Category Archives: Business Planning

Health Warning: Entrepreneurship is not all Plain Sailing

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Last month’s gathering of Lean Startup Melbourne was devoted to the emotional and psychological downsides to being an entrepreneur. Whether building a startup or managing a successful corporate career, we are accustomed to reading about business success stories; but while we do learn something about corporate failures, we don’t hear much about the personal cost when things don’t go as planned.

But first, given the seriousness of this topic, if anyone reading this feels in need of help then there are some excellent information and support resources available listed here. There are also some useful reference articles such as this.

The evening’s panel Q&A discussion was preceded by a very moving account from Tom Howard, co-founder of Adioso on his own challenges in building a startup, about which he has written here. Tom’s frank and honest story about dealing with personal struggles while trying to manage investor expectations was neatly summed up in this observation: “Writing essays on our struggle was some of the best marketing.”

The panel members were drawn from a mix of startup, entrepreneurial and corporate backgrounds, and their stories revealed episodes of depression, near-bankruptcy and burn-out – tales possibly all too familiar to some experienced startup veterans in the audience, or merely spectres of what the future may hold for other budding entrepreneurs eager to learn from their peers. One of the panel, Andre Obradovic is now a public speaker on mental health issues, and has channeled his own experiences into advocacy and raising awareness.

If there was one recurring theme that ran through the discussion, it was the surprise at what happened to them – seemingly successful individuals who suddenly encountered severe setbacks (personal, financial, emotional, psychological), that came close to derailing their ability to function in their roles (as people, partners, parents or employers). The positive conclusion was that in recognising what was happening, and doing something about it, these individuals have managed to rebuild their lives and their careers, and are probably all the stronger and more resilient as a result.

Meanwhile, a number of hopeful startups were brave enough on the night to showcase their projects in the evening’s Startup Alley: Influx (outsourced customer support for online businesses), Cloakr (mobile device solution for coat check services), Jutsu (personal goal-setting app), Followus (social media site management for small business) and Brakeboard (braking systems for skateboards).

Finally, the evening’s event was sponsored by a clutch of generous supporters: Mondelēz International, InnovAction, Zendesk, Bluechilli, The X Gene and hosts Inspire9.

 

 

Show me the money! (or: Startup Anxiety…)

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Last week’s Lean Startup Melbourne event was entitled Doubts to Dollars – dealing with early stage uncertainty in startups and drew a crowd of close to 400 people, making this regular forum as THE networking venue for the local startup scene.

Of course, the evening’s festivities would not have been possible without the generous support of our hosts, inspire9, and sponsors BlueChilli, Startup Victoria, the Startup Foundation and the Kussowski Brothers. To kick-off proceedings, Daniel Mumby from the Startup Foundation pitched at older would-be entrepreneurs (“those with responsibilities like families, jobs, mortgages…”) in support of his organisation’s new accelerator program, which kicks off this month, under the banner of “Think and Break Free”. Next, a team of successful entrepreneurs was assembled, to discuss key startup topics, including:

  • Idea
  • Team
  • Finance
  • Product/Market Fit

On the panel were:

  • Sydney Low, co-founder of former Australian ISP, Freeonline back at the dawn of the century. (Check out his YouTube channel for some marketing archeology from the early days of web surfing, when internet access was dial-up, iPhones were a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye, and “social media” meant the gossip column in your tabloid newspaper.)
  • Samantha Cobb, who is founding CEO at biotech AdAlta, and who has a background in IP commercialisation.
  • Justin Dry, co-founder at wine startup Vinomofo, and one of the people behind Qwoff, an online community for wine enthusiasts.

The initial discussion covered some of the basics to consider before launching your own startup venture, such as product testing, market analysis, listening to customers, getting honest with yourself, and protecting your IP. There was also a surfing analogy – about timing/positioning yourself to catch and ride the wave, rather than trying to paddle out to the breaker….There were also some very personal observations (including painful lessons) such as how to deal with failure (“keep pivoting, fail fast”), maintaining staff motivation when deals don’t complete, the importance of building prototypes (“even if it’s just a PowerPoint slide”), and the value of having confidants (on the board, and among key investors). However, the evening’s recurring theme, dear to many past, present and future startup founders and entrepreneurs, was all about the money – not just where it comes from in the early days of any startup (angel investors, venture capital and private equity); but how easily it can disappear.

The panel of speakers emphasised the importance of cashflow (i.e., “making payroll”), and knowing how fast or how far your money may need to go in early stage growth and the initial product development stages:

First, assuming you are not fully self-funding, you need to convince an investor of your idea. Both the team and the investors need to believe in the founders.

Second, really challenge your market/product fit – be open to telling people what you are doing so you can get validation. (Note to local startups: the Australian culture, whether it’s the tall-poppy syndrome, or a lack of trust, means people tend to hide new ideas…)

Third, work out what your cash burn rate might need to be. Stick to the capex budget as much as possible, manage the milestones (“next step of value”), and be prepared to double the costs/double the development time. Maybe spend more on marketing than on the product development – better to have an MVP that is bringing in revenue, than waiting for the perfect product that never ships….

