots and multiply the effect);
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One person vs. A-Team;
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We carefully interview and select our mentors;
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Several of our participants have individual startup mentors as well, who focus on particular business questions, e.g., strategy, sales, or product.
Compared to advisory board members
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We focus on the founder's personality and how it impacts business, while advisors focus on the business aspects;
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Cocoon program is structured and organized;
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We combine individual mentoring with work in groups.
Compared to psychotherapy
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Our mentors are experienced in business and mentoring, and we focus on both - your self-discovery and your business development;
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Some of our members parallelly work with a psychotherapist as well and have expressed that this parallel work helps them progress in both areas.
Compared to individual learning or individual discussions with other founders
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Various online resources give you general information while mentoring gives you new knowledge about yourself and individual solutions for you, based on your particular challenges;
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Similarly, as you can't see your eyes, you can't see certain things about your personality and perception by yourself;
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Founders' psychology mentoring is a specific discipline, not an unstructured conversation. It's similar to comparing fixing your teeth with your friends vs. a dentist.
