We Ain’t No Superman (or Woman).
When Sarah Wood, founder of Unruly, came in to talk to us, she couldn’t have been more extraordinary. Having tracked and audited 1.34 billion video views and executed over 1,400 social video campaigns, having raised £16m in venture funding at the start of the years, Unruly is a truly successful start-up. And yet, Sarah’s advice was really down to earth - when building a start-up, you have to make sure that your team has got what it takes. As such, you guys need -
Superpowers. When founding a team, your team should cover the entire skill spectrum – the chances for a person to be good at everything are pretty small. So find people who have different skills than you and are extremely gifted at doing those things that would never get you out of bed.
Trustworthiness. We’d all trust a superhero. Same with your cofounders – you want to know that the person next to you won’t walk out on you.
Speed. If your start-up isn’t getting any attention, followers, sign-ups, users or subscribers, kill it. Kill it to create something bigger and generate a better business model.
Be on the edge of survival. When Sarah and her two co-founders started off, they needed to make their company work, since they couldn’t survive without money coming in. It helps to have that stress factor backing you up.
Stick to your word. As Sarah put it ‘Just make sure you get stuff done. It will get you very, very far’. Thanks Sarah.
Luckily, there are tools out there to help you become an all-rounder. Matt Perkins from Freeagent talked to us through the process of accounting. Or as we like to call it – the elephant in the room (view Ruben’s post). Accounting can be tamed easily, by using services such as Freeagent. Also, if you keep in mind that a sale is not finalised until you actually get paid, things start to look pretty good.
And finally – there are fantastic people out there who want to help. As such, Osborne Clarke hosted us for a seminar about the legal aspects of setting up a company name and IP. So eventually it’s thanks to all the external help that entrepreneurs become all-round men (or women).