Category: Journey

General events which chronicle where we are at with the journey

Your Mouth

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

A long life is determined by what you put in your mouth. It is said.

For start ups it’s reversed. The most important thing for a start in life is what comes out of your mouth. Not to denounce the virtues of idea generating, marketing, planning, collaborating and bootstrapping . All of these things will be a function of you ability talk about them. You are judged daily on this by potential investors and all in your value chain.

Watch your diction. Be animated, yet succinct. You are selling yourself. You need to be impressive. The easiest way to impress is when you are speaking. If you’re not good at it, you must practice and learn. Get a night job in sales, or go a public speaking forum. When I say sales, I don’t mean a pretend role in a behemoth managing existing business. The ability to influence shipping 107 brown boxes instead of 100 in month X is not selling. I mean cold calling. Cold calling is selling. You need to have the gumption to cold call suppliers, prospects, venture capitalists, financiers.  

Remember you are evangelizing a ‘concept’. Make sure you’re up to it, or you’ll just get frustrated.

Mentoring Vs Shafting

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

In a large company you often get shafted. The nature of the system is one in which people compete for positions. They don’t compete for the company, they compete within the company.

 How many people in your organisation are truly working for the financial and strategic benefit of the firm? In reality they are competing for perception and then their ability to get promoted. They compete for promotions, because within that territory is increased income. The pie is big, it is existential. This creates a political culture of internal competition, read here “Shafting”.

dagger

When working with Investors, small business operators and suppliers it is an environment of collaboration. It feels good. Yes, a simple fact like that can make it worthwhile. Actually enjoying your day and not getting shafted. You see, these people want to do business with you and make money with you. You are all actually aligned. The suppliers only do well if you do well, your venture capitalist only does well if you do well and your employees only do well if you do well. Yes, it is in their interest to mentor, but they do it because they are driven by personal values.

This is not the case with conglomerate X. People can do really well, while the company performs very poorly. A certain profile of person will perform in such environs. You’ve met them. They can be part the largest corporate loss in history and still receive bonus and incentive payments!

 

The CEO of Vodafone Group Plc Arun Sarin lead them to a $4.1bn loss this year and yet received a tasty $2.4m bonus share issue. Hmm, how many people (other than shareholders) had to get shafted for this to happen?

 

I’d rather mix with true mentors, not unaccountable corporate pretenders.

They

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

They…

said you would have a fruitful career

said we promote from within

said you need more experience

said you need to get your numbers

said it isn’t about the numbers

said you lack in this area

said you lack in that area

justified every decision with corporate policy

Everyone I have ever met in a company from the receptionist to the CEO lacked certain skills. No one in the business world has a full skill set. No one ever will. Don’t spend your life jumping through hoops to climb the hierarchy. Remember, what ‘they’ say is based on ‘their’ perception. You don’t have to agree. You don’t have to be perfect to be successful. What they are saying may not even be true. You can’t learn when your being held back. You can’t learn from someone you don’t believe. You can’t learn from someone who doesn’t believe in you.

Maybe you should stop listening to them?

Maybe you should leave, maybe you should start your own venture.

Down Time

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

One of the biggest challenges for a start up is the waiting. It is driving me mad. Waiting for Investors to meet, waiting for supplies to arrive, waiting for peoples diaries to open up. Until you are a going concern with there will be wasted time. The issue is – your start up is your world, it’s the only thing in your world. It’s not for them. They have other interests, meetings, businesses to attend to. 

It comes back to creativity, the ability to make something out of nothing. To find a something worth doing with you spare capacity.

Here is what I have been doing:

  • Learning to make great café lattes (at least when business associates meet at our premises they are very impressed with my quality espressos)

  • Going to the gym daily (couldn’t achieve this while in cubicle land)

  • Reading all the business section in the newspaper

  • Reading the best marketing and business blogs

  • Thinking up new business ideas should this fail (It’s called contingency planning!)

  • Thinking up new ways to drive my business and innovate within it

  • Occasionally whingeing to others about how hard this start up thing is (I’m only human)

Doing this in your spare time keeps you positive and healthy. It is quite valuable. Don’t berate yourself if for having down time, just use it wisely. More to the point, you need to stay stimulated, fit and keep your brain in creative mode.

Quick Reply

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Unsure of how keen investors are in your business? phone

Answer this question:

How quick do they return your phone calls?

You can learn a lot from your teenage years. The girl or guy who didn’t return your calls… well the same principals apply. They’re not interested. Move on. Time is limited.

It’s the same situation for customers, suppliers and VC’s. Sure it makes sense to chase people early on, but not perpetually with little reaction. You’ll know if you’re a priority. And for those who share your dream you will be. Focus on finding them.

Compound Effort

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Albert Einstein said compound interest is the greatest discovery of all time. There is no question about it’s power. Don’t believe me? $10K invested in the all ordinaries index in Australia in 1970, would today be worth $808K.  

albert 

The tough thing that entrepreneurs face is life without a wage. Money makes life better. A wage can buy nice things. Shirts, shoes, dinners at fancy restaurants, weekend trips away and mortgages in gentrified suburbs. Yes, these are nice.

The interesting thing about ‘compounding’, is that it is not limited to financial instruments. It also applies to effort.  

COMPOUND EFFORT

Definition: The ability to generate significant & tangible returns through long term continuous effort via the use of human capital. 

It applies to all things. Start ups, even exercise regimes. If you stay the course, the rewards are there. Can you tell I am trying to convince myself?

Tracks in the Dirt

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Not the type left by a Range Rover. A physical product, example of service, a flagship customer or sales revenue. Serious investors need to see these. In our initial investor presentations everything was theoretical. We didn’t bomb strategically, but failed to get traction. Are you sensing a theme yet?

We had exceptionally well developed plans. Costs, bottom up sales forecasts, 3 years of financials, customer agreements to sell, but nothing physical. Not much has changed in business since the first markets appeared 3000 years ago. People need to see, touch, smell and feel what you are doing. They believe what they see. There world view is shaped by personal and often physical experiences. So to in business investing and capital raising. Put simply, the further you are down the development the track the more serious you seem.

  • If you have thorough business plans: Ok

  • If you have a prototype product: Good

  • If you have a commercial grade sample: Great

  • If you have sales revenue from your widget: Excellent 

The message a plan sends is: “Were serious only if you give us money”.

The message a prototype sends is: “We have put some money on the line to show you it works”

The message sales revenue sends is: “We believe in this. We have invested substantial funds to get to this stage. So far it’s working, and we are serious” 

We are at protoype stage, so it is a much harder task to raise capital. We need to move up the food chain to get our Angel and we know it. What message are you sending your investors?