Groundwork House · David White
For the person building a business — mostly alone
If you're building a business — or you love someone who is — you know the silence that comes with it. The First Year Letters puts seven real entrepreneurs alongside you for a full year: their struggles, their setbacks, and the proof that getting through it is possible.
"Ongoing companionship, problem-solving, and motivation delivered every two weeks for a year — for the entrepreneur building a business, and for the people who love them."
26 letters. · 7 characters. · 12 months. · Delivered fortnightly by email or post.
The part nobody talks about
Building a business is the loneliest thing most people will ever do.
The people around you mean well. Your partner, your parents, your closest friends — they are rooting for you. But there are conversations you cannot quite have with them. You cannot tell them how frightened you really are, because you don't want to alarm them. You cannot explain why one unanswered email has undone your entire Thursday, because it sounds small. You cannot share the 3am spreadsheet, the unit economics that still don't add up, the competitor who just launched with funding you'll never see.
So you carry it. You smile at dinner. You say it's going well.
And underneath that — quieter, more persistent — sits a fear that most entrepreneurs never say out loud: what if I'm the only one who feels this lost?
You're not. Not even close.
The First Year Letters doesn't offer a shortcut or a formula. It offers something rarer: seven people who are feeling exactly what you're feeling, navigating exactly what you're navigating, and proving — letter by letter, fortnight by fortnight — that the doubt is normal, the fear is normal, and success is not just possible. It is probable — for everyone who keeps going.
What it is
A story. A companion. A fortnightly reason to keep going.
The First Year Letters is a 26-letter subscription — one every two weeks for a full year — following seven entrepreneurs — in London, Melbourne, Austin, Toronto, Edinburgh, Istanbul, and Christchurch — through the chaos, doubt, and occasional breakthrough of their first year in business.
Every two weeks, a new letter arrives. Sometimes it's short and punchy. Sometimes it's long and deep. Always, something real happens: a deal falls through, a clever workaround saves the day, a conversation changes everything.
And woven through every letter — quietly, without lecturing — is something the reader can actually use in their own life and business.
Letter No. 1 of 26
Who it's for
For the person you recognise in these sentences.
Whether you're the one building something — or the person who loves them.
"It's going well" — they say it and they mean it, and they don't
They are holding the ambition and the fear in the same hands, at the same time. They smile at dinner. They carry it home. These letters are for the ride home.
They've done the maths. They've done it again. It still doesn't work.
The obstacles are real — cash, time, technical problems, self-doubt. What they need isn't motivation. It's proof that the obstacles are crossable. This is that proof.
They haven't quit yet. And they won't — if they know they're not alone.
Most businesses fail in the space between the idea and the first customer. Not because the idea was wrong — because the founder ran out of belief. These letters refill it.
How it works
Simple, thoughtful, impossible to forget.
You give the gift
Buy online in under a minute. Enter the recipient's name, email address, and a personal message. We'll send them a beautiful welcome email telling them what's coming — and from whom.
Letters start arriving
Every two weeks, a new letter lands. Each one follows the seven characters forward — real problems, real setbacks, real solutions. Some are short and sharp; others take their time. Always worth reading.
The story builds
Over twelve months, a complete arc unfolds. Problems compound, breakthroughs arrive, characters grow. By letter 26, the ending is earned — and the reader has had a year of quiet, practical encouragement alongside it.
They remember who gave it to them
Most gifts are forgotten within a week. This one arrives every two weeks for a full year. That's 26 letters — 26 moments when the person you believe in thinks of you.
The cast
Seven people. Seven cities. One first year.
The letters follow a group of entrepreneurs who found each other online and have been quietly holding each other up ever since. Each one is trying to build something different. Each one is facing the same fundamental challenge: staying in the game long enough to find out if it works.
Marcus
London, UK
Software engineer building a micro-insurance platform for gig workers. Codes at midnight. Carries the weight of his family's sacrifices.
Priya
Melbourne, Australia
Former teacher turned ed-tech founder. Selling science kits to home-schooling families — on a budget that makes every decision feel enormous.
Jake
Austin, Texas
College dropout building software for construction companies. Can't code. Has a lot to prove — especially to his dad.
