Insights
What we’ve learned building companies.
Lessons from the businesses we’ve built with founders, and the ones that taught us the most.
Page 4 of 17
Should you launch a side hustle?Should you launch a side-hustle? You’re mid-career and feel you have more to offer than what the day job provides. Is the answer to start a business on the side? It sounds appealing in theory. In practice… not so easy.Read the post →
Some Scary Stats to Keep in Mind if You’re Building a SaaS ProductIf you’re an aspiring SaaS founder (or investor), this could save you some pain. In recent weeks I’ve been interviewing Seed / Series A-stage SaaS CTOs in the UK, Southeast Asia and Europe about security and scalability. The results were… unexpected.Read the post →
Why Early-Stage Investing is Broken and What We Can Do About ItFounders, THIS is why it’s so hard to raise money, and what you can do about it… 👇 There are 3 ways to launch a business – all completely different. 1. With no money 2. With some money 3. With serious (VC) backing Very few companies start with no money. (It’s possible, but rare.) Here’s the problem if you’re considering #2 or #2. They are absolutely not the same.Read the post →
Why you should interview customers, and how to do itMany entrepreneurs are surprised, once they’ve built their solution, that nobody is actually willing to pay for it. Often, they haven’t spoken to users (or sometimes anyone!) about what they plan to build. Don’t do that. ↓↓↓ Here are some practical tips for conducting user interviews: TIPS FOR IDENTIFYING YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE (ICP) Focus on extracting data, not selling a solution.Read the post →
Living how most people won’t, so you can live as most people can’tThis is a cool line, but is that really what entrepreneurship is about? It suggests that it all boils down to making a giant sacrifice in pursuit of life-changing wealth. But is that really it? I have no doubt that there are a lot of people here on LinkedIn who are building companies because they want to get rich. And there’s nothing wrong with that… But what if you get wiped out? What then?Read the post →
Lessons from 20 years as an entrepreneurIn 2006, I was MD of a small creative agency in the UK. It wasn’t your typical route into an MD role. I’d returned from 2 years overseas, traveling around Latin America, Australia and NZ. Instead of returning to London—where I’d made quite a lot of money in a job I didn’t like—I decided to move to Southwest England.Read the post →
3 reasons why we avoid brilliant jerks, and you should too3 reasons why we work 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 with polite, likeable people and avoid brilliant jerks at all costs… and why you should consider doing the same. 01. When aspiring founders sign up to DQventures, they join an ecosystem of people like them – experienced professionals who (eventually) gave up the corporate gig to run their own business.Read the post →
Is your MVP really just your product?This is the most common founder mistake when creating minimum viable products (MVPs). In fact, the term “MVP” itself is so dangerous that we prefer an alternative. Here’s the reality of most MVPs: Minimum Viable Product After backing more than 100 first-time founders, I can say with confidence that most people ignore “minimum”and “viable” and go straight to product. They love their idea.Read the post →
Why going all-in too soon might kill your startup ideaThere’s one thing that will kill your startup dream, guaranteed. And yet, it’s surprisingly easy to avoid. Going “all-in” too soon will almost certainly kill your startup. If you want to stop that from happening, avoid these 9 scenarios: … Quitting your day job before you’re confident you have a repeatable way to win customers. Drawing salaries before you’ve validated at least one income stream.Read the post →
An unusually powerful approach to validating startup ideasOne of our portfolio companies is solving a very specific problem in the accounting space. To help them, we’ve teamed up with a business in Australia/UK that takes a BRILLIANT approach to startup validation. For starters, these guys say that cold calling doesn’t work… …especially with well-known companies. Such businesses are inundated with inbound messages from startups, all claiming to solve XYZ.Read the post →
Startup cofounder wantedLinkedIn, can you help me find someone amazing to start a company with? 🙌 I’m proud (not humbled?!) to report that we just began work with our 17th and 18th founders here at DQventures. That’s a portfolio of 18 brilliant professionals, who are starting (or already started) their own venture, WITHOUT first giving up their day job. Founder #17 is SR.Read the post →
The most important quality of potential startup founders?As a lifelong entrepreneur myself, and an investor in ~100 others, I’ve learned that, of all the factors that make a good entrepreneur, one thing stands above all others. It’s not about talent, intellect or ability. 👇 It’s about being comfortable living by your own rules.Read the post →