The startup journey can be like
a rollercoaster ride: soaring highs when things go right, deep lows when they don’t. The concept of “flearning” – failing, but learning from those mistakes – holds an important place in the startup lifecycle, and can often be what makes the business fly.
We asked a variety of founders to share some of the most important lessons they’ve learned while “flearning”, and how those stuff-ups ended up transforming their businesses.
“We realised we were going to get smashed”
Bruce Wren is co-founder and CEO of regtech startup 1WordFlow, which specialises in virtual information management.
His vision was to digitise Word documents at scale, making them available online to anyone on any device, and to thereby democratise the publishing process.
Initially, 1WordFlow implemented its tech for Microsoft Sharepoint clients on premises. That was a big mistake, he tells Startup Daily.
“We won a couple of big deals, but every iran telemarketing database implementation had to be customised for each client’s individual environment – which would take forever and be cost prohibitive. We realised we were going to get smashed,” says Wren.
He estimates that after ploughing around $2.5m into the IP, they wasted around a fifth of it.
Inspired by streaming platforms for music and movies, Wren says his “A-ha!” moment came when they realised they were already working with Microsoft, and its Azure cloud technology could help them.
“We effectively rebuilt the product for the cloud. We could convert a 100-page document into a 100-page website in minutes,” Wren shares. “Flexibility was off the scale and it cost almost nothing to do it”.
The ‘right people’ test
A recurring piece of advice from a variety of founders is that businesses need to surround themselves with people who’ll make an impact. Many admit making mistakes in this area.
Ian Yip, CEO of cybersecurity startup Avertro said one of his early mistakes was not being selective enough with advisors, investors and employees.
“A lot of time was wasted on people who would ultimately never do what they said they would,” he said.
Yip says that there are many people
who like the idea of being associated with startups but don’t actually add any value.
“A good test is to ask the person in question to do a very small thing to help you,” he suggests.
“If they can’t even do that, there’s no way they will ever be useful to your business. We’ve since adapted from saying ‘yes’ to all forms of assistance to being much more selective surrounding ourselves with impactful people who can help us get to the next level.”