contact with my corporate network, and to work with young people and guide them towards starting their own ventures.
Is this where you thought you’d be by this point in your life? I thought I would get to this point sooner to be honest. I always had a goal to make my first million by age 30, I’m two years off! This is very much down to my procrastination of not being quite ready to leave the corporate world though. If I had taken the plunge and left the corporate world sooner, I believe I would have achieved that goal. I did start my first business at the age of 26 but didn’t push it. The other biggest challenge for me was that I never really knew what business to start. I had lots of ideas but thought that they weren’t quite the right ones to dedicate every bit of focus I had to, since that to me was too much of a risky approach. Venturespring is truly the best concept I could have ever have come up with as it allows me to test demand and not place all my eggs in one basket. If a venture gains traction it will become very apparent that more resources need to be dedicated to that venture as opposed to others in the portfolio.
You’ve worked with a range of businesses and brands; what has been your most enjoyable experience so far? Traveling to all corners of the globe to meet with global brand teams, the networking i.e. working with multiple stakeholders who are involved with the brand teams such as third party suppliers and agencies and understanding the unique industries that each of these brands is involved in.
What about from a startup perspective? From a startup perspective I love working with multiple startup models and understanding what makes them better or more lucrative than one another. There is nothing better than witnessing a startup pitch, seeing the passion that comes through and learning about their vision to grow and scale in market.
The transition from a corporate background to the startup world must’ve been educational; what lessons did you learn at this time? The grass is always greener on the other side, and I would never look back. The startup world is similar to a rollercoaster ride. It’s a lot more stressful than the corporate world but if you like a challenge and thrive on it then this is the place for you. I don’t like routine, I get bored easily, so having your own venture certainly can keep you on your toes; there is never a dull moment!
It’s a huge jump to make and very scary at first purely because you are leaving something which is a little more stable for a much riskier proposition. It’s difficult to take that plunge into the unknown (on all levels), most startups aren’t well known so by making that transition you basically need to be prepared for risk, being unknown and failure on some accounts.
What advice would you offer to those in that stage right now? Don’t ever give up on your dream, if you have always wanted your own venture then do it today rather than later to avoid getting what you want later in life. I should have done this sooner but I believe I wouldn’t have been as successful. It’s not as hard as you think it is, you always seem to find your feet as long as you try hard and don’t give up.
Always have a plan financially – don’t just jump out of a well paid job without knowing how you are going to cover your expenses or get at least enough cash resources in in order to build your new venture.
66 | SYB | JULY 2014
You don’t need to have a cash reserve but just be confident of your cash generation abilities in case you find yourself in a tricky situation.
You don’t always need to know exactly what it ultimately is that you want to start business wise before making that jump, but follow what you are passionate about as your passion will lead the way and you will get to that ultimate point eventually. Perhaps get a feel for the startup world by co-founding your initial startup with a more experienced business partner in order to test the waters.
Finally, build you network as much as possible before you make a move. Have enough people within your network to draw upon and utilise for your venture.
What do you feel when you think you’ve achieved a ‘big win’? The feeling associated with a ‘big win’ is much more powerful when you have your own business as you feel as though a huge achievement has been made and that you are getting closer to your ultimate goal.
What corporate skills did you find particularly useful and applicable to the startups you began working with? Sales – bringing on new clients and business, so pitching, building relationships, scouting for new prospects and converting them. New product development – understanding how to conceptualise and build a new product offering which is compelling to your target.
Digital marketing / growth hacking / user acquisition – understanding what digital marketing techniques are best to generate users or traffic for your product or service online or via mobile. So things like search, social media marketing, mobile marketing, content marketing, affiliate marketing, influencer outreach etc.
Business information systems – understanding how different technological systems are built (both front and backend) and how the information architecture could be optimised in order to produce your own system for clients or internally.
Coding – the ability to read and write code so that you can understand how both web and mobile applications are built in order to manage this type of build activity within your business, optimise backends or manage development delivery teams.
Why did you decide to make the move from corporate to startup? I always wanted my own venture for as long as I can remember. I left South Africa for London as the career progression opportunities weren’t big enough for me out there and always knew from a very young age that I would eventually start my own business. For me financial freedom and independence is a huge motivating factor. I also believe that you need to be passionate about what you do and if you are going to invest all that time and energy into something that you love then it’s important for you to own it. I don’t like limitation, having your own venture means freedom to do whatever you like when you like. You can have the ability to build things the way you want them built. I battle with autonomy, and don’t like taking orders, I like to break the rules and do things my way and having your own venture allows you to do that.
Aside from funding, what do you find to be the most common problem that new entrepreneurs face? Funding in my mind doesn’t need to be a problem. So many
WWW.STARTYOURBUSINESSMAG.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100