Disqus - Latest Comments for andrewjscott

Re: You’ll Lose Customers. It Hurts. But Don’t Let Them Become Angry Ex-Customers.

Andrew J Scott — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 20:31:11 -0000

I wrote a whole series on these topics a while back. The unmeasured damaged of an angry customer is something startups must pay attention to and big business should ignore at its peril - because once the latter realise it's happening it's too late. In contrast, the former can create hugely loyal customers out of repairing damage done, effectively and over delivering on that restitution.

https://urbanhorizon.wordpr...

Re: Supply And Demand

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 11:49:35 -0000

The concept of "startup" has also blurred. Some tech startups are more 'tech enabled [traditional] businesses' than startups in the venture funded, high-growth dominate-a-market sense.

This change is for a number of reasons, but include the democratisation of tech en general, the ease of which to start a company (lower tech barrier to entry, regulatory changes and new online tools to make starting and operating a company easier), the encouragement by governments and other institutions for people to become 'startup' entrepreneurs, as well as the distorting impact of angel / early stage money which often comes from inexperienced angel investors who prefer profitability and stability, over growth and risk.

One example is EIS/SEIS schemes in the UK. Although on balance this has been a hugely positive initiative and continues to be, as it has increased the funding available to 'get companies going' enormously, often the strategic advice given by Angels providing this money, and sometimes the Founders taking the money, is not 'high growth' advice nor is that adopted as a strategy. And even if it is the strategy, the startup either picks a too small a market, or never reaches the velocity, in order to attract Series-A funding.

In summary then I believe the number of Series-A funded companies has gone down; but the real question is how well was the initial data set screen to include or exclude businesses which were never startups in the silicon valley sense, and were instead 'entrepreneurial tech enabled businesses' which happened rightly or wrongly to raise angel / seed money of some description.

As Fred says, the data is messy and there is much more variance in the way startups are funded, and reach an institutional or Series-A round (whatever that means) these days.

Re: Europe: 540+ VCs and €23.8B in the Last Two Years

Andrew J Scott — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 04:03:36 -0000

Over the whole of tech VC it's roughly a 5th across Europe of what is deployed in the US. That's a huge opportunity for investors, and also good news for Founders as that means the European VC market is going to become WAY more competitive, giving more choice to Founders, better value-add and less onerous terms.

Re: The Angel VC: The problem with month-over-month growth rates

Andrew J Scott — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 05:59:45 -0000

This depends whether you are D2C or B2B. A mass market (eg. free social app) you can afford to burn users as there are 1000's more where the first 10,000 came from and they are more forgiving than Business users who pay for something. Thus with B2B, yes you can fast get a poor reputation for shoddy product or poor service; so you need to talk to your early customers and rapidly iterate the product. That's why -for example- even with a B2B company revenue may not NECESSARILY be the initial primary KPI to track, though it's preferable obviously if it makes sense.

One thing is sure, that with most B2B / SaaS startups, just as consumer startups, hitting an early decent growth rate is vital to focus the company. There are exceptions as with any rule - e.g. an AI play that requires a year or five of development before it can deployed to paying customers - and any company needs to have SOMETHING of value which it can charge for, which often takes X months of development. That is why faking what you can, i.e. delivering a service which cannot scale TODAY but we know with time and money can be automated with technology, and showing a growth of demand in those numbers (5-10% WoW growth) is usually not just prudent but needed in order that the company focus on the customer and proving a need.

Re: 7 tips for cold-emailing investors - Bringing transparency to seed investing...

Andrew J Scott — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:28:26 -0000

The solution to (4) is to use www.docsend.com (no, I'm not affiliated with Docsend). This also has the added advantage of:

- your document always being the latest version
- you get to see who views your document
- you can use point 2 to iterate and improve your doc
- you know when to reach back out for follow up as you know they've read it.

I get frustrated when Founders dont include the deck, because that means another email back and forth to get the deck. That's time wasted I don't have, given the rate of inbound email.

Re: Fun Friday: First Seven Jobs

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 11:49:28 -0000

1. Waiting teas @ The old fire engine house gallery restaurant, outside Cambridge (age 10?)
2. Paper round (age 10/11?)
3. Local Computer Shop assistant (age 12?)
4. Started a Postal User Group ST-PUG for Atari ST Owners (age 13)
5. Started doing independent IT consultancy - my school was first client, a project with $120k budget and bought a huge room full of networked PCs and not Macs; this was after all, when Steve WASN'T in charge of Apple ;p it was 386/486 DX2 days (age 14)
6. Dixons Electronics shop - holiday work (age 16)
7. Chillies Bar & Restaurant - part time (age 17)

Re: How To Sell A Business For 7 Figures – May Update

Andrew J Scott — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 09:19:54 -0000

It's great that you're embracing this transparency, sharing the knowledge and learnings - it's to be applauded!

One important issue will be you finding an appropriate investor. With a goal fo $4m as a sale value, this is not investable for most technology investors. Traditional business angels -or indeed any angel with an appropriate investment approach would be a good target though (i.e. not those investing for a 100x multiple and expecting most to portfolio companies to fail or only break even, but looking for a 2-5x return across their whole portfolio, with fewer complete failures).

