Do things that don’t scale to understand your customers intimately

Do things that don't scale to understand your customers intimately.

Founders, on day one you need to understand the problem they are hoping your product will solve.

To do that you have to talk to them. Not try and guess what extra feature will make the difference or send a survey or email and ask for feedback. Actually call them up and talk to them.

Then you can adapt your product and messaging to reflect what your customers actually want.

That doesn't scale. It doesn't need to once you understand your customers intimately.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 3 Apr 23

#TodayI

Posted my views on the quote "startups die of suicide not murder".
Listened to Harry Stebbings' podcast with Dara Khosrowshahi while running to work.
Was pitched by Merita Memisi of Bart.
Caught up with 🎥 Gabriel Isserlis of Tutti (visit www.tutti.space).
Had lunch with Matt Horton of Aztec Group.
Had coffee with Sean Cheong.

#LaterI

Am having pizza with a friend.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Startups die of suicide not murder

Startups die of suicide not murder.

This quote suggests it's about the execution and not the competition.

Whilst there is truth in this, the more competitors you have the harder it will be and if one is way ahead of you it can cap your upside. There are also winner takes all scenarios like marketplaces.

What do you think?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 31 Marc 23

#TodayI

Didn't cycle to work because the wind speed was over 60km/h.
Posted about not doing what your customers ask.
Had a late breakfast with Trevor Nicholls of EaseeDo.
Chatted with Euan Cameron of Willo®.
Had a call with Alex Macarthur of Pocketlaw.
Was pitched by two founders who wish to remain anonymous.
Caught up with Roei Samuel of Connectd.

#NowI

Am taking my kids to see Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Don't do what your customers ask.

Don't do what your customers ask.

Provocative but true. Your customers will ask for features. You need to understand why, what problem they are trying to solve. Then build what solves that problem.

Sometimes that will be what they asked for. Sometimes you will delight them with something much, much better.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 30 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared that done is better than perfect.
Had my Important not Urgent day and cleared a chunk of backlog.
Had a call with an investor in a business I am considering investing in.
Gave feedback on a pitch deck.
Replaced the broken band on my Fitbit.

#LaterI

Am going for dinner.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Done is better than perfect

Done is better than perfect.

It's easy to get obsessed with perfect. It can be an excuse not to ship. You are much better shipping product and getting fast feedback than waiting.

Even if you are launching, you can always launch again. Airbnb launched three times and no one paid attention to the first two.

Get your product out there, get feedback and iterate fast.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 28 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared Part III of the unbundled vc founder support scheme - Marketing with Nicky Dibben.
Ran to pilates.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Was pitched by Emilian Siemsia of Planky.
Had a quick catch up with Singe (StJohn) Deakins of CitizenMe.
Attended Wangie.app's Q2 focus meeting hosted by the one and only Monika Holod.
Was pitched by Isabella Sumner (currently raising 🙌🏻 🌱) and Till Janz of InHaus.ai.
Caught up with Larisa Budaeva of Nation.better to hear her progress and plans.

#NowI

Have to collect one son from football club, drop another at football training, collect him from football training and take him to table tennis and stay and watch the all-island finals with him. And get back to some founders. 🤷‍♂️

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder support scheme - Part III - marketing with Nicky Dibben.

Marketing refers to any actions a company takes to offer the right products and services and attract an audience through high-quality messaging. This means digging deep to figure out how your customers perceive the pain points you solve for them, who those customers are, and how you can best reach them.
 
Nicky Dibben is a 360-degree marketer who knows this back to front. She has huge experience helping you understand and craft your positioning and messaging. I'm delighted to announce that Nicky is Part III of the unbundled vc founder support scheme.
 
We are partnering to offer founders a free one-hour consultation with actionable feedback for any founders I invest in and can extend that today to three more founders who Nicky and I will choose. Either contact me directly or comment on this post.

The feedback goes just to you and I will never see it. It's there to help you, it's not DD.

There is more to come. Watch this space.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 28 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared my belief that the likely progression of AI means that founder strength is more important than ever.
Had coffee with Sean Cheong. To be continued.
Chatted with Jack Richardson about his plans and investing.
Was pitched by Cristina Cruz of Off U Go!
Spoke briefly to my bank.
Was pitched by Konstantinos (Kostas) E. Zachariadis and Marios Tsatsos, PhD of Adjoin Homes.

