Free Leadership Assessment for 500 Startups, Accelerators, and Investors

The consulting company Wavveup is partnering with US Research Center Blackhawke Behavior Science to offer entrepreneurs the first tailored 360 leadership assessment, normally a fee-based service, for free

Wavveup, a Barcelona-based company offering organizational consulting and leadership coaching to high-growth startups, has developed a 360 assessment for evaluating and improving entrepreneurial performance in association with Blackhawke Behavior Science. During the trial period only, entrepreneurs from around the world are invited to participate in the evaluation free of charge.

For an assessment to be valid, a leader should have at least five evaluators, such as peers, investors or direct reports. They will be asked questions about founders’ 12 key competencies, identified through over 1,000 studies of successful startups and entrepreneurs: vision, strategy, problem-solving & decision-making, execution & operations, innovation, resourcefulness, collaboration & allyship, direction, influence, self-discipline, intensity, and tenacity. The test will also evaluate 3 character traits that are highly regarded by investors: ethical leadership, integrity, and coachability. 

Following the evaluation, each founder will receive a personalized report reflecting how their team ranked their performance based on these 12 pillars of entrepreneurship, providing scores that help them identify high-performance competencies where development is most needed.

“As startups scale, leadership must evolve. We are proud to partner with Blackhawke to provide the best science-based tools to help founders build their leadership skills and capacity as they scale their businesses,” said Laura Tejada, co-founder of Wavveup. “In a scale-up, everything is tightly interconnected, and if one piece breaks, it can easily ripple through the entire system. The team reflects the alignment and development of its leaders.”

High-performance leadership is non-negotiable when it comes to startup success. Due to inflation, startups are losing value, and it is one tool to increase the value of the team when investors' money becomes more expensive. Self-awareness is another critical skill for entrepreneurs. It is essential for anyone who aspires to be or currently occupies a leadership position; leaders who are not self-aware are 600% more likely to derail than self-aware leaders. 

“As investors, we can use this tool to evaluate how well a company is operating and use those insights to make less risky and wiser investment decisions. Tracking performance also gives us insights and knowledge about how our portfolio companies are performing so we know when to step in and provide support," said Urs Rothmayr, co-founder and Managing Partner of COREangels Group, one of the world’s leading business angel funds.

Nikki Blacksmith, Ph.D., and co-founder of Blackhawke Behavior Science: “The tool is not only beneficial to investors because it is high-performance teams that give startups a competitive advantage. To truly outperform the competition, founders need to measure performance to identify where and how they need to develop leadership skills. Large corporations, including Fortune 500 companies, have been benefiting from leadership development tools for decades. Startups need to develop leadership just as much, if not more, than large corporations, but in the past 360 assessments have been out of reach due to their high cost. We’re changing that.” 

Once the trial period is completed, Wavveup will publish a research paper and share these useful findings with the entire professional community.

The Wavveup team has collaborated with many international startups, investors, and accelerators. Among them are Zebra Ventures, Levels Up Ventures, Demium, Beonprice, Comunidad Feliz, Kleta, Project Lobster, Sociate AI, and others.

To participate in this research, please register here.