I'd also suggest that if you're raising 50k, you can probably raise more. 50k is hardly worth the effort to raise, especially with the prevalence of SEIS in the UK (up to 150k first money in), in so far as, if you have something which is scalable and works at unit economic level, why would you not grow faster by taking a little more money?

It also ALWAYS takes longer to do EVERYTHING than you expect, so having some buffer makes sense. The one thing ALL angel investors fear, is the startup running out of money before they reach the next major milestone - and that next milestone is always either: the next round of funding, or break-even to be self sustaining.

Re: EXPERT COMMENT: Moving Fast In The Right Direction

Andrew J Scott — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 10:24:32 -0000

All great advice -only thing I would add is the need for a weekly KPI which focuses the whole early stage team and you drive decision making around.

Re: Home Is Where The Startups Are: 84 Companies That Will Transform Your Domestic Life

Andrew J Scott — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 04:30:15 -0000

You also forgot @Birdi ..who will be huge [disclosure: I'm a bias investor]

Re: 3 reasons you shouldn't outsource your startup, and what to do instead

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 08:40:34 -0000

My only qualification to this post, which otherwise I think is excellent, is that I think you SHOULD try and find a great coder or technical co-founder; yes it's tough but it's also a great test:

- Of your idea (if you can't convince a coder/dev, maybe the idea isn't that great after-all?)

- Of your future ability to hire; your team is EVERYTHING at your startup; your one single job as Founder and CEO is to recruit and retain amazing talent

- Everyone does have to where multiple hats early on; but if you don't code but are an amazing sales person, it doesn't necessarily make sense to try and become a coder. I see too many startup Founders who have become institutionally boot strapped, don't know their own strengths and weaknesses, and don't delegate. The danger of that is then they become lifestyle businesses, particularly by measure of their growth and progress.

If you can code, great. Get an MVP up. If you can't find someone who can, but who will join you AS A TEAM. If you can't do that, maybe reassess your idea, your approach, or validate the idea in some other way (as Joel suggests using non-coding tools) in order to attract someone to join you, or raise money to hire someone full time.

Re: Retrophin CEO Under Fire for Twitter Faux Pas

Andrew J Scott — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 13:00:49 -0000

"clean up his Twitter feed" ...how about fire him for being inhuman? Oh no, wait, that's why they want him to stay on as CEO.

Re: Do We Need A New Word For Entrepreneur?

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 11:34:56 -0000

It's simple to my mind. An entrepreneur is someone who takes responsibility for their own earnings and some financial risk and the responsibility associated with being paid. e.g. a Shop owner of an independent store is an entrepreneur. They are involved in an entrepreneurial endeavour.

The word Founder has become synonymous in modern times with "startups" and a startup is defined by it being a business which tries to achieve an unusually high rate of growth, via investment capital, disruption -especially using digital- or both. A corner shop ergo, is not a "startup" in the modern sense to my mind.

Founders are entrepreneurs, and independent shop owners are entrepreneurs. In conclusion then, Founder as a term is probably today understood to mean that of a high growth high risk business startup, so is a safe alternative to my mind.

Re: Welcome to the ‘new’ OpenSRS

Andrew J Scott — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 09:56:16 -0000

Yes I'm lost every time - some controls here, some controls there, some bulk actions available on some control panels, some not, it's a bit of a maze. I actually still prefer the oldest control panel best. It's text based, practical, very fast and ONCE you understand it, works well. But it doesn't seem to do everything...

Re: Oculus CTO Slammed With Allegations of Stealing Tech

Andrew J Scott — Wed, 07 May 2014 10:05:43 -0000

"It almost goes without saying that whatever technology and intellectual property ZeniMax is claiming ownership over was likely created and developed by Carmack"

In which case, it comes down to the terms of contract between Carmack and ZeniMax. Most employment contracts and IP assignment contracts stipulate that IP created while under employment resides with the company, not the individual.

Re: 10 of the best multi-platform password managers for iOS, Android and the desktop

Andrew J Scott — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 08:42:21 -0000

So, to be mildly pedantic, you don't come to any conclusion?

Having gone through this exhaustive process I'd have thought some conclusions on the best - even if split into categories e.g. Best Free, Best for Personal Use, Best for Work - would be most useful to readers, including me ! :-)

Re: Google Apps Users Should Use Google Public DNS

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:05:34 -0000

I've resolved two peoples broadband issues by doing this, using Googles DNS. Extraordinary.

Re: Putting Tom Perkins Comments into Context

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:03:21 -0000

His reference to persecution of the Jews was almost laughable it was so ill-advised and absurd.

It's just this sort of ignorant point of view which gives making money a bad name, and provides solace to others who are wealthy but share a similarly out of touch and selfish perspective.