Finally, a member of the audience wondered about the best route to establishing a startup: “should I learn to code, work for another startup, or get a job at a big firm?”. The succinct advice from the panel: “just do it.” While it may be tempting to do side projects to keep the money coming in, they may prevent you from making progress (or they become the startup). As one participant put it when describing his own new startup venture: “there is no Plan B; it’s Plan A or bust!”

POSTCRIPT TO JANUARY’S LEAN STARTUP MELBOURNE: In an earlier blog on Lean Startup Melbourne, I discussed some of the obstacles facing local startups in getting funding, and the challenge of engaging institutional investors in the startup community. Two recent developments suggest that debate on this topic is starting to gain some traction:

1) Catherine Livingston, incoming President of the Business Council of Australia, spoke on ABC Radio National about the need to connect institutional funds with domestic assets and investment opportunities that tend to get overlooked by local investors (at about 6′ 15″ into the interview).

2) Westpac bank has called for industry and regulator collaboration to provide better access to financial data on startups, and SMEs in general, in support of developing risk-based funding options for new businesses.

Management Consulting 101 (or: Think Before you Tinker About)

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Management consulting often gets a bad rep because practitioners typically come into an organisation knowing that there’s a problem that needs fixing, but spend too much time playing with their toolkit, or taking things apart, rather than focussing on practical solutions to the issue at hand.

HowThingsWork Worse still, consultants often disappear without finishing the job, leaving someone else to clear up their mess and patch up the damage afterwards. Until the next round of management consultants come in.

As consultants, when we are invited into a client’s place of business, we are placed in a highly privileged and trusted position, one that we must not abuse or take for granted. Yes, we are there to identify problems and help develop solutions, and in some cases we are given the responsibility of implementing them. But in our eagerness to deconstruct an organisation, we can overlook the need for some foresight and advance planning.

When analysing a client’s operations, and before making any recommendations for strategic change or process improvement, I often recall the words of my father, who was a mechanical engineer. At a young age, I had dismantled a clockwork motor (to see how it worked) – but then found it was impossible to reassemble all the cogs. He simply said:

“Before you take something apart, know how to put it back together again.”

 

Are Start-Ups a young persons’ game?

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Last week’s Lean StartUp Melbourne meeting was devoted to the AngelCube accelerator program. Given some of the high-profile start-ups that have come through this process, it was hardly surprising that nearly 400 people turned up to hear various AngelCube alumni share their personal experience (as well as to enjoy some free beer and pizza, courtesy of the evening’s sponsors: inspire9, BlueChilli, Kussowski Brothers and PwC).

First up, there were lightning talks by 3 successful program graduates: the team behind fantasy sports app developer C8 Apps, Ash Davies from self-publishing platform Tablo, and Phil Bosua, the technical genius at LIFX who designed the WiFi-controlled LED bulb. All of them vouched for the benefits of the AngelCube program, and offered key learnings – such as “fail hard, fail fast, fail forward”, and the value of having a disciplined weekly cycle of iterative product builds. Access to quality mentors was also a key factor.

Then Indi from OutTrippin joined the guys for a Q&A panel session, facilitated by AngelCube co-founder Nathan Sampimon.

Some of the accelerator program insights on the night were quite revealing –

  • it’s all about product-market fit
  • a solo founder will usually struggle on their own
  • be prepared to either pitch or pivot at the weekly program reviews
  • the $20,000 seed funding (for 10% of your business) doesn’t go far…
  • a B2B concept is less likely to be accepted to the program (due to longer sales cycles)
  • the model is founded on lean methodologies, frequent iteration and getting to an MVP
  • people with at least one start-up project behind them tend to do better
  • the AngelCube angels are investing in the team as much as the idea

But are start-ups really only for young(er) people? This question has been posed by Dan Mumby, from Melbourne’s StartUp Foundation, which offers a different sort of program aimed at would-be entrepreneurs who may have all the trappings of middle age: family, job, mortgage…. which means they have different personal and financial risks to consider.

On the other hand, as at least one AngelCube participant said, if you are serious about founding a start-up, “your first job is to quit your job”.

Another, broader challenge facing the local start-up community is a lack of serious investor interest. According to one panel member, “In Australia, getting funding is a joke unless you are literally digging for gold”. This may change with the launch of VentureCrowd an early-stage equity funding platform. (But it looks like it will be a struggle – at the time of writing, none of the 20 or so deals publicly showing up on VentureCrowd’s website have attracted any funding.)

An alternative funding model, based on the sweat equity principle, is a venture bank, like New Enterprise Services that essentially matches ideas with expertise through a risk-sharing process.

I always recall the advice I was given by one serial entrepreneur when I asked him whether start-ups are for everyone (regardless of age). He replied: “Unless you can afford to invest at least $20,000 in your idea, and support yourself for at least 6 months while you develop it, then maybe it’s not for you.”