Amara
Toronto, Canada
Accountant, 41, launching a financial coaching service for Black-owned businesses. Over-plans. Under-ships. Working on it.
Callum
Edinburgh, Scotland
Lost his pub in COVID. Now building a marketplace for craft brewers. Already knows what rock bottom looks like — which makes him harder to rattle.
Selin
Istanbul, Turkey
Copywriter building a content agency for US startups. Navigating payment restrictions, time zones, and the question of whether she belongs to any market at all.
Dean
Christchurch, NZ
Logistics manager turned SaaS founder. Made redundant with a small runway and a spreadsheet that says Month 1 in cell A1.
A taste
What a letter actually feels like
Week 11 — Dean, Christchurch
The API Problem
The enterprise API costs $2,000 a month. Dean's entire monthly budget is $400. He has known about this problem for three weeks. He has not slept properly in four days.
His wife asked, gently, how long they could keep going. He said he wasn't sure. She nodded and made tea and didn't push it. That somehow made it worse.
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from overwork but from running the same calculation over and over and getting the same answer. The numbers don't add up. They have never added up. And yet here he is, still at the desk at midnight, trying to find a number that does.
On the fourth morning, making coffee, he had an idea so simple he almost dropped the mug.
Each letter ends with a cliffhanger. This one resolves in Week 12.
The offer
A whole year of showing up.
One payment. 26 letters. Buy for yourself — or as a gift for the entrepreneur in your life.
A full year's subscription
from Groundwork House
£99
one payment · save £21 vs monthly
- 26 letters delivered every other Monday
- 7 characters across 5 countries
- Practical insight woven into every story
- A complete story arc across all 26 letters
- Beautiful gift welcome email sent on your behalf
- Email delivery or printed post (UK & Ireland)
Secure checkout · Instant gift notification
Buying as a gift? Add your recipient's name & email at checkout — we'll send them a beautiful welcome email on your behalf.
Gifting made easy
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What people say
Forty years of being in the room with entrepreneurs.
These are testimonials about working directly with David — the experience and perspective that inform every word of The First Year Letters.
From my first conversation with David, it was immediately evident that he possessed invaluable experience in areas crucial to my business development. His exceptional insights prompted me to quickly secure him as an advisor, a decision that has proven transformative for our company. His combination of strategic acumen, practical business wisdom, and valuable connections makes David an indispensable advisor to our team.
Justin Runes
Entrepreneur · Austin, Texas
With every single meeting we uncover fresh, actionable ideas that make a real impact. David has an exceptional ability to challenge our thinking and helps us see opportunities outside the box — and literally, our moat keeps widening.
Jan Breukers
Business Owner · San Francisco, California
David speaks and mentors from industry experience rather than clichés. Very refreshing and inspiring.
Christopher Collins
Business Leader
David breaks everything down beautifully, turning complex issues into simple steps so that it is easily understood. David always follows through on every promise. I can't recommend him highly enough.
Caroline Hurry
Business Owner
An authentic pioneer in marketing. The strategies David reveals literally turn conventional thinking on its ear. This is exactly the kind of advice I needed when I started my career.
Dan Kennedy
Author & Marketing Strategist
Also recommended by
Drayton BirdMike LeahyLisa CattoNick JamesCarla CotterellKevin FrancisTim CoeMustafa AhmedAbout the author
Written by someone who has sat with thousands of entrepreneurs — for forty years.
I have spent four decades working with business owners. As a certified business advisor and mentor, I have sat with founders at every stage — from the sleepless first week to the hard-won establishment of something that lasts.
What I've learned, across thousands of those conversations, is that the drive is almost always the same. Entrepreneurs want to be seen as the best in their field. They want to charge what they're genuinely worth. They want to build great reputations, loyal clients who come back — and they want to do it without sacrificing everything else in the process.
And almost all of them, at some point in the conversation, say some version of the same thing: I didn't know it was going to feel like this.
I wrote The First Year Letters because the one thing I could never give people — back when it would have helped the most — was company. Not a strategy. Not a framework. Company. Someone to say: the doubt is normal. The fear is normal. This is what the first year looks like for everyone who's ever built anything worth building.
That is what these letters are.
David White
Award-winning author · Certified Business Advisor · Mentor to entrepreneurs across the globe · davidwhiteconsulting.com