Re: BlackBerry CEO John Chen Addresses Customers in Blog Post «Inside BlackBerry - The Official BlackBerry Blog

Andrew J Scott — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 09:23:21 -0000

Sadly that couldn't be further from the truth. Throwing marketing $$$ will not solve the bigger problem. The problem is the products and the fact BB has -with a few minor exceptions on UI of their O/S- been following not leading.

BB needs to regain the confidence that there is a market for it's products which is not the same segment as iPhone users, Apple lovers, or indeed the mass market of Android.

Re: BlackBerry CEO John Chen Addresses Customers in Blog Post «Inside BlackBerry - The Official BlackBerry Blog

Andrew J Scott — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 09:21:59 -0000

This biggest cocern and worry with this post, is it doesn't mention the words "user" or "customer" once.

It's all "us" and "ours."

Blackberry's recovery Mr Chen, is not going to come from a great new corporate strategy, or doubling down on initiatives, or getting everything that is "still to do" done. It will come from customers. Users as we call them these days. And unless you start truly focussing on delivering awesome, uncompromising products, which don't need to be the next new revolutionary thing, they just need to solve the problems customers have EXCEPTIONALLY well, then Blackberry will never recover.

- FAST o/s, UI, apps and handsets, which DON'T hang, freeze or cause exception errors (especially from the very software it ships with, like BBM!)

- Amazing UI which you can operate with one hand, has keys (inc menu keys) and allows easy cut and paste, multi-tasking and interaction without needing to use the touch screen

- An amazing keyboard
- Cheap and secure international data (even if it's just the email, BIS (or BES were i a corporate) is the sole main reason I still own a blackberry)

- Sturdy handsets that don't break from one drop

- Handsets which don't run out of battery in 7 hours

You are NEVER going to catch iPhone. Give it up. Be different. Own the other vast part of the market which needs efficiency and reliability.

AND START FOCUSING ON YOUR CUSTOMER BECAUSE YOUR BLOG POST SAYS IT ALL: PSYCHOLOGICALLY, YOU'RE NOT.

And if you're not, the rest of the company won't be either.

Re: The Lack of Due Diligence is Appalling and Foolish

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 06:58:27 -0000

Also it is a matter of startups getting used to being REAL companies and when it comes to later rounds they only reveal themselves as naive if they're not ready and willing to provide documents, have board meetings and keep minutes in check. A vast number of startups I see early stage don't have board meetings viewing them as old fashioned, a waste of time, or only for larger companies. I think that is a big mistake.

Re: Accelerators doubling annually: too much of a good thing?

Andrew J Scott — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 19:02:58 -0000

I'd suggest 200 is a gross under-estimate. www.f6s.com alone has 1457 accelerator programs listed, so it's unlikely even if some of those programs are transient or periodic, that it boils down to only 200 accelerators.

Also many accelerators have evolved from what were traditionally know as Incubators, which actually presents it's own issues, especially in Europe where incubators were/are often government funded (or regionally funded) which then presents issues of contradiction in strategy for startup policy and how to advise and engage with early stage companies which, in the tech sector at least, theoretically should fail fast, etc.

Re: The future of tech: "Facebook will be a dinosaur" predicts Rewired State's Emma Mulqueeny

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:46:22 -0000

I don't think that money necessarily ruins the London eco-system, the investment has done much to enable innovation and support the startup ecosystem which now exists. It may however be that Wales needs or can prosper on a different model. Arguably the smaller size can be an advantage - and actually local government in Wales would be a great place to start. Just look at somewhere like Estonia as a model!

Re: AngelsBootcamp aims to train up 1,000 new European angel investors by 2015

Andrew J Scott — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:21:40 -0000

And where is the money coming from so that all these new invested startups don't all fall over a cliff for follow-on funding / Series A?

We'll end up with a worse case of the situation in Silicon Valley now, which is hundreds of startups funded by Xooglers and x-Facebookers going bust because they are either not worth of further funding or the market cannot sustain so many start-ups... http://info.crunchbase.com/...

Re: The British Invasion: Meet the poshest entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

Andrew J Scott — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:37:54 -0000

I think the landscape for start-ups in the UK and particularly London has changed fundamentally in the last 5 years. When I started my first web company in Cambridge, England in 1998, I had no network to call on. There was no ecosystem in London to speak of - at least, not as there is today.

There was a network of start-ups in London by 2000 and some of the people back then are still around today, but it was not the widespread, grass-roots-led ecosystem that it is now.

Since 2008 and the initial Web Mission trip - which I believe triggered a congealing of talent and sharing of knowledge - the London ecosystem has grown and continues to. While there are ongoing challenges I think many of the problems - even with cultural acceptance of entrepreneurship or running a start-up - are fast evaporating especially when compared to mainland Europe.

The real challenges remain re-investment by existing business people, of their time and finances, alongside the ever present problem of there being sufficient financing available at sufficiently attractive valuations to keep entrepreneurs motivated. There is also - in some verticals - a skills shortage (or more exactly, an experience shortage) but this will change as people exit and -hopefully- recycle into the industry, rather than retire on their winnings...

Re: http://joshuamarch.com/post/36052833848

Andrew J Scott — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:36:28 -0000

Slide embed broken...