seedcamp, the interview
I was a mentor this week at seedcamp in London. Here is a transcript from those sessions:
——-
1st Time Founder Guy: How much time should I spend on my business plan.
Me: None.
1st Time Founder Guy: What do you mean? Don’t I need to have a plan?
Me: No, you just need to have a direction. Get out there fast, make mistakes, and learn from them.
1st Time Founder Guy: What should we focus on most in our first 6 months?
Me: Proving some real user demand for your product.
1st Time Founder Guy: How much money should I raise?
Me: As little as possible.
1st Time Founder Guy: How does that work?
Me: Raising money is not a milestone. Shipping product and getting to usage goals are milestones. Only raise enough money to get you past the next significant product milestone. Spend it carefully. Hit the milestone. Then plan for what’s next.
1st Time Founder Guy: We’re just 3 developers. When should we hire our first “business guy”
Me: Not until you’ve proven that there is a user-need/demand for your product. Unless that business guy is going to help you write specs or work with the UI team to sharpen the experience, he’s just overhead until you demonstrate some early traction.
1st Time Founder Guy: When should I hire my sales team?
Me: When you get to the point that you can’t sell it yourself anymore because you’ve taken too many orders.
1st Time Founder Guy: I’m a developer and I built our entire product. But, now I’m thinking of hiring some developers so that I can focus on sales.
Me: Sounds like a dumb plan. So far you’ve proven that you are good at development. Stick with that vs. randomizing the project by trying to prove you are good at something else.
1st Time Founder Guy: When is the right time to hire internationally? We need to have a presence in other markets.
Me: Only after you’ve proven something locally.
1st Time Founder Guy: What do you think our strategy should be?
Me: You need to answer that yourself. Why did you start working on this product in the first place? I bet the answer to your question lies in the reason you started this. Go back to that. If you can’t, my bet is you’re doing the wrong thing.
1st Time Founder Guy: Should we be planning for a company that is long lasting or a quick flip?
Me: Plan for a product that users love. But, guide your business towards the outcome that is going to make you most personally happy. Never lose sight of that. Come back to the question of “is this making me personally happy?” regularly, at least once a quarter.
