What We're Building
Three functions. One is under way, two are not built. Each says which, plainly.
The Hub IN PROGRESS
A shared home for the trade: practical knowledge, honest numbers, and peer support, built by the people doing the work and free to all of them, member or not.
What exists today: these founding documents. The join form will carry one question about what would make this alliance worth belonging to, so needs discovery starts at member one. What the Hub offers next will be shaped by what members say they need. The first planned artifact is the State of Independent Founders survey: what we build, spend, earn, and endure, published openly with its methodology.
The Credential NOT BUILT YET
A way for an independent founder to prove they and their venture are real, without a VC's signature. Today, a cloud vendor's startup program gives a bootstrapped founder a fraction of what the same founder gets with an investor's referral code. The gate is not merit; it is a signature. We intend to become a credible counter-signature for people who built instead.
Principles we intend to hold: when the Credential exists, it should assert facts, not virtues, with its evidence standard published.
The Voice NOT BUILT YET
Data and representation. Platform account freezes, payout holds, and silent bans are the tax this trade pays alone, one founder at a time. Documented together, they become evidence; represented together, they become expensive to inflict.
Nothing has been published yet. When it is, every claim will cite its evidence, and every correction will be attached to the original. Who is allowed to speak in IFA's name, now and later, is set out on the governance page.
What IFA is not for
IFA does not raise capital for members, does not arbitrate members' disputes with third parties, and does not certify products. Where a need falls outside our remit, we will say so plainly rather than expand to fill it. Expanding it will need a member vote, once there are members and a way to vote.