Entrepreneurship
Lessons I Learned from Starting a Business – Warts ’n’ All
I’ve worked in the digital industry since 2001, and it is a wondrous place. I struggle to think of any other industry where opportunities exist in such abundance; where our level of involvement is driven wholly by us; where we have such a chance to shape the future of the industry through collaboration with peers…
Read MoreLIVE PANEL: How to Begin a Startup & The Real Life Impact of a Pivot
14 weeks of a startup accelerator are hard. There’s no doubt about that. And if you’ve been following my “Startup Diaries” series, you’ll know that halfway through the Ignite accelerator programme, Adam and I pivoted – well, actually, stopped and completely started again – creating a brand new business during week 7 of the programme. It’s because of that…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week#14: The Show Must Go On
That’s it. Ignite cohort #8 is done. 14 weeks of my life have flown by in the blink of an eye. It’s fairly odd, being honest, as it feels as if January 11th (our first day here) is SO long ago, yet the time itself has passed so quickly. Having been immersed in the startup…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #13: F*ck You, Ego.
Ego is a funny thing. even when you’re so sure you don’t have one, you’re proven wrong. That happened to me this week during week thirteen, the penultimate week of the Ignite accelerator programme #8, here in London. We’d been writing our showcase script for the final Ignite showcase ready for the end of week…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #12: The Road to an Investment Round Begins
It’s weird, really. You know the situation: something seems so far off that it can’t possibly be real? Yet somehow, that “thing” comes around so blindingly quickly that you feel like you haven’t seen it creep up on you. That’s how it’s beginning to feel now on the Ignite programme here in London. In case…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #11: Head Down
The hard thing about writing a blog series like this is that it relies on “stuff happening”. That sounds weird to say, of course it does. The reason that I bring that up is because this last week has been a serious case of “head down”, in search of the fabled hockey stick graph of user registrations.…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #10 – The Calm Before the Storm
There’s a distinct feeling this week that this is the calm before the storm. Accelerator programmes seem to culminate in two things: 1. a showcase of every business on the programme (or demo day); 2. significant movement towards investment. This sounds great – wow, “big things” happen, you know. But the team here at Pip™…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #9: #PipPipHooray
Pip™ is in the wild! It’s free and you can use it today (click to try)… Last week I told you how we’d put our MVP together and how it was liberating to be free of all serious tech considerations; bolting together a series of third party systems to trial our process. After really nailing Mothers’…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #8: Excitement & Distraction
I’m excited. I get excited a lot, it’s why I do what I do. But now I’m really excited. Why? Because the idea that Adam and I fleshed out on the train just a few weeks ago is turning into something really, really powerful. Having pivoted and gone through that extremely tough process of decision…
Read MoreStartup Diaries Week #7: The Hardest Days of My Life
On Sunday last week, I jumped in an Uber with 2 great friends to head to Heathrow airport. It was a sunny, beautiful day and spirits were high. Over the next 12 hours, myself and a team of the Ignite team founders (plus Martyn, Tristan and Flossie from Ignite proper) made our way to Denver,…
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