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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>First off - people build all kinds of successful businesses in all kinds of different ways. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>My bias is towards building a profitable business and bootstrapping as far as you can go. Most successes I’ve seen or been a part of have had minimal outside investment. One CEO I worked for even raised *<b>all</b>* his expansion capital through selling stock to employees. You will need investment at some point but just better to put it off until later as it always comes with strings attached. Better to be looking for money when you aren’t desparate for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>To be honest I don’t think 3-5 years is very long. Lottery-win-style businesses aside you would do well to hunker down for 5 or 10 years of hard graft with various pivots along the way before you get your big exit. Though I’m puzzled - why do you even worry about whether the media is going to report it as an overnight success?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Probably obvious but worth saying: Make sure you really are the domain expert in the area you are trying to work on. Which, for someone on this list, probably means you are either working with a co-founder who has the inside track on a specific business problem or user behaviour, or that you are building tools for developers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I want to amplify Paul’s point about being conservative about costs etc: You absolutely need to realise that everything takes longer and costs more than you think. Everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>On which note - a very successful entrepreneur once told me his one single golden rule about running businesses: “never run out of cash”. Everything else is noise. He was exaggerating of course but there’s more than a nugget of truth in there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>a<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <a href="mailto:chat-bounces@lists.lrug.org">chat-bounces@lists.lrug.org</a> [<a href="mailto:chat-bounces@lists.lrug.org">mailto:chat-bounces@lists.lrug.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Paul Robinson<br><b>Sent:</b> 03 March 2014 19:01<br><b>To:</b> MG Lim<br><b>Cc:</b> London Ruby Users Group<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [LRUG] Startup Timeline<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 3 March 2014 12:10, MG Lim <<a href="mailto:mirageglobe@gmail.com" target="_blank">mirageglobe@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I am curious about how things for how ideas move on.... -> panning out to projects -> gathering a team and finally to funding rounds?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Mistake number 1 I know I made: thinking that entrepreneurship is about taking an idea and progressing it. This isn't just about software entrepreneurship but covers everything from inventing a better mousetrap to opening a pub.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Entrepreneurship is about identifying a market need and coming up with a solution that fixes it better than the alternatives in the minds of the customer.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>It's a subtle difference, but the change in emphasis is really important. It is not enough to have an idea and move it on: it needs you to spot a market need and identify the solution, and then how you discuss that with stakeholders (including the market) is what actually dictates the movement.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>The more obvious the need the more excited people will be about a solution (and the easier it will be to raise money, recruit, etc.). The more convincing your solution, the quicker you will be able to go (because you'll get more more money, more people, etc.).<br><br>As a result, detailed planning of almost anything pre-launch is likely wishful thinking at best.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>More of a general discussion; but what have your experiences been; if you have been in that path or part of that path? "I wish I had done that in the beginning" moments..<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I wish I had been considerably more conservative and bearish with my time/cost estimates on many occasions. On two occasions with hindsight I allowed stakeholders with insufficient experience to take too much control (so I got blamed for their fuck-ups), and on one occasion I did not let them have enough (so they lost passion for what they were doing).<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Marketing hells? Traction problems and in reality, the project took a good 3~5 years before media reported it as an overnight success.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Actually the reality is after 3-5 years you're probably on the wrong path and in need of a pivot if you're not seeing growth. Most of the household names had serious traction in under 18 months.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>PS: particularly with ruby-based frameworks / meteor styled frameworks; prototypes are quick to be churned out. <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>There is no doubt that the power of modern frameworks reduces the time to ship and therefore the cost.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>What is harder to swallow for most technologists is that shipping the product means virtually nothing on its own. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>In the same way a marketing team can only get so far with vapourware and the fact they will eventually need to ship product, an engineering team can only get so far without some serious marketing talent. Good companies with strong traction get that way by getting both almost perfect and in harmony.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>