#LaterI

Have a parents' evening.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder strength is more important than ever

Investment hypothesis:

AI is changing the world faster than ever. It's hard to know which business areas will be impacted the most. Founders will have to be more nimble than ever. Founder strength is therefore more important than ever.

Thoughts?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 27 Marc 23

#TodayI

Posted about how if your process doesn't match your beliefs, your outcomes will match your process.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Was pitched by Chris Miller and Charlie Pothecary of Becon: The Smart Safety App.
Had a call with two founders who wish to remain anonymous.
Chatted with Anthony Paine of Stashbee.
Was pitched by Nick Greenhalgh and Vasileios Nikolaou of Luca.
Had a lovely chat with James Roycroft-Davis of Vulnerable Podcast about all the things.

#NowI

Have to get home to watch my son in a table tennis tournament.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

If your process doesn't match your beliefs, your outcome will match your process

Founders, when you're hiring do you know precisely what skills and values you are looking for? Have you designed your hiring process so it precisely matches that?

If your process doesn't match your beliefs, your outcome will match your process.

The same is true of investing.

Every VC says they believe founders are the most important thing. Every VC has a process that spends way more time analysing the business.

They will have outcomes that match their process.

That's why my process starts with asking you for a video pitch and pitch decks are unimportant to me. I want to hear it from you because I need to know how good you are as much as I need to know about the business.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 24 Mar 23

#YesterdayI

Performed in an improv showcase (pic below).
Didn't sleep well because adrenaline.

#TodayI

Ran to the office.
Posted about gun-to-the-head mentality.
Had a call with an investor who wishes to remain anonymous.
Caught up with Euan Cameron of Willo®.
Chatted with Chris Smith of Playfair Capital about the venture capital industry.
Discussed how to explain marketing with 360-degree marketing expert Nicky Dibben.
Got through the day on adrenaline.

#NowI

Am having a nap before dinner with my wife.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginginpublic #investinginpublic

Good is the enemy of great

Good is the enemy of great. A famous quote that's never been truer.

When things are going well your motivation to improve is not so strong. If your back is to the wall, you have no choice but the figure it out or die.

Founders, if you can, figure out what you would change in your business if it wasn't working. Find a way to generate that gun-to-the-head mentality even when the gun's not there.

Great entrepreneurs have this. They go at the same pace and intensity even when things are going well.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 23 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared the first three recipients of unbundled vc's operations founder support scheme.
Dropped my bikes off to be serviced.
Had breakfast with a friend.
Had my Important not Urgent day and cleared a chunk of my backlog.
Arranged operations support for one of my founders.
Gave feedback on a draft pitch deck.
Made restaurant bookings for my 50th birthday weekend.
Practised some improv ahead of this evening's showcase.

#LaterI

Am performing in the showcase. Wish me luck!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder support scheme - operations - the first three

I'm delighted to announce the first three beneficiaries of Part II of unbundled vc's founder support scheme - operations - are:

Aldwyn Boscawen of Morale App,
Jimi Sotimehin of Nomadic Fun Casino Hire,
and a founder who wishes to remain anonymous.

Each of them will receive a free session with Samuel Cohen, a founder & COO turned independent Operations Consultant who has over 10 years experience scaling startups across multiple industries, and will get actionable feedback.

This support is also available to all founders unbundled vc invests in.

The feedback you receive is for your eyes only - I will never see it. It's there to help you, it's not DD.

We now have go to market support and operations support. There is more to come. Watch this space.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 22 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared an investment decision hack.
Was pitched by Hugh Chichester and Holly Simmons of Niya.
Was pitched by Caroline Cadwell of Unpluq.
Reviewed and gave feedback on some legal docs.
Was pitched by Mattia Pastore of Unify.
Gave CV feedback.

#NowI

Have to buy strawberries and squirty cream for one of my sons who has finished his homework backlog.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Would I break my own rules to invest in this?

A mental hack I use when deciding whether to invest in a business is, "Would I break my own rules to invest in this?"

I have a list of things I like to see before I invest. If I want to invest despite some of those being missing, that shows how much I like the opportunity.

Typically those investments have gone very well for me.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 21 Mar 23

#TodayI

Ran to the office.
Had my hair cut by James Bransford.
Asked founders what matters when they decide who to raise from.
Was pitched by Devin Chawda of ARMD Limited.
Had a call with Samuel Cohen about the unbundled vc founder support scheme.
Watched my two youngest perform in Italian at Eisteddfod.
Was pitched by a founder who wishes to remain anonymous.

#LaterI

Have a parents' evening to attend.