Insights
What we’ve learned building companies.
Lessons from the businesses we’ve built with founders, and the ones that taught us the most.
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How surfing LinkedIn has been good for our business3 reasons why spending more time on LinkedIn is a good investment (for me at least), and some stats to prove it. (If any of my friends wonder why I post on LinkedIn and share pics like this one, here’s why…) I just counted, and 6 of the last 12 founders we started ventures with came from our social media activity. 50% – that’s pretty awesome. We’ve spawned 18 ventures so far.Read the post →
How our venture failed, and why it’s still a winFailures can be just as productive as successes. Here’s a business that didn’t work out, and why it’s still a win. As mentioned yesterday, I’ve just returned from a holiday in Scotland. While I was in Edinburgh, I had lunch with someone who’s become a very close friend… despite us never meeting. Anoop worked at Ford in Australia.Read the post →
How to build trust and customer loyaltyThere are, when you think about it, two contrasting approaches to business. There is the ‘tourist restaurant’ approach, where you try to make as much money as possible from people in a single visit. And then there is the ‘local pub’ approach, where you make less money from people on each visit, but where you will profit more over time by encouraging them to come back.Read the post →
How do I know if venture capital is right for my business?I spoke to an Asia-based VC from Sequoia Capital, who described their job as 99% saying no, and 1% begging founders to let them invest. ↓↓↓ Example: they spoke to a fantastic founder in a neighbouring country and instantly knew they wanted the deal. They got on a plane THAT EVENING, flew down with a term sheet, and got a signature. The irony is, most founders think they’re slow. This is the reality of venture.Read the post →
Who enjoys the most freedom, entrepreneurs or employees?Run your own business => never switch off. FALSE. Work for a salary => your free time is your own. FALSE. ↓↓↓ We’re all tempted by the idea of working for ourselves… calling the shots. But we convince ourselves the price is too high. Our income would never be fully secure. We’d never truly switch off. And yet, I’m just back from a holiday where… The only people taking calls were those who work for someone else.Read the post →
How to use the Dunning Kruger Effect to de-risk your startup journeyHave you heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? If not and you’ve founded, are thinking about founding, or are an investor in a startup, you should know the symptoms. “The Dunning-Kruger effect occurs when a person’s lack of knowledge and skill in a certain area causes them to overestimate their own competence.Read the post →
Want to start your own business but don’t know how? Read thisDo you know anyone like this? 👇 I hate my job / boss / life. I’d love to start my own company, but it feels like such a big risk. Instead I’ll grit my teeth and keep doing the day job, knowing that one day I can retire and start living the life I want. The problem is, most people don’t want a career like that.Read the post →
Two surprising ways that funded startups are failing in 2024Among the startups in my investment portfolio are two kinds of zombie companies. I think it’s another bubble about to burst. Do you recognise them? The Cashed-Up Zombie These are companies that raised a big round, let’s say, in 2021. Since then, they’ve spent millions of dollars trying to find product-market fit. None of it worked. Meanwhile, the fundraising environment took a turn for the worse.Read the post →
Why DQventures invests in older foundersWho says you’re too late in life to launch a startup? More experienced (i.e. older) people make better founders. Fact. But older people don’t start companies because they have more responsibilities, dependents, high salaries and high costs. DQventures is here for those people.Read the post →
5 things we learned from raising money in 2024No, it’s not just you. It’s VERY hard to raise capital at the moment. I’ve been raising money for pre- and only-just-post-revenue startups since 2012 (around $30m raised in total). Here are 5 important lessons I’ve learned. Unless you’re a true tech business (not tech-enabled) and growing by >15% month-on-month, forget VCs. Don’t waste your time (or theirs). That includes you, venture studios.Read the post →
Why valuing your startup and pricing your funding round are not the same thingI need to eat humble pie. I advised how (not) to value your startup when raising money, and a chap called Dan Gray set me straight. I can’t put it much better than Dan’s own words, so here they are: VCs are not experts at valuation. Recent history shows that the majority are very badRead the post →
My £12m exit went up in smoke. Here’s what it taught meBefore closing down my first startup, we became an acquisition target for a large, listed business with headquarters in London. The agreed sale price was £12m (around US$14m at the time). Had the acquisition taken place, all of our investors would have made money.Read the post →