Could you fit everything your business is, and everything you want it to become, onto a single page?
That's the challenge our four newest founders (2026-27) have just taken on. A few months into their year with us, each has received a seed grant and finished the first phase of our mentoring: two months of one-on-one sessions with our co-founder Rod, building a One Page Strategic Plan (OPSP) and a working budget.
Don't let the "one page" stump you. The OPSP was developed by business growth expert Verne Harnish, and it's used by fast-growing companies around the world. It takes real thinking to fill in. Founders have to pin down their purpose, their long-term vision, their priorities for the year ahead, and the actions and numbers that will get them there. Keeping it to one page is the point: it gives everyone involved a clear, shared picture of where the business is heading and what matters most right now.
Habteab Bantora, founder of Vital Water Purifier, with his One Page Strategic Plan taking shape.
Before we hear from them about their experience so far, here's who they are:
Jonathan, Hogarelia (Colombia) runs a digital marketplace for domestic workers in Bogotá. Most are women working without contracts or protection, and Hogarelia helps them set their own prices and build a professional career.
Habteab, Vital Water Purifier (Ethiopia) sells water filters and sanitation products in rural Ethiopia. He employs low-income women and young people as sales agents and subsidises free and discounted products for the poorest families.
Dr Zsófia, Let's CEE (Hungary) helps lead a network of psychologists across Central and Eastern Europe. Their paid therapy work funds free mental health sessions for young people at unique walk-in youth hubs.
Rachel, All Skate Tauranga (New Zealand) offers adaptive and therapeutic roller skating for people with disabilities and those facing financial hardship. Her skating school, Skatescool, helps fund it.
So, what does two months and one page actually change? We asked them...
Q1: As part of your strategic planning process with Rod, you've worked on defining your business purpose. Can you share that purpose with our readers?
Jonathan, Hogarelia (Colombia): "Hogarelia exists so that domestic work in Colombia leaves something behind for the woman who does it. We are a worker-centred marketplace in Bogotá where she sets her own price and keeps all of it, builds a professional reputation she owns, and finds a route into formal protection."
Habteab, Vital Water Purifier (Ethiopia): "Our purpose is to improve lives through affordable access to safe drinking water and sanitation, while creating income opportunities for underserved communities. The strategic planning with Rod helped us see that we can only do this sustainably by building revenue streams that drive the growth of our business."
Zsófia, Let’s CEE (Hungary): "Our purpose is to unlock possible futures for generations to come. We do this because we know that the future depends on youth… by offering prevention-focused mental health services to young people in Central Eastern Europe [including free sessions for those who can’t afford care, through walk-in, stigma-free youth hubs]."
Rachel, All Skate Tauranga (New Zealand): "To create safe, adaptable [roller skating] opportunities where everyone feels welcome. At the heart of All Skate is the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy, connection and wellbeing that comes from being active, regardless of age, ability [or disability], experience [or income]."
Dr Zsófia Szlamka (pictured centre, cream sweatshirt), founder of Let’s CEE, with young people at one of Let’s CEE’s youth hubs in Hungary.
Q2: What have you found most valuable during this first phase of business mentoring?
Jonathan, Hogarelia (Colombia): "The discipline of sequencing. Rod kept pulling me back from the ten things I could do to the one thing that unlocks the rest."
Habteab, Vital Water Purifier (Ethiopia): "Creating a functioning structure early on… to guide our organisation towards a defined goal. We developed a One Page Strategic Plan as a roadmap to the milestones we plan to hit within 12 months. One of the goals is to surpass our break-even point."
Zsófia, Let's CEE (Hungary): "That the mentoring was personalised to the business. In other programmes I've been part of, mentoring was offered to a group of teams, so the advice was much more generic."
Rachel, All Skate Tauranga (New Zealand): "Feeling supported and knowing I'm not trying to figure everything out on my own. The mentoring has given me a clear pathway to follow and helped me step back, look at the bigger picture and make purposeful decisions, rather than simply working things out as I go."
All Skaters recently gathered on the rink for All Skate Tauranga’s first birthday celebration (October).
Q3: How has your business idea, or how you think about your business, changed or evolved since starting the strategic planning process?
Jonathan, Hogarelia (Colombia): "I started out thinking like a social impact builder: perfect the platform for the workers, then launch. I now think like a marketplace: supply, demand and trust have to move together, and reaching households is the real investment. Without it, there is no impact for the workers."
Habteab, Vital Water Purifier (Ethiopia): "We realised consistent marketing will increase sales leads, and choosing busy business centres for our shops will help with sales volume. Exploring partnerships with other businesses could also strengthen Vital Water Purifier financially… and help us scale."
Zsófia, Let's CEE (Hungary): "Most importantly, we have our core strategic goals in mind now, and we have a budget to work towards too."
Rachel, All Skate Tauranga (New Zealand): "I've realised that All Skate can become something much bigger than I first imagined. What started as an idea to provide more inclusive skating opportunities has grown into a vision for reaching many more people and creating a real sense of belonging, connection and joy."
Habteab Bantora, founder of Vital Water Purifier, with a local community member and one of Vital’s water filters, during a field visit in rural Ethiopia.
Q4: Finally, what's the most important thing you're working on to progress your business right now?
Jonathan, Hogarelia (Colombia): "Payments went live [in September] and the first booking has already run money end to end, so everything now is about the first paid bookings in Bogotá: activating workers, reaching households, and learning what winning one customer really costs."
(Jonathan sent us his answers at the end of September, with 2,000 letterbox flyers and an installable Hogarelia app next on his list.)
Habteab, Vital Water Purifier (Ethiopia): "Applying exactly what we planned in our OPSP. We are buying stock, preparing marketing materials and getting our shop in Hawassa up and running. We'll keep you updated!"
Zsófia, Let's CEE (Hungary): "Finding our first paying customers through the social enterprise model."
Rachel, All Skate Tauranga (New Zealand): "Community outreach and relationship building. I want to keep connecting with people, organisations and communities who share our vision, while helping more people discover that All Skate is a place where they can feel welcome, included and part of something."
Diego, an assistant Jonathan brought on to help, interviews a passer-by in Bogotá during Hogarelia’s early customer research (with a free doughnut on offer for five minutes of their time!).
What's next? Phase Two
With their plans on paper, it's time to put them to work. For the rest of their year, each founder will meet monthly with a dedicated business mentor, who helps them turn their plan into progress.
Rachel has been matched with our very own co-founder, Heather Claycomb. Habteab is working with Bill Sahlie, director at Fontis NZ Ltd, a New Zealand water treatment specialist.
For Jonathan and Zsófia, we're still searching for the right mentor. Finding the right match matters more to us than finding one fast. In the meantime, Rod's door stays open whenever they need him.
Could you be the right fit? If you're an experienced business person who'd like to give a few hours a month to a founder changing lives, we'd love to hear from you: info@allgood.ventures